A Practical Guide to Mindfulness (Tessa Watt) / quote 7 of 9
The busy monkey mind
When you start to meditate, you may find it shocking how active your mind is. It flits from one thought to another, often without any obvious logic. It may feel like a monkey leaping from tree to tree. You may even think, ‘I was looking for calm, but when I started to meditate my mind got busier!’ It’s more likely that your mind has been this busy all along, but only now are you creating the conditions for noticing the busyness. In mindfulness we don’t see thoughts as a ‘problem’ – we are not trying to get rid of thoughts to achieve an empty, blank state of mind. Having thoughts is part of who we are as creative, thinking beings. It can be hard to believe this when you start, but the practice of meditation is actually just this: noticing the thoughts, letting them go and bringing the mind back to the focus, again and again. Each time your mind wanders off, it’s another opportunity to practise bringing it back.