· 3 min read
Leaves on a stream: a five-minute exercise for thoughts that won't let go
How to do the leaves on a stream exercise from ACT, what to do when a thought pulls you in, and why noticing a thought loosens its grip.
Some thoughts don't leave when you ask them to. I said the wrong thing. Something is going to go wrong tomorrow. The harder you argue with them, the louder they get.
Leaves on a stream is a short exercise for those moments. It comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), one of the newer members of the cognitive behavioral therapy family. It doesn't try to prove the thought wrong. It changes how you hold it.
How to do it
- Sit somewhere you won't be interrupted for five minutes. Close your eyes, or let your gaze rest on one spot.
- Picture a slow stream. Leaves are floating past on the water, one at a time.
- When a thought shows up, put it on a leaf. Words, a picture, a worry about tomorrow, a line from a song: all of it goes on a leaf.
- Watch the leaf drift away at its own speed. Don't push it along and don't hold it back.
- If the stream goes quiet, just watch the water. Another thought will come.
- When you notice that you've stopped watching and started thinking, that isn't a mistake. Put that thought on a leaf too, and go back to the stream.
That is the whole exercise. Most people lose the stream many times in five minutes. Coming back is the practice.
Why it helps: cognitive defusion
Most of the time we look from our thoughts, not at them. I'm going to fail doesn't feel like a thought. It feels like a fact about the world. ACT calls this being fused with a thought.
Cognitive defusion is the skill of stepping back and seeing a thought as a thought. On a leaf, I'm going to fail becomes what it is: a few words your mind produced, floating past. It can still be there. It just stops steering.
Studies of defusion techniques have found that they can make upsetting thoughts feel less believable and less distressing, even when the thoughts keep coming. That is the point. The goal isn't an empty mind. It is more room between you and what your mind says.
When a thought pulls you in
It will happen. A thought arrives that is too sticky to put down, and suddenly you're three minutes into rehearsing an argument.
- Name it. "There's the work thought again." Naming it puts a little distance between you and it.
- Use a bigger leaf. Some thoughts need a bigger leaf, or a log. That's fine.
- Let feelings float too. A tight chest, restlessness, boredom: they can go on leaves as well.
- Don't speed up the stream. Shoving leaves away to get rid of thoughts is still fighting them. Let them float at their own pace.
A few honest notes
- It isn't a relaxation exercise, even though it often relaxes people. On a hard day the stream will be busy. That is still a good session.
- It works best when you practise it on ordinary days, so it's there for you on difficult ones.
- If your thoughts feel overwhelming, or you are in crisis, this exercise isn't enough on its own. Please talk to a doctor or a therapist, or call your local emergency number.
The same idea, with a real stream
In Leaf by Leaf you sit with a character under an old tree and write down what is on your mind. At the end of Untangle a thought, your words turn to light, settle on a leaf, and the tree lets it go. By the brook, the leaf lands on the water and the current carries it away.
It is the exercise above, turned into a small ritual you can come back to at the end of a day. If you want to see what a thought feels like when it is written down first, our guide to the CBT thought record is a good next step.