Floating leaves

It is important that you allow yourself to have all sorts of thoughts, even unpleasant thoughts.  If you try to avoid thinking about particular topics, your brain tends to make you think about these things even more. This technique will help you to think about any kind of thought without getting emotionally involved with it and you will find that by allowing the thought to come, it will drift away more quickly than when you try to force it out of your mind.  A technique to take it out of your mind is below.

Imagine that you are sitting on a riverbank, watching leaves float downstream.  As a thought comes into your head, say to yourself, “I am having a thought about …………………” and then visualise the thought sitting on top of one of the leaves that are floating on the water.  Let yourself watch the leaf holding your thought drift downstream on the water. 

Imagine you are sitting quietly watching the river, look upstream for the floating leaves and twigs coming towards you;

as they are level with you pop your thought(s) on and watch them go downstream until out of sight.