Here is a simple ten-minute meditation (or longer) towards letting go of unhelpful thought or feelings.
You imagine you are standing on a river bank.
Upstream, there is a tree. It is dropping its leaves into the water, it doesn’t need them.
The leaves float down river, they go past you and on downstream towards the sea.
You place on the leaves any recurring thoughts or feelings you wish to be free from.
Maybe it’s a written word or a picture, you place it on a leaf as it floats by and watch it disappear downstream.
If the thought or feeling returns, you place it on another leaf, and watch it float away.
They’re going to the sea.
During this time, you might be kidnapped by a thought, and find yourself taken from the river bank.
This is not uncommon.
Simply notice this, and then return to your place by the river and the leaves floating by.
If you’re kidnapped again, notice it again, it’s all right, and return to the river again.
Thoughts and feelings won’t stop arising in you; but by the river, you begin to learn to let go, you don’t need them.
Like the leaves, they are passing through, passing by.
They are not who you are.
