The Repetitive Brain

“Repetition makes reputation, and reputation makes customers” - Elizabeth Arden

The Brain is not a truth-seeking organ. It is a pattern-seeking one. Evolution did not design it to distinguish what is objectively real from what is false. Instead, it was designed to notice repetition, to strengthen whatever fires often, and to conserve energy by conveniently automating those patterns. In other words: your brain does not care what’s true, it only cares what you repeat.

Evolution has designed your brain to be a survivor, not a philosopher. Its primary task is to minimise surprise and to efficiently predict what’s coming next. So, the easiest way to predict the future is to repeat the past.

Every time you think a thought, feel an emotion, or move in a certain way, neurons in your brain fire together. With enough repetition, those same neurons wire together, creating a pathway that becomes easier to access the next time. This principle is the foundation of Neuroplasticity. It is how musicians memorize their scales, athletes perfect their movements, dancers remember their steps and how anxious thoughts and depressive loops entrench themselves.

Repetition alone, not truth, is what makes a thought feel “real.” If you tell yourself every day, “I am worthless,” your brain builds that circuit until it feels like a fact. The irony is that the brain never checks the accuracy of the statement — it only measures its frequency. A lie rehearsed becomes a neural truth.

So, let’s delve into this mechanism a bit more in detail…

Deep within the centre of your brain, at the base of the pre-frontal cortex lie a cluster of nuclei structures called basal ganglia. They are responsible for controlling voluntary movement, motor learning, cognition and emotion. And they also are the gate keepers meaning they automate repeated thoughts and actions. Once you have rehearsed something enough times, the basal ganglia can run it on autopilot without any conscious effort. This is very efficient but also very dangerous when what is being automated is self-hatred, fear, shame or chronic stress.

Then we have the hippocampus. It is situated inside the limbic brain. One on each side- the space between your temples and ears. It is responsible for forming and storing of long-term memories and spatial navigation. The hippocampus encodes memories but does not verify truth. It simply strengthens stories you tell yourself. The more emotionally charged the story is, the more powerfully it gets anchored in the brain and subsequently in the body.

Once a belief is well- rehearsed, the pre- frontal cortex which is the entire forehead starts feeding into it. It filters reality through the lens of what you already know. This is confirmation bias- the tendency to see only what matches your narrative.

Together this forms a closed loop. Thought forms emotion which leads to a bodily reaction which leads to memory. Memory moves on repetition which leads to confirmation of a certain identity. And all this can easily be a whole lie! But because from biological perspective, familiarity feels safe and hence the brain equates this repetition with predictability and predictability with survival. This brain does all this drama only to keep you alive. And hence we remain loyal to our suffering. The pain we know is less threatening than the freedom we do not.

But how does all this manifest in the body? Why does this repetition create havoc in the body? We need to realize that emotions are merely not in the brain. They are states of the body. Every emotion has a somatic signature- anger tightens the jaw and fists, fear contracts the belly leading to gut issues and shortens the breath, grief collapses the chest and ribcage, weight of responsibility or shame leads to droopy shoulders. When these body postures and states are repeated without completion- when tears are swallowed, anger is suppressed, fear is numbed, the nervous system simply memorizes this incomplete gesture. Over time that gesture becomes chronic muscle tension leading to fibromyalgia, altered breathing may lead to asthma, heaviness in shoulders to neck pain and cervical issues, anxiety in the gut to IBS, acidity or digestion issues. This is the body somatically thriving on repetition. The body does not care if the emotion was justified- it only cares what it was trained to feel and what it wasn’t allowed to express.

And so here comes the power of neuroplasticity. The same mechanism that trapped you can liberate you. Healing is not a matter of discovering a new truth. It is the art of rehearsing a new reality until it feels safe enough to believe. When you practice grounding, self-compassion, mindful breathing even for a few minutes daily you are not just doing some techniques, but you are rewriting prediction.

Every time you soften your shoulders, breathe deeply or meet your pain with curiosity instead of judgement, you teach your entire nervous system a whole new language. Slowly the body will feel- this too is familiar now. I feel safe. The old neural loops might still appear. And the mind will tell you- this isn’t you. But remember they’re just echoes of an older repetition. You do not need that repetition again.

Healing is not about fighting with your brain. It’s about training it. You don’t need to jump into believing a new story immediately. You just have to rehearse it.

Think about all the rituals we do. Chanting, prayer beads, song, dance…repetition as a form of devotion. Not because the divine needs reminding to pay attention to what we ask for, but because we ourselves need reminding to remember the divine. Healing follows the exact same principle.  Repetition becomes conscious and sacred. And then reprogramming happens.

Your brain does not care what’s true. But your heart does. And if you keep repeating what your heart knows already- through breath, movement and kind attention, the brain will eventually follow. Our nervous systems are loyal to repetition, not to truth. So, repeat what frees you. Rehearse safety. Practice tenderness. Try Somatic Experiencing. For every conscious breath that you take is a rehearsal for a new world within you.

Mr Ping- The secret ingredient is... nothing!

Po- Huh?

Mr. Ping- You heard me. Nothing! There is no secret ingredient.

Po- Wait, wait... it's just plain old noodle soup? You don't add some kind of special sauce or something?

Mr. Ping -Don't have to. To make something special you just have to believe it's special.

[Po looks at the scroll again, and sees his reflection in it]

Po- There is no secret ingredient.

Movie- Kung Fu Panda.