Do a thousand wonderful deeds plus one not so wonderful deed and what will you remember? The one deed that did not live up to your own standards.
The monkey mind
We humans are so wonderful. We do good things all the time, as we should. We help others, we give to charity, we raise children the best we know how and yet at the end of the day what we remember is the one thing we did “wrong.” Round and round in our heads this judgment spins relentlessly. The “wrong” thing may have occurred hours previously, or decades in the past, yet it remains alive and well in our minds. Chiding us, hounding us. I call this the Monkey Mind. No amount of reasoning seems to silence the monkey mind, it has a life of it’s own.
Releasing the monkey mind
This is the point where I am supposed to tell you some magic method for releasing the monkey mind. Some three step process that will leave you at peace to go about your life. However, there is no magic formula for freeing ourselves from the chatter. There are ways to come to grips with the monkey mind. Remember, this thought process is an important part of our make-up. It reminds us that we can always do better.
Ignoring the endless cycle of MM simply does’t work. What you can do is, when the chatter begins, listen. Listen once or twice to the message it wants you to hear. Then use the Involved Observer Process I outline in It’s All About Me to review just how much credence you want to attach to the message. All your mind wants to do is be heard. Come to an agreement with your mind to do better next time. Perhaps outline what you will do differently in the future, but by all means remember, you cannot change the past. Click on the cover below and get started!
