Be the bouncer at the door of your mind. Not every thought gets past the velvet rope.

Having a thought is not the same as the thought being true, yet most of them arrive unexamined and get treated as reports. You do not choose what appears, but you do have a say in which ones get repeated, believed and built on. Selection is the part of thinking you actually control.

When a harsh one turns up this week, ask two plain questions: is this accurate, and is it useful to me right now. If it fails both, you can notice it and decline to carry on with it. The skill improves with repetition rather than working the first time.