Each thought goes on a leaf and floats away. You don’t push thoughts off or follow them, and getting caught up in one is part of the practice. When you notice, you come back. It isn’t a way to empty your mind or make sleep come. Learn it sitting up, in the daytime or early evening, when nothing is riding on it. At night, use it out of bed. If thoughts are keeping you awake, or you start to feel alert or frustrated, get up, sit in another room in dim light, and go back to bed when you feel sleepy, before the end or after it. If you don’t see pictures in your mind, saying “leaf” to yourself as each thought passes works too. If something upsetting comes up, open your eyes, look around the room, and name a few things you can see. If you’ve been through trauma and turning inward doesn’t feel safe, keep your eyes open, or try this first with a therapist. The exercise comes from acceptance and commitment therapy, developed by Steven Hayes and his colleagues.

Narration

Female voiceMale voice

Read along

1. Sit somewhere comfortable, with your feet on the floor. Close your eyes, or rest them on one spot in front of you.
2. Take a slow breath in and a long breath out. Let the chair take your weight.
3. Picture a slow stream, and yourself sitting on the bank. Leaves drift by on the water, one after another, at an easy pace.
4. The stream can look however you like. Wide or narrow, clear or muddy, in sun or in shade. It doesn’t need to be vivid.
5. Now watch your mind. When a thought comes, whether it’s a word, a picture, a worry, or a plan, set it on a leaf and let the water carry it off.
6. There’s no need to hurry the leaves along or slow them down. Each one goes at the stream’s own pace.
7. Pleasant thoughts go on leaves too. So do thoughts about sleep, about tomorrow, or about this exercise.
8. At some point you’ll notice a thought has carried you off, maybe for a while. That’s expected. Come back to the bank, and put that thought on a leaf too.
9. If the same thought keeps coming back, let it. Each time, it gets another leaf.
10. Feelings can ride on leaves as well. Boredom, impatience, a flicker of worry.
11. If a thought like “this isn’t working” shows up, that’s one more thought. It goes on a leaf too.
12. Keep sitting on the bank as the leaves come and go. Whenever you notice you’ve drifted off, come back.
13. Now let the stream fade. Feel the chair under you and your feet on the floor.
14. Take a fuller breath. When you’re ready, open your eyes and look around the room.
15. If it’s the middle of the night, go back to bed once you feel sleepy, and not before.

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Everyday Insight’s tools are for education and personal reflection. They are not therapy or medical care, and they are not for emergencies. In an emergency, call 911. If you are in crisis in the United States, call or text 988.