The Monkey Mind in You

It is crazy how the time is passing by. I feel like I was working on my mid term presentation yesterday and that it's already time for final exams! My mind is like jumping from one topic to another and i'm juggling with hundreds of thoughts and reminders everyday.

This actually just reminded me of a Buddhist concept: the « monkey mind » - I just LOVE all those bizarre theories. Appart from the fact it leads to cool blog post titles, it also is most of the time, very intersting. Therefore I consider it is my duty to advertise them.

To make it short and simple, Buddhist people believes that doing too many things at once is definitely not leading to anything good (yes, even for multi-tasked gifted women). In fact, you are wasting your energy. It's like running all over the place and therefore you can't be as effective as when you're performing only one task.

The monkey mind is the image they found to represent this idea. Your mind is like jumping from one branch to another, like a restless monkey.

That's all well and good but what do you do with your monkey ?

The nice Buddhist monk says: « First things first, inwardly watch your shifting mind for a few moments. Then focus on a specific mental task or topic with full concentration. The monkey will be still – at least for a while. »