Sitting On The River Bank Of The Mind

This meditation will help you hone your attention to your breath, and bring nonjudgmental awareness to your thoughts, through visualization and mindfulness.

Transcript

Find yourself seated or lying down with your eyes gently closed.

Notice the breath rising and falling naturally from the body.

Today I would like to invite you to step outside of the stream of your thinking mind.

Begin by visualizing yourself floating in a small river on a warm day.

See your surroundings,

The sky above you,

The feeling of the water and the air.

Take it all in.

Turning in the water,

Begin to see yourself swimming to the edge of the river.

You find your footing and begin to walk out of the water onto the dry land.

The sun is warm on your skin and you already feel your body has dried off.

You take a seat on the bank of the river under the shade of a tree.

Take a moment,

Paint out the details of the scenery you see in your mind's eye.

Notice what kind of tree that you are sitting under.

What kind of leaves are growing in its branches?

Is it spring?

Or summer?

Or maybe fall?

Let your imagination flow,

Leaving no detail left uncovered.

Notice the river with its steady flow,

How wide it is,

What lay beyond it,

Trees or meadows or maybe mountains.

It's up to you.

Notice what the ground feels like beneath you.

Are you sitting on the grass?

Or on a smooth rock?

Or sandy shore?

As you paint out the details,

You become aware that you feel safe here,

Peaceful,

At ease,

Resting by the bank of your own mind.

Take a long,

Deep breath in through your nose.

Notice the sensations of air filling the body,

The belly rising.

And exhale out slowly,

Releasing.

Continue to breathe.

Slowly observing the breath rising and falling with ease.

No effort.

Just breathing.

As you breathe,

You will start to notice the mind wanders away from attention on the inhalation and the exhalation,

Perhaps to a memory or to planning,

Worrying,

Ideas,

Mundane,

Random thoughts.

The pull of the mind as we train our attention is strong and perfectly natural.

As the next thought takes your mind away from your breath,

Visualize that thought attaching to a leaf or a blossom in the tree under which you are resting.

Watch as the leaf detaches without difficulty from the branch in a small gust of wind,

Drifting lazily through the air and coming to rest on the surface of the water.

Watch the leaf now,

Which holds to this thought.

Resting down the river,

Past where you are sitting.

Continue to watch as it flows down the river until at last it disappears from view.

Resting back to your body,

Resting peacefully here on the bank and returning to the breath.

Continue in this way each time the mind wanders,

Placing that thought on a leaf,

Watching that leaf fall softly into the river and flowing away with ease.

And return again and again to the breath.

You may be watching many leaves flow down the river today,

Or very few.

There is no right or wrong.

The practice is simply the act of returning each time to the safety of the bank,

To your body,

To your breath.

At some point in this practice,

You may become quite attached to a thought.

You may become aware that you have clung to a thought,

That you are back in the river,

Grasping onto a leaf or many leaves.

No worries.

The moment you notice this,

Simply release the hold on the bundle of leaves and swim again to the bank.

Notice that magically,

No matter how long you've been floating down that river,

Your spot under the tree is still there waiting for you.

Rest now.

Take a seat.

Let the sun dry your skin.

Softly smile.

You are home again,

On the bank of your mind,

In your body.

You are safe.

Breathe.

We will sit in silence together for two minutes now to practice the subtle art of returning to the breath and observing the mind without judgment,

Without grasping,

Without fear.

Rest on the bank and breathe with me.

You are home again,

On the bank of your mind,

In your body.

You are safe.

You are home again,

On the bank of your mind,

In your body.

You are safe.

You are safe.

On your next inhale,

Let the air come into your lungs with more depth and intention,

Filling the lungs up with fresh air and sigh out,

Releasing,

Emptying out completely.

Take another long,

Deep breath in,

Pausing for just a moment at the top of the inhale and exhale out,

Release.

Good.

Let's let the image of the river fade for now.

Feel your body in this present space.

Bring a gentle movement back to the body,

Wiggling the fingers,

The toes.

And when you are ready,

Open your eyes and observe the room around you.

You have given yourself a beautiful gift today.

As you continue this practice of observing your thoughts without judgment or force,

You are transforming your relationship with your own mind.

You're finding freedom from the confines of your thought patterns.

You are learning that you are always just one breath away from the safety of that shore and that you always have a choice to return to the bank of your own being.

Deep breath is an invitation to arrive home,

To your body,

To your most authentic self.

Welcome home,

My friend.

Namaste.

Reviews

That was very nice. The sound seemed a little muffled though

Thank you. Amazing

Wonderful. It took me right to my happy place and gave a simple and effective tool for dealing with distractions.

Excellent visual insight meditation 🧘‍♀️
Thank you 🙏

Love this concept, one of my first introductions to meditation was the book 'Wherever you go, There you are' and that metaphor of the river of thoughts and stepping out onto the back has stuck with me.

So well spoken, soothing voice and sound effects. Beautiful. Thank uou🙏

What a beautiful and brilliant meditation! The imagery was perfect and I’ll definitely be using the practice of imagining my thoughts as leaves on the river in my daily life. Thank you!

Wonderful imagery! 🍁 🍂 Thank you! 💕

Loved it! Thank you!

Soothing voice. Thank you.

Very much enjoyed this visualization! Thank you so much for sharing.

This was exactly what I needed today. Thank you!

Excellent
I really enjoyed this meditation it helped me release my unhelpful thoughts and really concentrate on being in the moment. Thank you

The voice was muffed a bit, but I got used to it after a while... still beautiful... ❤️🙏

I am grateful for this meditation. I am grateful for the breath. I am grateful for your calm and loving voice.

Lovely mixture of visualisation and mindfulness!

Good visualization. Liked it a lot.

Such a simple but effective way to meditate! Great way to start your day. The voice is a little muffled but if you use headphones you’ll be fine!

Very effective way of releasing thoughs for me.

Beautiful visualization.