• Services
  • Coaching vs Therapy
  • About Charly
  • FAQs
  • Monthly Tidbits
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
Conversations For Change

August Tidbit: Taming the Monkey Mind

8/2/2019

0 Comments

 



There are many words to express the restless chatter that can take over our mind when we try to have a quiet moment. Monkey Mind, The Circus, The Committee, Crazy Island all describe the unsettled, inconsistent,  confused and seemingly uncontrollable thoughts that race through our mind like wild horses. Sometimes this constant chatter keeps us awake at night, other times it interferes with our ability to stay on task. While sometimes monkey mind can create the impression that we are multi-tasking and getting a lot of things done, it can also feed anxiety, indecision, and self doubt.
Though Monkey Mind often seems to take control, there are ways to tame it. Perhaps the most effective approach is meditation, learning to quietly observe and redirect your thoughts. Listening to a guided meditation is a good way to start this practice as it gives clear focus and a direction to follow. It may be helpful to think of your mind as a muscle that needs to be trained and strengthened so it can perform the tasks you desire.  A simple meditation to practice on your own is to think of a word or short phrase and co-ordinate it with your breathe. Breath in as you think half of it, and breath out with the other half. Continue to do this with quiet attention. If your mind starts to wander, gently and lovingly bring it back to your words and breath. Do not judge yourself if this is difficult to do. Instead, simply choose to practice it until it gets easier.

Other methods of taming those wild horses include:

Do something you like to do that requires focus. Creating art, doing crossword or other puzzles, yoga, dancing to music, playing sports, all train your mind to pay attention to what you are doing. Putting a basketball through a hoop, for example, requires quite a bit of training and practice, so keep at your task and don’t allow feeling of discouragement to get you to quit before you get good at it. Be patient with yourself if you get distracted and lovingly bring your mind back to the task at hand. Athletes sometimes use the phrase “in the zone” to refer to periods of intense concentration, and we can find those zones with intention, focus, and practice. Learning something new can also help create these dynamics.

Cultivate mindfulness, being present in the moment, noticing what is around you. Take a walk in the woods or even down the street. Notice everything around you, the leaves on the trees, the breeze, the scent of mint or flowers, the sound of birds. And when your monkey chimes in with, ‘hey what about that thing you forgot to do?!”, just smile and tell it “Later, Gator” and bring your focus back to the birds and see if you can hear any patterns in their calls. 

Quit trying to multi-task. Recent research suggests that we cannot actually do two things at once, that we simply rapidly switch back and forth using different parts of our brain. Multi-tasking feeds the habit of scattered and often unfinished thoughts. So when you say you are listening to someone and texting on your phone at the same time, you are doing both of you a disservice. 

Practice gratitude. Voice your appreciation of yourself and others. Journal about what you can feel grateful for today, even simple basic things like being able to walk or hear. Monkey Mind tends to shy away from gratitude and celebration. 

If your Crazy Island Circus is haunted by a repetitive theme from your past, if you continue to fall into the same mental loops or behaviors, deal with it directly. Put it into words and talk about it to a therapist, clergy, coach, or close friend for support and help. Once in a while the monkeys are just trying to tell us we need to do something different. 

Are you noticing a common theme? Monkey Mind often has to do with criticism and judgement. It reminds us of what we haven’t done yet, what we did wrong, what we have yet to do to avoid making a mistake….. The practice of loving kindness to yourself and others will diminish the noise of Crazy Island, in addition to enhancing whatever other practice you choose. 

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Charly Hill is a Life Skills Coach and Self Empowerment Teacher.
    She has a MA in counseling and recently retired her California Marriage, Family and Child Therapist license. 

    Archives

    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009

    Categories

    All
    Abraham
    Acceptance
    Adventuring
    Affirmations
    Aim
    Alexander
    Alternatives
    Appreciation
    Attention
    Avoidance
    Awareness
    Balance
    Bear Heart
    Beginner\'s Mind
    Belief
    Beliefs
    Biology
    Blame
    Bleep
    Body
    Braden
    Breath
    Bus
    Business
    Celebration
    Change
    Choice
    Chronic Pain
    Coaching
    Coelho
    Cohen
    Community
    Compassion
    Connection
    Conscious
    Consciousness
    Control
    Conversations
    Conversations For Change
    Creative
    Creativity
    Crisis
    Curiosity
    Daydreaming
    Decisions
    Diversity
    Divesting
    Divine
    Divine Matrix
    Dna
    Do What You Love
    Dream
    Drugs
    Duality
    Earth School
    Ego
    Ego Mind
    Electrician
    Electricity
    Emotional Freedom
    Emotional Intelligence
    Emotions
    Empty Table
    Energy
    Energy Flow
    Energy Psychologies
    Exercise
    Expectations
    Fear
    Feel Good
    Feeling Bad
    Fibonacci
    Flaws
    Flight Or Fight
    Floyd
    Focus
    Forgiveness
    Gandhi
    Genetics
    Goals
    Gps
    Grace
    Grand Canyon
    Gratitude
    Grief
    Guilt
    Habit
    Happiness
    Harry
    Healing
    Heart And Head
    Heartbreaking Loss
    Heartmath
    Hicks
    Holds
    Holidays
    Horse
    Html
    Human
    Illness
    Illumination
    Imagination
    Inhibit
    Inhibition
    Inhibition And Redirection
    Inner Guidance
    Intelligence
    Jin Shin
    Joy
    Laws Of Attraction
    Learning
    Left Brain
    Lessons
    Letting Go
    Light
    Like Attracts Like
    List
    Longest Journey
    Loss
    Love
    Lynx
    Making Room
    Management
    Manifestation
    Manifesting
    Map
    Mary Oliver
    Mechanical
    Mindfulness
    Miracles
    Mistakes
    Mist In The Wind
    Monkey Mind
    Motion
    Myss
    Nature
    Nourishment
    Observation
    Open Heart
    Opportunities
    Opportunity
    Pain
    Patterns
    Perception
    Personal
    Perspective
    Pharmaceuticals
    Pony
    Power
    Power Of Choice
    Presence
    Ram Dass
    Reacting
    Redirect
    Re-direction
    Relationship
    Relationships
    Relaxation
    Releasing
    Relinquishing
    Renunciation
    Resentments
    Resistance
    Responsibility
    Right Brain
    Roles
    Ruiz
    Rules For Being Human
    Safety
    Self Soothing
    Soul
    Spinning
    Spirit
    Stories
    Story
    Stress
    Styles
    Success
    Sucker Day
    Thanksgiving
    The Committee
    Thinking
    Thought
    Thoughts
    Trauma
    Truck
    Trust
    Unconscious
    Vision
    Walsch
    Walt Whitman
    Wanting
    Weekly Tidbit
    What Is
    Williamson
    Worry
    Yoga
    Zen

    RSS Feed

  • Services
  • Coaching vs Therapy
  • About Charly
  • FAQs
  • Monthly Tidbits
  • Testimonials
  • Contact