Find a comfortable seat. You do not need to close your eyes — keep them soft, half-open if you prefer. Let your shoulders drop, and take one slow breath out. The ringing in your ears is doing what it does, and that is fine. We are not going to make it stop. We are going to let it be there while we do something else.
In your mind, picture a stream. It can be any stream you like. A gentle, clear-water stream in a wood. A bigger river. A canal near home. Whatever feels easy to imagine. Notice the surface of the water moving slowly. There are leaves on it. The leaves are drifting along, one at a time, from your left to your right, with the current.
Now we are going to use the leaves for something specific. Each time a thought comes into your mind — anything at all — you are going to place that thought onto a leaf, and you are going to let the leaf carry it away. Not pushing it away. Not arguing with it. Just placing it down, and watching it move on with the water.
So a thought might arrive, like, this ringing is unbearable. Place it on a leaf. Watch the leaf drift away. Another might come, like, why am I doing this exercise. Place it on a leaf. Watch it go. A thought might come that is about the exercise itself, like, I am not doing this right. That goes on a leaf too. Every thought, no matter what it is about, goes on a leaf.
You will notice, after a while, that you are not your thoughts. You are the one watching them. The thoughts pass through, and you remain. The leaves drift on, and the stream keeps flowing.
If you find you have been caught up in a thought for a while — that you have stopped putting them on leaves and started arguing with them, or believing them — that is fine. The moment you notice, just go back to the stream. Place that thought on the next leaf. Continue.
This exercise is from Steven Hayes's work on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It is not about clearing the mind. The leaves keep coming because that is what minds do. You are simply practising a different relationship with them: lighter, less entangled, more spacious.
Stay with the stream for as long as feels right. When you are ready, let the image soften and come back to the room.