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Mental hack: neutral thinking

neutral thinking

Forget your inner voice (kind of).

People spend too much time focusing on the inner voice, which can be erratic and has much less power over behavior than the outer voice does, Moawad says. Rather than get hung up on the thoughts in your head, shift your focus to what you say out loud.

If you tell a friend, for example, that you expect to overeat at that night's dinner party, you'll set yourself up for failure, he says. Instead, reframe the narrative to reflect what you want to happen—even if you doubt yourself. Verbalize that you're looking forward to indulging mindfully in a cocktail or a sweet treat, and you're more likely to succeed.