The following exercise by Lula Spurgato is designed to enhance our ability to unhook from unhelpful thoughts.
We will be treating all thoughts the same way during this exercise as a means of building this skill set and we'll be using guided imagery to facilitate a process of letting thoughts come and go.
Find a relatively comfortable position,
Either sitting or lying down if preferred,
Where you can be undisturbed for the next five to ten minutes.
Gently closing your eyes,
I'd like for you to imagine that you're outside and it's a warm sunny day with a slight breeze and there's a stream with running water nearby and you are either sitting or lying somewhere in the vicinity so that you can see and hear the running water as it moves past you.
And there's a tall tree leaning over the stream with many leaves on its branches and the breeze is allowing leaves to fall from the branches and on to the stream.
So there's a parade of leaves moving past you.
Now your objective for the rest of this exercise is to see if you can catch your thoughts in flight.
Your mind has likely already been generating thoughts from the start of this exercise.
Some thoughts might be commentary on what we've been doing or evaluating how you've been doing and I'd like you to see if you can notice these thoughts as images and or words.
That's the form that our thoughts usually take as images like still pictures or moving pictures or as words where we might hear our own voice narrating those words.
As soon as you notice a thought,
Take that image or the words,
Place them on a leaf and watch it float by.
Some thoughts will of course have nothing to do with the exercise.
Your mind might time travel into the past or the future.
Regardless,
As soon as you notice any kind of thinking occurring,
Notice the form of the thoughts as images or words.
Place that on a leaf and watch it float by.
Now your mind might not like certain thoughts and in an attempt to get rid of them it might jump in the stream and try to push the leaves quicker or further down the stream.
However,
We can't control how fast the water moves so we'll just create a struggle within ourselves if we try to push our thoughts away.
Instead,
See if you can gently let the thoughts come and go,
Placing them on the leaf and if they return,
Repeat the process.
Alternatively,
Your mind might cling to certain thoughts and yet recognize that they are simply thoughts,
Images and or words and see if you can treat them the same way for the purpose of this skill-building exercise.
Every once in a while you'll get hooked by a string of thoughts or a particular narrative,
Carry you away from the exercise which is completely natural,
But as soon as you notice that you've been hooked,
Gently unhook yourself by taking the thought or the thinking,
The type of thinking,
Placing it on a leaf and watching it flow past you.
As this exercise comes to a close,
Notice the last thought that's shown up,
Place it on a leaf,
Watch it float by and then gently bring your attention to your breath just for a moment to come back to the present.
And slowly open your eyes if they're not already open,
Reorient to your surroundings and perhaps stretch a little bit if you'd like to.
