Overthinking? Try This 9-Minute Leaves on a Stream Exercise

Try the 9-Minute Guided Exercise

This Leaves on a Stream mindfulness exercise guides you through noticing thoughts, placing them on imagined leaves, and watching them move along a gentle river. Allow about nine minutes and choose a position that feels comfortable enough for you.

Watch Mindfulness: Leaves on a River directly on YouTube.

What Is Leaves on a Stream?

Leaves on a Stream is often used within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT. It practises cognitive defusion: creating enough space to notice a thought as a thought, rather than automatically treating it as a fact, command, or problem that must be solved.

In other words, the exercise does not ask you to prove a thought wrong. It also does not require you to feel calm. Instead, you practise observing thoughts as words, images, memories, or mental events that can arrive and move on.

Cognitive defusion is one of ACT’s core processes.^[1] You can read more about this approach in our plain-English guide to ACT and neurodivergence.

How to Practise the Leaves on a Stream Mindfulness Exercise

1. Settle into a comfortable position. Close your eyes only if that feels comfortable. Otherwise, soften your gaze or look at a steady point.
2. Notice your breath and body. Feel the chair beneath you and the ground under your feet. There is no need to breathe in a special way.
3. Picture a gently flowing river. Imagine yourself sitting beside it while leaves travel across the water.
4. Notice what enters your mind. A thought might involve your day, a task, a memory, an emotion, or the exercise itself.
5. Place each thought on a leaf. Then allow the leaf to move at its own pace. There is no need to push it away or make it travel faster.
6. Return when you become caught up. Once you notice that your mind has wandered, gently return to the river. You can even place the judgment “I am doing this badly” on another leaf.

What If My Mind Keeps Wandering?

A wandering mind does not mean the Leaves on a Stream mindfulness exercise has failed. Minds produce thoughts. Meanwhile, attention naturally shifts, especially when you are tired, stressed, anxious, or managing an active ADHD mind.

The useful moment is often the return. First, you notice that attention has moved. Then, without scolding yourself, you guide it back. That small sequence is the practice.

Research into broader mindfulness-based interventions suggests possible benefits for some mental health concerns, although effects vary across people, conditions, and programs.^[2] Evidence for mindfulness specifically as an ADHD intervention remains mixed. Therefore, this exercise should not be presented as a treatment for ADHD on its own.^[3]

Make the Practice Fit You

Mindfulness does not need to involve sitting perfectly still. It should also leave room for choice. For example, you might practise for two minutes, keep your eyes open, change position, or use sounds and physical sensations as anchors.

You might use this Leaves on a Stream mindfulness exercise during an overthinking loop, after a demanding day, or before responding to a stressful situation. However, it does not need to remove the thought. Success can simply mean noticing what the mind is doing and choosing what to do next.

If you are curious about how mindfulness, ACT, or other approaches may fit within therapy, our therapy overview explains how psychological support can be collaborative and adapted to the person.

Common Questions

Do I need to clear my mind?

No. The exercise involves noticing thoughts and changing how you relate to them. Thoughts may continue throughout the whole practice.

What if I cannot picture a river or leaves?

That is okay. You can quietly label each experience as “thinking” and return to your breath, feet, or surrounding sounds. Imagery is only one possible anchor.

Can I use this exercise when I feel overwhelmed?

Some people find brief grounding or defusion practices helpful. Others may feel more uncomfortable when focusing inward. Keep the practice optional, brief, and paced. Stop if distress increases.