Leaves Floating on the Stream of Consciousness: Dealing with Distractions during Meditation

If the image of traffic was too stressful for you last week, here's a gentler way of viewing the distractions that arise during our time of meditation.  You'll especially like this image if you are a fan of fall (like I am)!  

Picture each distraction, whether it's an external noise or an internal thought, feeling, memory, image, or bodily sensation, as leaves floating down your stream of consciousness.  

As we close or lower our eyes in meditation, we turn our attention from engaging what is going on outside of ourselves to an awareness of what is going on inside of ourselves.  And guess what?  There's usually plenty going on!  Should we be surprised?!  Besides the movie reel of images, here's a peek at what floats down the stream of my consciousness:

This quiet is so nice!
Is that a leaf-blower?
I need to figure out how to...
I need to email ____, ____, and ____ as soon as I'm done with meditation.
I forgot to drop that card in the mail!
Yes, that's what I'm going to fix for dinner.
Oh, that's how I can do...
Am I breathing deeply?
Why do I feel anxiety right now?
I need to get that event on the calendar.
Should I scratch that itch on my face or wait until it goes away?
I am still angry about what happened last week!
I wonder what they thought about what I said.
He had such a great idea, I'd never thought of that before!
Here's an idea as to how to open that class...perfect.
Why didn't I think of that last week?
That author's theology is way off...
This theological issue is a tough one...
I need to get snacks for the baseball game tonight. 
I need to use the restroom, should I just wait or pause the meditation timer? 
I'm really enjoying the changing shadows and light from the sun through the trees.  
She's really hurting, how can I help her more?
Why didn't she text me back?
My hands feel hot, wonder what that means.
I'm still laughing about what he said.
Why can't I be more peaceful today?
I'm not good at meditation at all!
I should be better at meditation given I'm a teacher of it!
I just felt completely calm for a minute there.  
Why can't I have more than a minute of my mind at rest?

And that's just a peek at one 20-minute session of Centering Prayer!  
Now some days I let those thoughts, feelings, images, and bodily sensations just float on down the stream of consciousness.

But other days I lean over and pick a leaf out of the stream and begin examining it!  Pretty soon, I've left the present moment of calm awareness and am meditating on and mulling over whatever that particular thought or feeling presented. 

In that moment, instead of consenting to God's presence and action in my life, I've picked up control again!  I'm running back to the past or into the future.  My ego mind does not believe I have time for meditation.  It does not trust I can survive (or perhaps the deeper issue is it doesn't feel I will be loved) without doing, planning, figuring out, being hyper-vigilant about, actively seeking a solution to, or at least evaluating how I am doing with something...even if it's meditation!  

When I become aware that I've left the time of calm awareness and consent (sometimes it takes a few moments before I notice), the noticing itself acts as a release.  Setting that leaf back down in the stream, I often "come home" to being with God by gently saying a sacred word.  This sacred word or phrase might be Love, Jesus, Peace, Breathe, Thank You, Be Still... For me, my sacred word happens to be Home.  This word grew out of a year of reflecting on the Prodigal Son and my own mind's tendency to run away.  Other times I "come home" by listening to the sounds in the room or even my own breathing.  

My practice looks different every day.  The stream may be pretty crowded with leaves while other times I am aware of just a few floating gently by.  Some days I find myself leaning over and picking up leaf after leaf.  Other days I find there are only a couple of leaves grabbing my attention.  

No matter!  The leaves and what I do or don't do with them don't represent success or failure (such evaluation is an ego/conceptual mind game!).  This is just how my practice looked on a particular day.  I may have had forty-seven opportunities to come home again...what a grace! Or, I may have received the gift of contemplation. Resting in front of the deep hearth within, gazing out the window at the beautiful fall leaves floating downstream.