Danette O'Neal, PhD

Researchers learned that when people discard a physical representation of their thoughts, such as a note, they also banish those thoughts from their heads.

Why it works: No one ever completely changed their body image by trashing a piece of paper that reads “My thighs are too fat,” but science says it helps. The effect seems to come from labeling thoughts as positive or negative and reacting accordingly by either preserving them or throwing them away.

How to do it: Write down one thing you like about yourself. Keep your “like” safe in your pocket, wallet, or purse and take it out now and again to refine it. Also, write down one thing you dislike about yourself. Now, destroy the “dislike” with all the fires of hell!  Shred it and dump it. Pro tip: doing this digitally doesn’t seem to work as well, so break out a real notepad.