Kathy Caprino shares a therapist's exercise for catching self-objectifying thoughts: notice them, mark them mentally, label them, and let them go. The practice creates distance between you and your judgments, letting you observe them like water instead of being swept away.
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My therapist, spiritual psychotherapist, said, you know, I sense that you're a very judgmental person. I don't mean mean, I don't mean negative. But everything is judging. This is good, this is bad. She's pretty, she's not not around looks per se, but judging, judging, judging. And he had a Buddhist bent. And you know, judging can be the death of peace. So he said, for the next week, I want you to go back, watch your thoughts and every time you have a judging thought, I want you to make a mental check mark and then say there goes one of those judging thoughts and then let it go. I don't want you to do anything about it. The point is to separate you from your thoughts, to become aware. Do this exercise and we'll put a name to it. Those self objectifying thoughts. There goes one of those self judging, self objectifying, self hating thoughts. Don't do anything about, just mark it. I think if we can start to stop being the fish in the water that we can't see, start seeing the water, I think it will help. What do you think?