Mindset Mastery: Everyday CBT Exercises for Mood and Stress

17. Opposite Action

When your emotions scream “retreat,” CBT sometimes suggests the opposite: engage. Opposite Action involves deliberately doing what your emotions don’t want you to do—but what you know is healthy. Feeling anxious? Speak up in the meeting. Feeling hopeless? Take a walk. This isn’t about denying emotions—it’s about breaking unhelpful cycles. The action gently rewires your brain by offering new emotional outcomes. Start small. Pick one avoided task each day and act opposite to your urge. You’ll often find the emotion softens not by resisting it, but by proving it wrong.

18. Thought Defusion

In CBT, defusion helps you create space between you and your thoughts. Instead of saying, “I’m a failure,” say, “I’m having the thought that I’m a failure.” This subtle shift disarms the thought’s emotional charge. One simple defusion technique: sing the thought aloud to a silly tune, like “Happy Birthday” or say it in a cartoon voice. It sounds ridiculous—but that’s the point. It helps reveal how arbitrary and transient thoughts really are. When you stop identifying with every mental narrative, stress loses its grip. Use defusion to step back, observe, and let thoughts pass like clouds.