Leaves on a Stream

Learning to notice your thoughts without getting pulled into every one

Our minds are always thinking. They plan, remember, predict, problem-solve, replay conversations, imagine what might happen next, and sometimes come up with things we really wish they wouldn't. Most of the time, we move in and out of these thoughts without paying much attention to them. But certain thoughts seem to grab hold of us, especially when we're anxious, hurt, overwhelmed, or uncertain.

Once that happens, it's easy to spend a lot of energy trying to figure the thought out. Why am I thinking this? What if it's true? What does it mean? How do I make it stop? Before long, we aren't just having the thought anymore; we're caught up in everything our mind has to say about it.

Leaves on a Stream is an exercise from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that helps you practice stepping out of that process. You'll imagine sitting beside a stream and placing thoughts onto leaves as they appear, allowing the water to carry them along. The purpose isn't to empty your mind or get rid of uncomfortable thoughts. You're practicing noticing what your mind is doing while giving yourself a little more room to decide how much attention you want to give it.

Imagine Your Stream

Get comfortable and picture yourself sitting beside a gently moving stream. It can be somewhere you've actually been or a place you create entirely in your imagination. Notice the water moving past you and imagine leaves floating along with the current.

You don't need to spend much time getting the scene exactly right. Some people visualize very clearly and others have more of a general sense of what they're imagining. Either works. Once you have enough of a picture of the stream, begin paying attention to what comes into your mind.

Place Your Thoughts on the Leaves

As you notice a thought, imagine placing it on one of the leaves and allowing the leaf to continue downstream. If you're thinking in words, you might see the words written across the leaf. If a memory or image appears, you can imagine placing that on a leaf instead. You can even use the leaves for emotions or sensations you notice in your body.

Then wait for whatever your mind gives you next.

Maybe it's I need to remember to send that email. Put it on a leaf.

Then I'm not doing this right. That one gets a leaf too.

Then perhaps you're thinking about what you're going to eat for dinner. It may not seem important enough for the exercise, but it still goes on a leaf. We're practicing noticing thoughts as thoughts, so they don't need to be particularly deep or meaningful.

Continue watching the leaves move through the stream for a few minutes, placing whatever shows up onto the water as it comes.

When You Get Caught Up in a Thought

At some point, you'll probably realize that you haven't been paying attention to the stream at all. You've spent the last minute replaying a conversation, planning tomorrow, worrying about something, or wondering whether you're doing the exercise correctly.

That's actually an important part of the practice because you've just noticed that your mind carried you away.

When you realize what happened, see if you can identify the thought you got caught in, place it on a leaf, and return your attention to the stream. You may do this many times in a few minutes. Each time you notice where your mind went and bring your attention back, you're strengthening the ability to recognize when you've become caught up in your thinking.

Some Thoughts Are Stickier Than Others

You may notice that certain thoughts float by fairly easily while others seem determined to stay. A leaf might get caught against a rock, move very slowly, or disappear downstream only for the same thought to show up again a few seconds later.

Pay attention to that without turning it into another problem you have to solve. Some thoughts carry more emotional weight for us, and naturally our attention returns to them more easily. You can put the same thought on twenty leaves if that's what happens.

If you find yourself thinking, Why won't this thought go away? or I'm terrible at this, those are thoughts too. Give them their own leaves and continue.

Why Are We Doing This?

In ACT, this is called cognitive defusion. It means learning to create some space between yourself and the thoughts your mind produces. Consider what happens when your mind says:

“I'm going to fail.”

If you're completely caught up in that thought, your body and behavior may begin responding as though failure has already been decided. You might avoid something, overprepare, seek reassurance, or spend hours worrying about what will happen. Now compare that with noticing:

“I'm having the thought that I'm going to fail.”

The original thought hasn't disappeared, and you haven't had to convince yourself that everything will turn out perfectly. You've simply recognized that your mind is making a prediction. By noticing, you create a bit of distance which gives you more room to decide what you want to do next.

Taking the Stream With You

You don't need to close your eyes and imagine a stream every time you get caught up in your thoughts. The stream is really a way of practicing a skill that you can begin using in everyday life.

You may start catching yourself during the day and thinking, There's the “I'm not good enough” story again, or My mind is trying to predict how this conversation is going to go. Sometimes simply noticing that you're having a thought is enough to loosen its grip a little.

Other times, you may want to briefly picture the leaf. Imagine putting the thought down, letting the stream carry it a little farther away, and then bringing your attention back to whatever is actually happening in front of you.

The thought may return. If it does, you can notice it again.

Something to Notice

After you've practiced for a few minutes, think about what you noticed about your mind. Were there thoughts that floated by easily and others you wanted to follow? Did your mind try to analyze certain leaves or decide whether a thought was true? Did the same thought keep returning?

Those patterns can tell you quite a bit about what tends to hook your attention.

You might also notice whether anything changed when you stopped trying to answer or solve every thought. Sometimes the thought itself stays exactly the same, but our relationship with it begins to feel a little different.

Try It This Week

If there is a thought that tends to show up regularly for you, see if you can start noticing it when it appears. You might simply think, “There's that thought again,” or picture placing it on a leaf for a moment. Then bring your attention back to what you were doing and notice what you choose to do next.

With practice, the goal is not to become someone who never gets caught up in their thoughts....we all do. The skill is becoming a little quicker at noticing when it has happened, so your thoughts don't automatically hook you.

What Tends to Hook Me?

As you practice Leaves on a Stream, you may start to recognize that your mind returns to some thoughts much more often than others. We all have certain stories, worries, predictions, or self-judgments that are especially good at pulling us in.

Think about what showed up for you during the exercise, or what tends to catch your attention in everyday life.

A thought or story my mind comes back to often:

When that thought shows up, I usually find myself:

☐ Worrying or trying to figure it out
☐ Replaying something that already happened
☐ Predicting what might happen next
☐ Criticizing or judging myself
☐ Looking for reassurance
☐ Avoiding something
☐ Trying to make the thought go away
☐ Something else: ______________________________

If I pictured that thought on a leaf, what did I notice?

What might I want to return my attention to instead?

Listen & Practice

Sometimes this exercise is much easier when you don't have to read the instructions and imagine the stream at the same time.

In this 13-minute guided practice, ACT therapist and author Russ Harris walks you through Leaves on a Stream (click here). Find somewhere comfortable, put the instructions aside for a few minutes, and let yourself follow along.

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