Let Thoughts Come and Go Like Buses at a Stop

Here’s a simple trick that might sound a little funny at first, but stick with me. Imagine your mind is a bus stop. And your thoughts are buses. Some are big, some are small. Some are noisy, some are quiet. Some say “What if you mess up?” and some say “Remember that awkward thing you did three years ago?” They all pull up to your stop, open their doors, and wait.

Now, the old way of dealing with anxiety is to jump on every single bus. You see the “Worry Bus” rolling in, and you hop right on board. You ride it all the way down the line, past all the worst-case-scenario neighborhoods, until you’re totally freaked out. Then the next bus comes, and you get on that one too. All day, you’re just riding buses. No wonder you’re tired.

What if you tried something different? What if you just let the buses come and go? You can stand at the bus stop, see the bus pull up, maybe even read the sign on top. You can think, “Oh, there’s that worry about my job.” But instead of stepping on, you just stay put. You let the bus sit there for a second. The doors are open. You can even peek inside and see the anxious thoughts sitting in the seats. But you don’t have to get on. After a little while, the bus driver closes the doors and drives away. Another bus comes. Same thing. You watch it, you notice it, you let it leave.

That’s the whole skill right there. Letting thoughts come and go doesn’t mean you stop having thoughts. That’s impossible. Your brain is built to think, just like your heart is built to beat. But you can stop hopping on every thought that rolls by. You can learn to be the person at the bus stop, not the passenger.

When you practice this, you start to notice something. Buses that seem huge and scary when you’re on them look a lot smaller from the sidewalk. That worry that felt like the end of the world? From the bus stop, it’s just a white noise of background chatter. It doesn’t have the same power over you because you’re not riding it. You’re just watching it roll by.

Of course, sometimes a bus shows up that’s really, really tempting. Maybe it has a sign that says “Fix Everything Right Now” or “Figure Out What They Think of You.” Those buses look important. But getting on them almost never helps. Trying to solve a problem when you’re already anxious just makes the anxiety worse. The bus won’t take you to a solution. It just goes in circles. So let it drive past.

Another trick is to give the buses funny names. That “What if I fail?” bus? Call it the “Hairy Scary” bus. The “Remember that cringe moment” bus? Call it the “Blush Express.” When you give your thoughts a silly label, they lose some of their power. It’s like putting a clown wig on a scary movie monster. It’s still there, but it’s harder to take seriously.

You don’t have to do this perfectly. Some days, you’ll accidentally climb onto four buses before you even realize you did it. That’s okay. The minute you notice, you can just step back off the bus and return to the stop. Don’t beat yourself up for riding the bus. Just notice that you did, and try again.

The more you practice, the more you’ll feel a sense of space in your head. Instead of being crammed into a crowded bus full of worries, you’re standing in the open air. You can breathe. You can look around. You can notice the clouds, the wind, the fact that right now, in this exact moment, you are safe. Your chair is holding you up. Your feet are on the ground. The anxious thoughts are still coming and going, but you’re not running away from them. You’re just letting them pass.

That is the whole point. You don’t have to fight your thoughts. You don’t have to chase them away. You just have to stop getting on the bus.