If you feel overwhelmed with negative emotions and you’re not sure why you feel that way. Observe and describe the emotion passing through you and label its intensity. Maybe you’re feeling dejected and you’re at a 3 on a 0 to 5 scale of emotions. When you’re able to observe your emotion, this can “loosen the grip” of your sadness, anger or stress and “not be engulfed by them,” says Jenny Taitz, a clinical psychologist.

If you’re stuck in a negative thought loop. Reflect on the incident in the third person. It might seem like an unusual approach, but research has shown that it can help people get out of their heads and promote wise reasoning. In a 2014 study published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers found that people displayed more wisdom when trying to figure out their own problems if they thought about it in the third person.