Hey, it’s Chris. 
First proper email. Let’s do this. 

Last time, I said I’d show you the coolest thing I’ve found. 
Something that’s been hiding in plain sight. 
Buried in the folds of your mind, like your favourite pen that vanished into the couch back in 2022. 

This is that thing. 

Heads up... 
This gets a little weird. 
(But in a good way.)

So...

You know those moments where you catch yourself acting a certain way...
Saying a phrase that feels oddly not yours...
Or reacting to something before you’ve even processed what it meant?

Like something underneath you is behind the wheel?

Yeah.

That’s what we’re digging into today.

The thing behind the thing

Most of what we call “identity” is a front.

A well-rehearsed role made of language, memory, feedback, and repetition.

But underneath that?
There’s something deeper.

Metaphors.

Not your high school English teacher’s idea of a metaphor.
I mean structural, invisible metaphors.
The kind that shape how we think... before we even have a thought.

You weren’t born thinking of time as money, or love as a battlefield.
But once you adopt those metaphors, they start doing the thinking for you.

They're nested loops and invisible scripts

Here’s the wild part:

Most of the thoughts you have…
Are about things that are already shaped by these metaphors.

Which means:

You’re not just thinking.
You’re thinking inside a loop that’s been patterned by language you've long forgotten about.
Nested inside other loops.
Inside other systems.

Like a Russian doll of borrowed meaning.

This is why “figuring yourself out” can feel endless.

Because every time you think you’ve reached the core…
There’s just another wrapper.
Another frame.
Another metaphor holding it all in place.

CLINICAL BRAIN SNACK (for the nerds)
[Totally cool to skip this bit if you're in a hurry!]

There’s a cognitive pattern called a recursive metaphorical feedback loop — where the stories you tell yourself and the behaviours you act out feed each other through layers of symbolic language.

Julian Jaynes called it metaphrand/metaphier binding - when an abstract concept (like “the self”) fuses with a metaphor (like “a narrator”) so tightly, you stop seeing the metaphor… and start living inside it.

George Lakoff and Mark Johnson showed that all abstract thinking is structured through these metaphorical mappings.

Douglas Hofstadter added that when a system refers back to itself - what he called a “strange loop” - it creates the illusion of a self.

Put it together and you get this strange little truth:

You don’t just have thoughts.
You’re being thought… through a nested system of metaphor, memory, and language.
And that “you” you keep pointing to?
It’s probably a metaphor too.

These loops don’t just sit quietly either.
They behave like what systems theorists call strange attractors... dynamic forces that don’t pull you to a single point, but keep you moving through a familiar pattern.
Not identical, not random.
Just eerily… recognisable.
You shift. You grow. But somehow… you’re still you.
Same thoughts. Same loops.
As if the system itself wants its shape back.

Even when you try to change.

Which is why sometimes…
Changing your behaviour works.
Changing your beliefs works.
But nothing really shifts…

Until you spot the metaphor behind it all.
And ask if it’s one you still want to live inside.

(Still with me? Cool. Let’s bring it back down.)

Solution: Just a shift.

This isn’t about trying to “break the loop.”

It’s about noticing it.

Start small.

Catch yourself saying or thinking something and ask:
“Where did that frame come from?”

What's hiding inside that phrase?
What identity does that assume?
Is that you... or an old idea talking?

You don’t need to fix anything.
Just see it.

That’s how the loop loses its grip.

If this landed, missfired, or triggered a deja vu you can’t explain...
Hit reply.

Say whatever you like.
A word. A hunch. A question you don’t know how to ask yet.

~ Chris

P.S.
Next time? We’re cracking open one of my finest party tricks: overthinking yourself into a corner like that was the plan all along.
Can’t wait. 🤣