Monkey Business

“Stop monkeying around!” My brother and I heard this exclaimed a lot as kids. We created havoc, much to our parents’ chagrin. We I rebelled, we mucked around; we screamed, we jumped up and down; we were an unruly twosome; we had lots of energy; we had fun. Three and a half decades later, I am repeating a similar mantra to myself during my meditation and yoga practices, in a bid to calm my equally energetic, chatterbox of a mind.

Monkey Mind is a Buddhist term which describes the persistent churn of thoughts in the undisciplined mind. In yoga, achieving a state of internal stillness during physical movement is challenging, especially when the mind is given free rein to battle with the heat, sweat, fear, boredom, that stressful situation at work, for example; all while trying to stretch the body into an asana – be it Sidle Angle, or an elegant Warrior Three. Let’s be real…..if your mind is anything like mine then it is safe to assume the human mind is like a drunken monkey… that’s been stung by a bee.
More than 2,500 years ago Buddha was teaching people about the human mind so that they might understand themselves better and discover that there was a way out of suffering. Buddha wasn't a god or a messiah -- he was simply a very wise teacher with keen insights into human nature. He learned much by meditating and learning from his own experiences, as well as by observing the behavior of others.

Buddha described the human mind as being filled with drunken monkeys, jumping around, screeching, chattering, carrying on endlessly. 'We all have monkey minds”, Buddha said, "with dozens of monkeys all clamoring for attention. Fear is an especially loud monkey, sounding the alarm incessantly, pointing out all the things we should be wary of and everything that could go wrong.”

Buddha showed his students how to meditate in order to tame their mind’s drunken monkeys. It's useless to fight with the monkeys or to try to banish them from your mind because, as we all know, that which you resist persists. Instead we are to spend some time each day in quiet meditation. We simply calm our mind by focusing on our breathing or a simple mantra and the result??  We can, over time, tame the monkeys; They will grow more peaceful if we lovingly bring them into submission with a consistent meditation practice.

I've found meditation is a wonderful way to quiet the voices of fear, anxiety, worry and other negative emotions.  Remember, meditation is a PRACTICE and a DISCIPLINE.  It is not easy!

I've also found that engaging my monkeys in gentle conversation can sometimes help calm them down. I'll give you an example: Fear seems to be an especially noisy monkey for people like me who own their own business. As the years go by, Fear Monkey shows up less often, but when he does, he’s always VERY INTENSE soooooo……. I take a little ‘time out' to talk to him.

"What's the worst that can happen?" I ask him.

"You'll go broke," Fear Monkey replies.

"OK, what will happen if I go broke?" I ask.

“You’ll lose your home and your husband and children will hate you,” Fear Monkey answers.

“Do you really think my husband and children will hate me?”

"Hmmm, no, I guess not."

“Will anybody die if I lose my home?”

“Nope.”

"Oh, well, it's just a house. I suppose there are other places to live, right?"

"Uh, yes, I guess so."

"OK then, can we live with it if we lose the house?"

“Yes, we can live with it," Fear Monkey concludes.

And that usually does it. By the end of the conversation, Fear Monkey is still there, but he's calmed down. And I can get back to work, running my business and living my life.

Learning to manage your monkey mind is one of the best things you can do to transform fear. Pay attention to how your monkeys act -- listen to them and get to know them, especially the Fear Monkey. Take time to practice simple meditation on a regular basis and keep doing yoga on your mat. Learn how to change the conversations in your head. Practice kind, loving, positive self-talk and see how it can transform your fears.

Onward and Upward.