About Our “Monkey Mind”
The term ‘monkey mind’ is an analogy used to suggest that just like monkeys who jump from branch to branch, the natural state of our mind is to also jump from one thought to another. The rhythm at which this occurs will differ depending on our mental state at the time and other factors around us, such as our circumstances.
Whenever we are stressed or anxious we have an overactive monkey mind which in turn will further exacerbate our stress and anxiety levels. A study published in Nature Communications Journal (Poppenk, J. & Tseng, J. (2020)), researchers have found that the average person has more than 6000 thoughts per day. They were able to calculate this by using brain imaging technology to determine the beginning and the end of a thought. In other words, this specific method allows us to detect what they call ‘Thought Worms’ or ‘Thought Transitions’, which is the moment our thoughts move from one to another. This is how they were able to know when a person would think about something new. It would be interesting to know if an overthinker happens to have much more than the average person’s thoughts per day.
Overthinkers will typically be consumed by unhelpful thoughts, usually those that maybe doubt related, worry related, fear related for example ‘what if this happens’, ‘how will I make it’, ‘maybe it’ll never work’ and so on. Whenever we get ourselves caught up by our Monkey Mind, we risk going on overdrive, being conflicted, troubled, stressed, and fatigued. The good news though, is that we the right information, we can learn how to tame our Monkey Mind. Here are are few tips on how:
How You Can Tame and live with Your “Monkey Mind”
☐ Abdominal breathing can help to activate your parasympathetic nervous system resulting in calm and clearer mind. You can watch my Simple & Effective Breathing Exercise on my Youtube video.
☐ The art of practicing Meditation is a wonderful way to become a watcher of your Monkey Mind without responding to them.
☐ Chose to adopt flexibility of thought as this will allow you to see beyond your Monkey Mind and challenge any self limiting thought (e.g. Do I have to think this way? Is it necessary to? What can be another way of thinking about this? Is what my Monkey Mind telling me the ultimate truth and can be no other way? If not, what could be another option?)
If you relate to what is shared in this blog and find that you are struggling, reaching out and speaking with a qualified professional could be a very helpful solution for you. Online consultations are as effective as in person and are within reach.
You can contact me for more information: admin@alfordjeremy.com
Reference:
Poppenk, J. & Tseng, J. (2020). Brain Meta-State transitions demarcate thoughts across task contexts exposing the mental noise of trait neuroticism. Nature Communications 11(1), 1-12)