Tame the Monkey Mind Meditation Free Download
The monkey mind is a Buddhist term for the unsettled, restless, indecisive, uncontrolled, and confused mind. It’s the part of the mind that is the most connected to the ego.
People experiencing the monkey mind often feel
- prevented from moving forward in life
- easily distracted
- creatively blocked
Due to uncontrolled doubts, worries, playing out mental worst-case scenarios, and fears, many people find their way to meditation and mindfulness with the hope of taming the monkey mind. In traditional meditation teachings, the focus is trained away from the mind and to a certain meditation object such as the breath or a mantra.
And while this approach is a great way to train the monkey mind, I personally often feel like it’s not the best approach for everyone.
The Screaming Child Analogy
I like to compare the monkey mind to a little complaining and screaming child. Whenever the child is loud and yelling, something is bothering it. Some parents then just leave the child and focus on something else until the child calmed down. Other’s try to understand and help the child through this emotion. In the first case, the child may scream for a very long time while in the second case the child may be calmed down quickly.
Your Monkey Mind is Like a Screaming Child
The same analogy for the child goes for your mind:
- Some people ignore the mind and focus on something else until it calms down by itself
- Some people try to understand their mind and then calm it down
With both ways, you will arrive at a peaceful and calm mind but the question is how long will it take you and how long will that state of peace and calmness last?
As a non-Buddhist and normal working person, you most likely don’t have the time to train your mind as Buddhists do. Your day simply doesn’t spare enough hours that you can spend in meditation. On top of working you probably have friends, family, and hobbies that require your time.
For that reason, the meditation below offers a technique to tame the monkey mind with love and compassion. As explained in the little child example, we are trying to understand and lovingly calm our minds down so that we arrive at a peaceful and relaxed state.
The Hidden Message of the Monkey Mind
I like to see the mind as an essential part of our existence. Contrary to a lot of teachings, I do believe that the mind is not bad in itself and that we are just misunderstanding and misusing it. Therefore, I believe that every time you notice that your mind is wandering around or bothering you with too many thoughts, it has something important to say and it wants you to pay attention.
To learn the hidden message and tame your monkey mind with love and compassion, watch the video below.
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