Close your eyes and imagine a beautiful, slow-moving stream. The water flows over rocks and around trees, descends downhill, and travels through a valley. Once in a while, a big leaf drops into the water and floats downstream. Imagine you are sitting beside that stream on a warm, sunny day, watching the leaves float by…
Now become conscious of your thoughts. Each time a thought pops into your head, imagine that it is written on one of those leaves. If you think in words, put them on the leaf as words. If you think in images, put them on the leaf as images. The goal is to stay beside the stream and allow the leaves to keep floating by. Do not try to make the stream go faster or slower. Do not try to change what shows up on the leaves in any way.

If the leaves disappear, if you mentally go elsewhere, or if you find that you are in the stream or on a leaf, just stop and notice that this has happened. File that knowledge away and then once again return to sitting beside the stream.

Watch a thought come into your mind, place it on a leaf, and let the leaf float downstream. Continue for as long as you like, just watching your thoughts float by. This experience will help you practice letting your thoughts go. If you currently struggle with your thoughts, try this instead. What is the current cost of struggling? Have you been able to fix your thoughts forever? If not, this is a new idea. What do you have to lose? Pain in your life?