Paper Boats
Write down a worry. Fold it into a paper boat. Then watch the river carry it away, at its own pace.
Takes about a minute. Nothing you write is saved or sent anywhere.
How it helps
Some thoughts go round and round. This exercise gives one of them somewhere to go.
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Notice the thought
Something has been going round in your head. Catch it and put it into a few plain words.
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Put it on the water
Written down, a thought becomes something you can look at, rather than something you are inside.
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Watch it go
Don’t push it and don’t chase it. Just watch until it drifts out of sight.
Psychologists call this cognitive defusion. Paper Boats is adapted from “leaves on a stream”, a well-known exercise in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
The aim isn’t to make a thought disappear for good. It’s to notice that a thought is just a thought, and that you are the one watching it. If the same worry floats back later, that’s normal. You can launch it again.