I’ll use a variety of thoughts to explain these; they are compiled from the residents that lived at Maple Lodge.

1. Say it very slowly – “No…one…will…ever…under…stand.”
2. Say it in a different voice – Pretend to have slowed down a recording or inhaled helium.
3. Create a song – Use the tune of Happy Birthday or Twinkle Twinkle.
4. Bad News radio – “Here we go folks! More bad news! Always bad news! You’re worthless! Hear that! Bad news! Bad news! (By this time, we were laughing!)
5. Treat the mind as an external event – “There goes my mind again, telling me I’m fat.”
6. Thank your mind when you notice it butting in with worries and opinions – “Thank you mind for butting in to tell me I need to worry about tomorrow.”
7. Imagine that your negative chatter is like Internet pop-up ads – There’s another ad trying to make me think nobody loves me.
8. Put your negative thoughts about yourself on a name tag and wear it – They were suggesting actually doing this to see what others say.
9. Say something aloud and do the opposite while saying it – raise your arm while saying, “I cannot raise my arm.” Then apply this to your thought. While doing some of your work, think or say, “I can’t get my work done while worrying.”
10. Treat thoughts as monsters on a bus you’re driving and see if it’s okay to keep driving – This is a way to see if it’s okay to just let a negative thought sit in your mind without acknowledging that it has to be true. It’s something that Satan is most likely telling you to believe.
11. Ask yourself how old that thought pattern is – Is this a thought pattern that’s so old you don’t know when it started?
12. Get off your but – Replace all the buts in your thoughts with ands. “I really want to go to the evening event, but I have so much to do.” -> “I really want to go to the evening event, and I have a lot to do today.”
13. Keep asking why or so what – If you’re telling yourself something like, “If I don’t’ spend more time on this work project, it won’t be perfect.” So what? “My co-workers will think I’m slacking.” So what? “They won’t like me.” So what? “I won’t have friends at work.” So what? Eventually you get to the point where you realize that what really matters is if you’re work on the project is good enough and that all the worrying and careening down rabbit trails isn’t helping anything.
14. Write difficult thoughts on 3 x 5 cars and carry them – This goes along with number 10 as a way to live your life effectively while still having thoughts come that you don’t want.
15. Describe your thoughts as an object – “If I put my thought that I’m ugly over there on the table, I’d describe it as brown, medium-sized, lumpy, etc. This is not an item I want in my house, so it has to go.”