For Teens: Leaves On A Stream

This guided meditation is an exercise in mindfulness. It allows you to notice your thoughts and be the observer. You are not your thoughts. You are more than what goes through your mind. This practice teaches you how to let go of those thoughts without resistance.

Source: Turrell & Bell (2016). ACT for Adolescents.

Transcript

Imagine that you're sitting alone in a beautiful landscape under some lovely trees on the bank of a river or stream.

See if you can picture this in as much detail as possible.

Keeping your eyes closed,

Look around in your imagination and see where you are.

Look at how the water in the stream flows or swirls past you.

As you look to one side,

You notice a leaf coming toward you.

Sitting back,

You watch the leaf as it makes its way past you and then off to the other side until it disappears into the horizon.

You turn your head again and notice another leaf and on this leaf is a ladybug.

Still sitting back from the stream,

Just watching the leaf and the ladybug from a distance as it floats past and down the stream into the horizon.

You turn your head once again and notice there are lots of leaves making their way slowly toward you.

The next leaf has a stick on it.

Just let the leaf and the stick float past you and continue down the stream until you can't see it anymore.

You may notice as you're doing this that thoughts may come up like,

This is weird,

Or am I doing this right?

Or maybe you're having thoughts about what is on the leaf.

Now just notice these thoughts as each comes up,

One after the other.

As each thought arises,

See if you can imagine you are taking it in your hands and placing it on the leaf in the stream.

Don't try to push the thought away and don't try to hang on to it either.

Just let the water take it.

Watch as each thought floats away down the stream,

Disappearing into the horizon in its own time and in its own way.

Then,

As your next thought comes up and the next,

Just place each one gently on another leaf and let it float away as the stream carries it.

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Reviews

I enjoyed this very much thank you. It helped me clear my mind.