Floating Leaves Meditation
If you have anxiety issues, you should try meditation.
Meditation is great tool for kids, teens, and college students with anxiety. It helps your brain to lighten the load, and to be able to shift focus from all the things that are bugging you to a place of calm.
The difficulty with meditation is that it doesn’t always work as quickly as you want it to, and it can feel really challenging.
And when things don’t come easy, especially for people with anxiety (or anxiety AND perfectionism), it feels like a good time to give up.
So for today’s meditation, rather than focusing on stopping thoughts, or being great at it, or making it as easy as possible, we’re going to instead shift our focus through a type of ACT meditation called the Floating Leaves Meditation.
ACT = Acceptance and Commitment Therapy:
ACT is a type of therapy focused less on labeling thoughts as good or bad, and more on helping you separate from those thoughts instead of feeling hyper-focused on them.
ACT is all about helping you live with less stress, because instead of focusing on thoughts or feelings as good or bad, helpful or unhelpful, it’s moving you towards a place of acceptance. We can accept our thoughts and our feelings. These thoughts and feelings don’t have to say anything about us. It’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is.
Learn more about ACT on two other posts we’ve published:
Floating Leaves Guided Meditation Walkthrough: A Meditation On Letting Go Of Control
Read through this meditation before practicing it, or find someone to read it to you, in a calm and gentle voice. If you’re by yourself, set a timer for five minutes. If someone is reading it to you, make sure that they pause in between the prompts.
Photo by Angie Lopez on Unsplash
When you’re ready…
Sit down with both of your feet on the ground, or lie down on your couch, bed, or a comfortable spot on the floor.
Take a few deep breaths, in through your nose, pausing, and then out through your mouth.
Not forcing anything, just letting your breath feel heavy and slow.
And then let your breath return to normal.
Our minds area always chattering away.
Some people call our minds “monkey minds,” because they’re always reaching for the next thought. So for today’s meditation, instead of focusing on stopping thoughts, or making thoughts disappear, we are just going to focus on letting thoughts go.
Imagine you’re standing in front of a creek, or a stream.
Anytime a thought comes up for you, I want you to take that thought, put that thought on a leaf, but the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
Any kind of thought at all.
Take that thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
[pause]
You might notice thoughts about what’s coming up next, or what else you have to do today…
but as soon as you notice that thought, take the thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
[pause]
You may have thoughts come up and bring up other emotions, like stress, or anger, or anxiety.
And of course, thoughts aren’t in charge of our feelings, we are, so as soon as you notice that thought, take the thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
[pause]
Some thoughts feel kind of sticky.
The come up again, and again, and again.
But as soon as you notice that thought, take the thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away. And if you notice the thought comes up again, take the thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
[pause]
You might notice thoughts about different sounds or sensations around you.
As soon as you notice the thought, take the thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
[pause]
You might notice a thought like, “How long do I have to do this meditation for?”
And as soon as you notice the thought, take the thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
[pause]
Sometimes your mind will feel really quiet, and other times it will feel really loud with a thought.
So as soon as you notice the thought, take the thought, place that thought on a leaf, place the leaf on the creek, and let the thought gently float away.
[pause]
We’ll stay here for a few more moments.
Noticing thoughts, placing the thoughts on leaves, placing the leaves on the creek, and letting the leaves gently float away.
[remain in this quiet space, aiming for 5 minutes of meditation the first time, and then building to 10-15 minutes on subsequent meditation practices]
Remember, meditation for anxiety is a practice, not a destination.
We don’t just automatically become great at meditation. We need to do it regularly in order to become really effective with it.
We also want to practice acceptance of our difficulties with meditation. It’s ok if your thoughts feel really loud and hard to move away from! The more you practice, the easier it will be - but it’s always ok if you hit a bump in the road, too.
The best way to improve your meditation is to set up a regular time each week to practice. Some people love to meditate before bed, others take a five minute meditation break before homework, and some people say that Saturday is their meditation day, and they’ll practice every Saturday afternoon.
Want more relaxation tips?
Try our Rainbow Guided Meditation
When to get counseling.
Meditation is a great tool for anxiety management, but it doesn’t mean you have to just deal with anxiety on your own. You can always reach out to a therapist or counselor to talk more about your anxiety, figure out what else is going on underneath it, and build a really robust coping skills tool box, including meditation.
Kelsey Torgerson Dunn, MSW, LCSW is the owner and founder of Compassionate Counseling St. Louis. She is writing a book with New Harbinger Publications on Anger Management for Anxious Teens, for February 2022.
Curious to learn more about how we can help teens and college students with anxiety? We want to help you build your anxiety and perfectionism management tools. Our therapists specialize in anxiety management for teens, college students, and children, age 4 on up. Schedule your free 15 minute phonecall on our website, at www.compassionatecounselingstl.com/consult.
Image credit: Angie Lopez