Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them. You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature. Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain. Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness.
--Paramahansa Yogananda
This is an exercise in letting go. It is a way of dealing with distractions by categorizing each one as they appear and then mentally "letting it go".
1. Close your eyes and imagine that your mind is the trunk of a tree and all of your thoughts are branches. Strong branches with green leaves represent a healthy, focused state of mind, while withered, dying branches are distracting thoughts, feelings and emotions.
2. Now visualize yourself reaching up to the branches of distraction and cutting them from the tree - thus letting go each distraction and freeing your mind to pursue its meditative journey.
3. It is often helpful to categorize each distraction as you cut it down and let it go. Thus you might note "happy memory...hopes...anxiety...unhappy memory...new idea...pending task...regret...fantasy...". Once distractions have been categorized in this way, it is as if they recognize that their trickery has been found out, and they withdraw from the scene.
4. Make a promise that from now on, whenever a distraction enters your mind, you will identify it, and mentally prune your mind's tree of this withered branch.
