Monkey Brain
The Buddha crafted an analogy in which he described the mind as being filled with untamed monkeys. Imagine them springing and bounding wildly from one side of our minds to the other. The monkeys represent our thoughts or patterns of emotional reaction. If we become diffident or angry, the monkeys grow aggressive and increasingly louder, unrelenting. If we grow fearful, the monkeys grow fearful and shrieking. The noise in our minds becomes so loud that it is the only thing we can hear.
Like many people, if not most, Jude did not have a grand revelation one night while spinning painfully in her mental wheel, or while writing frenzied cons in the column of dire possibilities she kept in a secret notebook. Instead, she simply grew too tired to keep going the way that she was. She went looking for help. It took some doing, but she found a good therapist and some good books and she began reading and choosing, not to “get out of her own head” or away from her terrible thoughts, that would be impossible, but instead, to change them. And slowly, she has.
Buddha showed his students how to meditate in order to tame the drunken monkeys in their minds. 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, Buddha said, if you will spend some time each day in quiet meditation -- simply calm your mind by focusing on your breathing or a simple mantra -- you can, over time, tame the monkeys. They will grow more peaceful if you lovingly bring them into submission with a consistent practice of meditation.
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. Learn how to change the conversations in your head. Practice kind, loving, positive self-talk and see how it can transform your fears.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bj-gallagher/buddha-how-to-tame-your-m_b_945793.html
http://buddhistpage.com/meditation-monkey-mind/
http://drbeckham.blogspot.com/2013/03/mindfulness-wise-mind-and-monkey-mind.html
Once upon a time, I thought my yoga practice would eliminate the mundane, the redundant and the constant badgering of my monkey mind, but I was ever so wrong. The only way I found peace was when I realized I could flow with my thoughts: one to another, just like the movement of Vinyasa…and let it be. Acceptance, not elimination, reigns in the flow.
If we pay attention to our thoughts, we will really learn a lot about ourselves.
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/01/the-monkey-mind-debbie-laughlin/
Like many people, if not most, Jude did not have a grand revelation one night while spinning painfully in her mental wheel, or while writing frenzied cons in the column of dire possibilities she kept in a secret notebook. Instead, she simply grew too tired to keep going the way that she was. She went looking for help. It took some doing, but she found a good therapist and some good books and she began reading and choosing, not to “get out of her own head” or away from her terrible thoughts, that would be impossible, but instead, to change them. And slowly, she has.
Buddha showed his students how to meditate in order to tame the drunken monkeys in their minds. 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, Buddha said, if you will spend some time each day in quiet meditation -- simply calm your mind by focusing on your breathing or a simple mantra -- you can, over time, tame the monkeys. They will grow more peaceful if you lovingly bring them into submission with a consistent practice of meditation.
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. Learn how to change the conversations in your head. Practice kind, loving, positive self-talk and see how it can transform your fears.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bj-gallagher/buddha-how-to-tame-your-m_b_945793.html
http://buddhistpage.com/meditation-monkey-mind/
http://drbeckham.blogspot.com/2013/03/mindfulness-wise-mind-and-monkey-mind.html
Once upon a time, I thought my yoga practice would eliminate the mundane, the redundant and the constant badgering of my monkey mind, but I was ever so wrong. The only way I found peace was when I realized I could flow with my thoughts: one to another, just like the movement of Vinyasa…and let it be. Acceptance, not elimination, reigns in the flow.
If we pay attention to our thoughts, we will really learn a lot about ourselves.
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/01/the-monkey-mind-debbie-laughlin/
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