Taming the Monkey Mind: Maintaining Inner Peace in the Face of Adversity
by Dr. Mark Wiley

Do these scenarios sound familiar?

You are in an important business meeting and in the midst of your presentation your competitor interjects a statement to the contrary or a question to which you have not even considered the answer. This not only throws off your train of thought, but your ability to answer in a professional manner, as you fumble around for an answer, stuttering all the while.

You are trying to concentrate on writing an important paper or speech, but your mind keeps racing with a song you heard on the radio earlier in the day. This keeps you from focusing on the task at hand, making the paper late or the speech lacking in cohesiveness.

You are on your way to an important meeting with a perspective client when suddenly your cell phone rings and you are confronted with terrible news or a pressing dilemma that shakes your very foundation and ability to act accordingly. If you go to the meeting, the situation will worsen and perhaps prove fatal. If you attend to the dilemma, you will miss the meeting and perhaps lose the client and/or your job. As thoughts in your mind race back and forth between where you are going, what has happened, the consequences of both, you stall, not knowing quite what to do, in effect doing nothing at all.

Zen masters liken this "racing mind" to a wild monkey. You must tame the wild monkey, they say, or it will forever be out of control and, therefore, unuseful to you. But by "quieting the mind"--that is, harnessing the racing thoughts and remaining calm and focused--your thoughts and emotions will be in your complete control when such exasperating situations arise. This will then give you the ability to see the situation clearly, be calm in emotion, focused in thought, and able to act rather than react to the situation with full intention.

The Vipassina Buddhists of Southeast Asia developed a method for "taming the monkey," or quieting the mind, called mindfulness meditation. It is a method through which one becomes "at one" with themself--mentally and spiritually centering themselves, becoming like a mountain as opposed to a raging river. It is an inward journey and discipline whose benefits will filter into every part of your daily life and the lives of those in contact with you.

Before beginning this inner journey, find a quiet space and block of time in which you will not be disturbed. Wear loose-fitting clothing and be sure to relieve yourself before hand. You should also not be too hungry nor too full, but comfortably satisfied and at ease. Limiting distractions is a must in order to reap any benefit from this practice.

To begin this meditation, sit in the Yoga lotus posture (Indian style, if you like), clasp your hands loosely, hold your spine straight and head erect. Close your eyes and take a few initial deep breaths to ease into the moment and begin to relax. (The process can also be done while lying down.) From here, focus your attention on your breath as it passes into and out of the tip of your nose. As you inhale, merely observe, without mental comment, the sensation you feel at the tip of your nose. As you exhale, do the same thing.

And that's it.

Easy, you say. In the beginning stages novices tend to fall asleep; the mind appears to race more than usual, which it probably isn't, but your senses are closed and so you are just noticing it more fully; your legs will begin to fall asleep or tingle from poor flexibility or cramping; you unknowingly lose focus of your breathing and find that your mind has wandered to another part of your body or to a drifting thought. But this is okay.

Mindfulness meditation is about being "mindful" of your breathing, your thoughts, the tension in your body, and so on. Continued practice will eradicate all of these things, freeing your mind and spirit to act on more important things. However, this takes time. In the meantime, consider all of these distractions as a microcosm of your life: every day you deal with multiple people talking with you at once, dozens of sounds flooding your ears, disruptions in work. And like this meditation, as these distractions arise, you simply acknowledge them and then return to your task at hand, be it being mindful of your breathing or focused on your business pitch or deciding between two pressing circumstances when you really need to be doing a third.

There are many benefits to the daily practice of mindfulness meditation, including better concentration, enhanced focus, unshakable emotions, inner fortitude, understanding of the self, unswayed objectivity, concentrated decision-making power, peace of mind, and stable emotions.

But perhaps the most powerful effect of disciplined and prolonged practice is the ability to live in the moment. That is, removing the past and future, knowing that there is only now and that every taste, smell, task, event, and things you say or do now is all there is, and experiencing it to its fullest potential.

So the next time you feel overwhelmed or anxious, take a moment to close your eyes, focus your mind, and breath. Everything will fall into place when you open your eyes again.