This is the River of Thoughts practice.
So we're just going to anchor into the body first.
Bringing awareness in and onto the breath.
Just appreciating the posture from that wider view.
If we're standing,
Sitting,
Laying down,
It's all okay.
Just being aware of the position of the head,
The neck,
The trunk,
The arms and hands,
The legs and the feet.
And perhaps just taking a moment or two to bring awareness all the way down to the soles of the feet.
To anchor here,
To feel two points along the length of the sole of the foot.
And just rest there for a moment or two.
And then we're coming back up to the breath,
Bringing our awareness onto the breath itself.
Just feeling if it's up towards the collarbones,
Or perhaps more down towards the belly.
However this is,
That's okay.
Our aim isn't to breathe more slowly or deeply.
We're simply noticing breath,
However it happens to be right now.
And we're going to bring our focus to our mind's eye,
And we want to conjure up a river.
So this might be a river that we've seen before.
It might be an amalgamation of a few rivers we've had the pleasure to see.
Or it may be one completely constructed by our own mind.
Or it may be a river that we've seen before,
And it's just our imagination.
However this is,
That's okay.
Just noticing if the mind gets drawn into the right river.
And just allowing it to be a river.
To have some flow of water,
And some broad,
Safe,
Dry banks.
So we're going to take a position on the bank of this river.
Somewhere that feels safe,
Comfortable,
Warm and dry.
Watch the water go past.
And there are some trees a little bit further upstream.
And they're dropping some of their leaves into the water.
And the water is flowing fast enough for us to see these leaves going by at a reasonable pace.
It's making their way along the river.
Until eventually they'll flow out to sea.
We're going to draw our attention further in and onto the mind.
Notice what's around for me right now.
What thoughts am I actively in the process of thinking?
And then it's almost as if we're going to pluck that thought out.
And drop it onto one of these leaves.
That's flowing downstream and making its way out to sea.
And there may be lots of thoughts.
So we keep going.
Just keep taking a thought and dropping it onto a leaf.
And letting it move on downstream.
So our aim isn't to empty our head entirely.
But to move enough of the big hitters,
The really sticky,
Persistent,
Repetitive thoughts.
Get them out from the head and onto the leaves.
And then just notice how quickly they pop back up once more in our heads again.
This is all okay.
This is a process that we can keep our perspective on the riverbank over.
And just notice how interesting.
There's that thought again.
I can pluck up my head and drop it onto a leaf.
And watch it float on by.
Just being aware of breath and perhaps the anchors and the feet the whole time.
If we need to take a moment just to feel the breath,
Just to feel the feet.
And that's okay.
That's what we should do.
And then when we're ready,
We come back to the thoughts that are moving around the head,
Around the mind.
Getting hold of one and dropping it onto a leaf.
So it may be that we just imagine this or we might see it in three dimensions.
A colour,
A shape,
An object that represents that thought.
A person,
A little version of them dropping onto that leaf and floating away downstream.
However this is,
It's okay.
There's no right or wrong way for it to be.
No perfect way to do this.
It's just having a go,
Sitting aside our river,
Watching our thoughts slowly drift away downstream.
If you want them to move a little bit faster,
That's okay too.
You can imagine the river flowing a little more robustly.
It's carrying those leaves,
Carrying those thoughts that rest on the top of the leaves down along the length of the river and out to sea.
And then we might want to pause and put in thoughts on the leaves and just watch the leaves themselves.
Just seeing the sunlight on the water,
The different colours of the leaves and shapes as they float along downstream.
Bringing attention back to the breath,
Feeling the breath.
Being aware of the feet.
Bringing our attention away from the imaginary version of us that sat beside the riverbank to our body right now in this room.
And just seeing if we need to have a little sigh,
If we need to wiggle our toes.
Just being aware of how much of our attention and our energy is in the head.
How much of our attention can be with the breath or with the feet.
Again,
There's no right or wrong way for this to be.
We're just noticing.
And then we're going to exit this practice,
Let go of our river of thoughts.
But knowing that this is a place that we've created for ourselves that we can come back to at any point.
And then slowly opening the eyes if we've had the eyes closed,
Coming back to the space around us,
Noticing the shapes and the colours within the room.
And going about the rest of our day.
