You can’t stop a thought from showing up, but you can change the channel instead of binge-watching it.

Thoughts arrive on their own, and no version of you gets to stop them at the door. What is available is what happens next, whether you follow one for an hour or let it pass through. Most of the damage from a bad thought comes from the rewatching rather than the first appearance. That second part is where you have some say.

When you notice you are on the fourth replay of something, name it plainly and move your body somewhere else, even just another room. Not to push the thought away. Only to stop handing it the hour it wanted.