If our thoughts had a physical weight, how much do you think we would be carrying?
It is an interesting question, especially when you consider how much of our lives takes place inside our own minds. We spend time replaying conversations, questioning decisions, imagining different outcomes, and thinking about things that may never happen. Sometimes, the smallest moments can occupy the largest spaces in our minds.
Belgian artist Thomas Lerooy explores this idea through his sculpture The Weight of Thoughts. The artwork depicts a small human figure with an unusually oversized head, creating the impression that the weight of its own mind is almost too much to carry. Through these exaggerated proportions, Lerooy explores the relationship between the mind and the body, and how our thoughts can sometimes become overwhelming.
What makes the sculpture so interesting is how easily we can recognize ourselves in it.
Think about how often we allow something that happened in the past to influence how we feel in the present. A conversation that did not go as planned, an opportunity we missed, a mistake we made, or even an opinion someone had of us. The moment itself may have lasted only a few seconds, yet we can spend hours giving it meaning, replaying it, and wondering what could have been different.
In a way, our minds have a remarkable ability to make something that no longer exists feel as though it is still happening.
Perhaps the most interesting part is that not everything we carry is actually ours to hold onto. Sometimes we carry expectations placed on us by others. Sometimes we hold onto versions of ourselves that we have already outgrown. And sometimes, we spend so much time trying to understand every little thing that we forget to experience what is happening right in front of us.
There is a difference between learning from our thoughts and allowing them to define us. We cannot change every situation, rewrite every conversation, or predict everything that lies ahead. But we can decide how much space we allow those things to occupy in our lives.
Maybe that is part of finding peace: understanding that not every thought needs an answer, not every worry needs our attention, and not everything we carry needs to stay with us.
Looking at Lerooy’s sculpture, I wonder how different life might feel if we gave ourselves permission to put some of that weight down.
After all, sometimes the heaviest things we carry are the ones no one else can see.
