Reframe Toolkit

ANTs are Automatic Negative Thoughts — uninvited, and they sound like facts. Catch one a day for a week and the pattern shows itself.

Negative thoughts aren't random — they use the same ten tricks over and over. Tick the ones you recognize, write your own example, and keep the antidote question next to it.

You would never talk to a friend the way you talk to yourself. So don't. Write down what you said to yourself — then write what you'd say to your best friend in the exact same spot.

Something happens. Then your brain writes a story about what it means — fast, confident, and usually unkind. Separate the two, and most of the sting disappears with the story.

A negative thought walks in acting like a verdict. Make it act like a defendant instead. Charge it, hear both sides, and let the evidence decide.

Catastrophizing only ever shows you one ending. Write all three — then make a plan for the worst one, so it stops being a monster and becomes a Tuesday.

Thought on the left, your reframe on the right. Cut, fold, and keep them where the thought shows up — car, desk, wallet.

Every "should" is a rule somebody handed you — and most never got checked. Find them, find out who wrote them, and rewrite the keepers in your own words.

Some thoughts don't need arguing with — they need un-sticking. This sheet doesn't ask whether the thought is true. It just peels it off you so you can see it's a thought.

Rumination is a thought loop with no exit — the same worry, lap after lap, going nowhere. You can't out-think it. You interrupt it. Build your card up top, then cut out four copies.

All-or-nothing thinking has two settings: perfect and ruined. Real life happens on a slider. Mark where the situation actually sits, then write the gray version.

The voice that tears you down isn't you — it's a character with a job. Fill out its personnel file, then give it a better job.

One day, one tally. Each time you catch negative self-talk, mark the hour and jot one word for what it was about. By bedtime you'll know your vulnerable window.

You can't stop a negative thought from showing up — but you can stop taking it at its word. Put one on trial.