Same loop, new choice.
Use it when
- A familiar argument, response or outcome is unfolding again
- You can feel the pattern starting and want to interrupt early
- You've tried to change this before and it returned
- The same dynamic keeps appearing with different people
The steps
- Name the loop.
- Map the sequence.
- Find the earliest signal.
- Mark the interruption point.
- Choose one replacement step.
- Rehearse it. Close the Loop.
What to expect
The loop may run again. The earliest signal is easier to spot the second time. One rehearsed replacement step is easier to reach for than a decision made mid-loop.
If this isn't the one
- Nothing inside the circle feels startable → The Task Activation Protocol
- The worry is a thought loop rather than a problem → Defusion
- You are carrying somebody else's circle → The Team Protocol
Where it comes from
- Session 5 — the full handout
- WB 1.5 — The Circle (p.9)
- Chapter 5.
- Supported
Prefer it one step at a time? The same protocol as a guided runner in the app, which also keeps a private record if you want one.
This is one of the tools a seventeen-session series teaches, ninety minutes at a time, in a room of six to twelve people. It is peer-facilitated, free to host, and every handout and worksheet it uses is free to take.
Where this one comes from
You have just run one protocol. Behind it is one idea: everything you do is paid for out of a single account, and almost nothing is charged at the moment you do it — which is why the fifth repetition is worse than five times the first, and why a bad night does not present its bill until the following afternoon. Shoulder the Bill is that argument as one continuous read, written out of a workplace injury and the four years afterwards. The manual is the one you open at a page. The Workbook is the one you write in.
three books, one system →Check what stayed 3 questions
Answer in your own words, out loud or on paper. Nothing is scored, nothing is marked, and nothing is stored — this is for noticing what you have, not for anybody to grade.
Once the loop is named and its sequence mapped, what are you looking for next?
How many things do you change at the interruption point?
What is the anchor phrase, and what does it hold constant while one thing moves?