Thoughts As Leaves

We can sometimes feel caught up in a whirl of thoughts and unable to connect with the immediacy of life. This meditation invites you to sit on a river bank and experience thoughts as leaves, released to waft upon the water's surface. Sit on the bank and just watch as the thought leaves are naturally carried away on the water's current.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this guided meditation.

For this meditation feel free to just find a position that feels most comfortable for you.

This meditation will be about 15 minutes long.

So taking a moment to just settle in whether it's seated,

Standing,

Lying down.

And now that you have your position let's start with taking a moment to ground ourselves.

I've started to believe that grounding is a superpower.

Let's exercise that right now and just come into awareness of all the parts of your body that are being held.

The parts of your body that are in contact with and being held by the ground.

Parts of the body that are in contact with and being held by a cushion,

Chair,

A mat or bed.

Really becoming aware of the contact and of the holding.

Knowing that whatever you rest upon,

Floor,

Mat,

Chair,

Bed,

That underneath it all always is the earth holding us.

So let yourself be aware of that.

And aware also of your breath,

That natural capacity of the body to breathe itself.

The rising,

The falling,

The filling and the emptying.

And noticing perhaps how on each out-breath there's a very natural invitation to drop down just a little bit more into the holding of the earth.

How each out-breath is a sweet invitation to release a little bit more into gravity.

Just breathing in,

Knowing that you're breathing in.

Breathing out and knowing fully that you're breathing out and dropping into the holding that's here for you.

And now I'd like to guide you in a meditation that helps us tune in and relate to our thoughts in a way I hope you'll find helpful.

This is a leaf meditation.

This meditation I'd like you first to begin to imagine yourself sitting by the banks of a river.

You might be sitting on a bench or you might be sitting on the ground next to the river.

Just noticing the ground beneath you,

Visualizing the water as it moves past.

Watching the water as it moves across your field of vision.

You might imagine there's a bend in the river.

You can watch as the water passes by,

Moves around out of sight around that bend in the river.

And as you notice the natural rising of thoughts,

I invite you to imagine that each thought could be released,

Dropped like a leaf into the river.

That land on the river where you can sit on the bank,

Solidly grounded,

Watching the leaves float past.

You're just sitting on the bank,

Feeling your grounding,

Breathing your breath.

And as thoughts arise,

Imagine releasing them allowing them to drop onto the water and watching as they're carried past,

Around the bend and out of view.

Just sitting on the bank,

Allowing your sense of holding and grounding and your breath to be powerful anchors to the present.

And as thoughts arise,

As they most naturally do,

No need to struggle with them,

Judge them in any way.

Just seeing if you're able to let go,

Just as the tree lets go of its leaves in the fall,

Releasing the thought as a leaf,

Allowing it to waft down upon the water.

Just observing from your place on the bank as it floats past and out of view.

And at any point if you should find yourself engaged with thoughts and lost in the realm of thinking,

That's no problem.

You might just notice that,

Even note that,

Thinking,

Lost in thought.

And then whenever you're ready,

Releasing the thoughts,

Imagining them dropping into the water,

Just like a leaf,

And just observing from your solid,

Grounded place on the bank as the thoughts,

As the leaves float past.

Sometimes the leaves may come one at a time,

Sometimes they come in a flurry.

However they come,

Just observing the releasing and the watching them pass by in and out of awareness,

As is the nature of thoughts,

As is the nature of leaves on a river.

So now checking in with yourself to just see if you're on the riverbank,

You're able to hold your ground,

Your awareness with the breath,

Or maybe you found yourself splashing around in the river with the leaves.

That's no problem.

That's perfectly normal,

Perfectly human.

Just as you catch yourself in that place,

Kindly noting,

Thinking.

And then imagine putting yourself back on that bank,

Grounding,

Connecting again with the breath.

Resume the observing.

As thoughts arise,

Seeing if you can release them,

Imagine them dropping like a leaf onto the surface of the water,

Watching them move past and disappear as they do around the bend of the river.

Just sitting on the bank,

Firmly grounded,

Aware of the rising and the falling of the breath,

Aware of the natural arising of thought,

And the capacity for releasing,

Allowing thought to fall down like a leaf upon the river,

And watching the thoughts as they move past,

As they disappear down the river.

As you sit here on the banks of the river,

Just observing the thoughts,

And we begin to understand more fully how our thoughts are not who we are,

How we are not our thoughts.

Sitting here in this moment,

Intending to observe thoughts,

We occupy a wider,

More vast awareness,

One that can contain thinking,

That can relate to thinking in a different way.

Just taking a moment now to take that in,

To be aware of the expansiveness of your awareness right now,

As you observe the thoughts.

And if you find it difficult to occupy this place of observing,

Well know you're in good company,

First of all.

Our thoughts are powerful,

And we just struggle sometimes with them.

But know too that the more that you practice with your meditation,

The more that you develop this capacity for a broader awareness,

The easier it becomes.

Over time,

Thoughts lose their power to direct our lives.

We become able to put our thoughts in perspective,

To have a greater freedom of choice about whether we believe our thoughts,

Whether we take them to be true and complete representations of what's so.

That's a place of great power.

Thank you for taking time for this practice.

I hope you'll return to it again.

This ends our meditation.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thx very much for helping me start my day on a good path.

This was superb 🌟 I certainly will return to this practice. Thank you 🍁

Loved this gentle guided thought awareness meditation. ❤️

Really good and helpful meditation, thank you. Gentle voice and message. I really like the time you spend in getting people relaxed and comfortable first. Thank you 🙏

Enjoyed. Did find my mind being distracted and had to pull myself back.

Very immersive imagery. Quick to ground. Many thanks.

Thank you. This is a lovely meditation. I am really struggling with my thoughts and can’t say I managed to let them go during this - but I’ll keep trying.

Lovely! Thank you!

I’ve been looking for a Leaves on a Stream meditation to use with clients and this is perfect, thank you!

I loved spending this time by the river. Thank you.

Calming, great visual and explanations. Then a perfect little summary at the end of the nature of thought.

Soothing, smart meditation. I always learn from listening to this.

Soft and soothing. Lots of quiet space to meditate on the leaves going down the river. Lovely.

Great meditation! Perfect timing and visualisation! Thank you for sharing! 🌻

Love this meditation. It’s calming and strengthening. I love seeing that...Grounding is super power. Thank you. 🙏💓

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This is a beautiful guided meditation that helps deal with our thoughts:
We are not our thoughts.

Very calming and helpful in the quest of managing thoughts 😊🙏🏼

I feel much calmer and in control after this. Thank you.

I really liked this meditation. Good visualization. 🙏

Perfect for me for today🌷