Write it down. It gets smaller on paper.
Use it when
- You are certain about something and you have never written down why
- The feeling is strong enough that it is standing in for evidence
- You want to know whether this is true, not to feel better about it
- Somebody asked you what the evidence was and you could not answer
The steps
- Situation — what happened. Observable facts only, no interpretation.
- Automatic thought — what your mind produced immediately. Unedited.
- Emotion — name it, rate intensity 0–10.
- Evidence for — what actually supports this thought?
- Evidence against — what contradicts it, or provides context that changes the picture?
- Balanced thought — a more accurate version that holds both. Re-rate the emotion.
What to expect
The second rating may only move a point or two, and that is a real change. What you are after is a version of the thought that holds both columns, not one that feels good.
If this isn't the one
- The evidence did not move the feeling → Defusion
- It is the same thought every time → The Full Trigger Map
- You are too activated to write → The Body Reset
Where it comes from
- Session 11 — the full handout
- Session 11 — Trigger Maps
- Well established
Prefer it one step at a time? The same protocol as a guided runner in the app, which also keeps a private record if you want one.
This is one of the tools a seventeen-session series teaches, ninety minutes at a time, in a room of six to twelve people. It is peer-facilitated, free to host, and every handout and worksheet it uses is free to take.
Where this one comes from
You have just run one protocol. Behind it is one idea: everything you do is paid for out of a single account, and almost nothing is charged at the moment you do it — which is why the fifth repetition is worse than five times the first, and why a bad night does not present its bill until the following afternoon. Shoulder the Bill is that argument as one continuous read, written out of a workplace injury and the four years afterwards. The manual is the one you open at a page. The Workbook is the one you write in.
three books, one system →Check what stayed 3 questions
Answer in your own words, out loud or on paper. Nothing is scored, nothing is marked, and nothing is stored — this is for noticing what you have, not for anybody to grade.
What kind of thought needs a thought record rather than a thought reset?
What the material says
A strong automatic thought that needs a structured evidence check.
What goes in the situation row, and what must not?
What the material says
what happened. Observable facts only, no interpretation.
The last row is not the opposite of the automatic thought. What is it, and what do you do afterwards?
What the material says
a more accurate version that holds both. Re-rate the emotion.