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How to Let Your Thoughts Float By

Staying in the Present Moment
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Do you ever feel like your brain is a busy highway? Thoughts zoom in one ear, race around your mind, and then speed out the other side. Sometimes, a thought gets stuck in traffic. It just sits there, honking its horn and making it hard to focus on anything else. This happens to everyone, especially when we’re feeling worried or anxious. The good news is, you can learn a simple trick to help with this. It’s about learning to let your thoughts come and go without getting stuck on them.

Think of your mind like a clear blue sky. Your thoughts are like clouds. Some clouds are big and dark, like thoughts about a test at school. Some are small and fluffy, like thinking about what you want for lunch. The sky doesn’t try to hold onto the clouds. It doesn’t fight the dark ones or chase the fluffy ones. The clouds just float by. You can learn to watch your thoughts in the same way. Instead of getting tangled up in a worrying thought, you can just notice it. You can say to yourself, “Oh, there’s a worried thought,“ and then let it drift away like a cloud.

A big part of this is learning to stay in the present moment. Your brain loves to time travel. It often races ahead to worry about what might happen tomorrow, or it jumps back to remember something embarrassing that happened last week. But right now, in this very moment, you are probably just fine. To practice staying here, try using your senses. What are five things you can see right now? Look for small details, like the pattern on a rug or a smudge on a window. What are four things you can feel? Notice the feeling of your feet in your shoes or the texture of your shirt. Listening for three sounds, noticing two smells, and one thing you can taste can also help. This isn’t about making thoughts go away forever. It’s about gently bringing your attention back to what is real and true right now.

When a tough thought shows up, you don’t have to argue with it or believe everything it says. Imagine your thought is a passerby on the street who says something silly, like “The sky is green!“ You wouldn’t spend all day arguing with them. You’d probably just think, “That’s a strange thing to say,“ and keep walking. You can do the same with an anxious thought. If a thought pops up like, “Everyone is going to laugh at my presentation,“ you don’t have to fight it. Just notice it, label it (“There’s a fear thought”), and let it move along. You are the one watching the thought, which means you are bigger than the thought itself.

This takes practice, just like learning to kick a soccer ball or play a song on the piano. Some days will be easier than others. The goal isn’t to have a completely empty mind. The goal is to stop wrestling with every thought that shows up. When you learn to let your thoughts come and go, you give yourself a break. You realize that you don’t have to get caught up in every mental traffic jam. You can just watch the cars drive by, knowing that eventually, the road will clear.

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Quick Tips

How can I practice this when I’m feeling overwhelmed?

Start small. Take one deep breath and pick one thing in the room to focus on, like a spot on the wall. When a worrying thought appears, just say to yourself, “There’s a thought,“ and gently bring your attention back to that spot. You don’t have to clear your mind. The goal is just to practice shifting your focus, even for a few seconds. Doing this is like a mini-workout for your brain, teaching it that it’s okay to notice a thought without getting swept away by it.

Is this the same as just ignoring my problems?

Not at all! This is the opposite of ignoring problems. Ignoring means you’re pretending the thought isn’t there. Letting a thought come and go means you are brave enough to acknowledge it without letting it take over. You are choosing not to have a big reaction right at that moment. This actually gives you more power. It clears some mental space so you can later deal with the real problem in a calmer, smarter way, instead of when you are feeling panicked and overwhelmed.

Why is it so hard to let a thought go?

It’s hard because we get into a fight with our thoughts. When an upsetting thought pops up, our brain sounds an alarm. We naturally try to push it away or solve it right now. This struggle is like trying to force a beach ball underwater—it just pops back up with more force. The more you fight it, the more powerful and sticky the thought feels. It’s not your fault; it’s just how our brains are wired to react to things that feel like threats.

What does “letting a thought go” actually feel like?

Letting a thought go feels like allowing a cloud to drift across the sky. You notice the cloud (your thought), you might even look at it for a moment, but then you just let it keep moving. You don’t chase after it or try to blow it away. It’s a gentle shift from being stuck in your head to being aware of what’s around you—like suddenly noticing the feeling of your feet on the floor or the sounds in the room. It’s a calm release, not a forceful push.

What’s a simple way to start doing this every day?

Try the “Traffic Watch” method. Sit quietly for one minute and imagine your thoughts are cars driving past. Your job isn’t to stop the cars, judge them, or get in them. Your only job is to watch them pass by. Some cars might be loud trucks (big worries), and others might be quiet sedans (small thoughts). Just notice each one and let it drive on. Doing this for just 60 seconds a day trains your brain to be an observer, which helps you feel less trapped by your thoughts over time.