#the monkey brain

I’ve been engaging more and more in mindful/ meditative practice since the lockdown.  Usually I go outside into the garden and engage in a breathing  or present awareness exercise.  There are many breathing exercises available online but to get you started a simple one is breath in for seven or eight seconds, and breath out for seven or eight seconds.  I find personally that the more structured the exercise the less beneficial and organic it is, but you may benefit from one of the many guided mindful meditation meditations available online.  One that I’ve used in the past is here. 

A present awareness exercise is simply appreciating something in the moment trying to silence distracted thoughts about the past, the future, or anxiety about things that are outside of your agency.    I’ve made a concerted effort over the last couple of weeks to depoliticise my life and to take win back agency where possible.  To engage in present awareness meditation set a timer on your phone and appreciate the blue sky, a plant, or some flying birds.

Many mindfulness advocates talk about the monkey brain; the narrative part of the brain, which commentates on what is going on compels you to action.  By itself the monkey brain isn’t a bad thing, the monkey brain is who we are and is our inner narrative.  In excesses, our monkey brain is responsible for much (if not all) of the of the stress, anxiety and depression that we feel in our contemporary world.   

During meditation therefore I use the above mantra; “Acknowledge the monkey, accept the monkey, forgive the monkey, forget the monkey: repeat;”

Focussing on one task for an extended period of time is difficult, more difficult that you’d expect in you’ve never practiced meditation.  Practitioners train for years and few would call themselves experts.  But during meditation no-one is judging you and you’re not competing with anyone.  If you become distracted “acknowledge the monkey.”  Many people with anxiety and depression are in the habit of thinking of any transgression as a “failure.”  In mindfulness there is no exam, you’re not being judged, self actualisation and improvement are the goal, and it takes a lifetime.  

“Accept the Monkey,” brain is part of who you are right now.  Try  to learn to love your monkey brain and accept it; but know that in this moment, during this exercise, you have no need for it.  Accept and love yourself and your monkey brain, for you are both valuable.   

“Forgive the monkey,” you’re human, return to your breathing exercise, or present awareness training.  There are few things that you can excel in straight away, we all have to train and learn.  If you were lifting weights you would expect an injury if you were to lift a heavy weight without training.  Nobody runs a marathon when they first decide to go for a jog; “Forget the monkey and repeat.”  Return to the breathing exercise; don’t be surprised if you can only focus for five or ten seconds if you’ve never practiced; this is a difficult skill that you’re introducing into your life; but an important one.

Think of meditation as exercising the muscle of presentness, training the monkey brain, much like you would train a dog not to bark all night, you are training your mind.  Body builders are never happy with their strength, they are always practicing and improving.  This is not a practice that you will never master, instead it is improvement and fulfilment in itself.

I often find that ideas come to me when meditating, i may start to write them down in the future to see if any of them are useful and aid in my productivity or self actualisation journey.  This is a similar phenomenon to “sleeping on a problem,” with many anecdotes of creative genius coming to people in their sleep. 

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