Sunday afternoon I sat in the afterglow of the weekend’s events. We celebrated the graduation of my yoga teacher trainees following the completion of their 200-hour course. We’d been working together for eight months and it was a feeling similar to having planned a big event that was now complete- exhilarating and exhausting! With all of the crazy news of natural disasters, violence in the world, and a full workload, I realized that what I needed to bring energy to this week was a quiet mind.
So many people who come to class, when asked what they need for that day, often reply “To relax”, “I need a new brain”, “To just be here…so anything you do will be good!” Of course, one reason we come to the mat is to connect to our body in a loving way and another reason is to help manage the daily stressors we face in life. So often we find ourselves spinning with what seem uncontrollable and rampant rogue thoughts…they just keep coming. In the meditation and yoga worlds, these out-of-control thoughts are often described as having a “monkey-mind” or more appropriately, “a drunken-monkey who’s been stung by a scorpion!” And it seems that these thoughts love to arrive around 2-4 AM, keeping us awake as we toss and turn, seemingly unable to “stop thinking”.
One way that we can begin to find a quieter mind is to understand the nature of the mind. Just as the heart beats, the mind thinks. If we wanted to ask the heart to stop beating, it wouldn’t. Its job is to dictate and respond to the rhythm of our lives from beginning to end. And just as the heart’s nature is to beat, the mind’s nature is to think. We do ourselves a tremendous disservice when we think that in order to find a quiet mind we must stop thinking-it’s not going to happen, even with the most practiced of meditators.
Instead, we practice by not attaching ourselves to all of those thoughts. Buddhist meditation teacher, Sharon Salzberg, shares the metaphor of meditation as follows: “You’re sitting on a riverbank, watching boats float down the river. Being on the bank represents being in meditation. Then, without knowing how, all of a sudden you’re on one of the boats. You begin to think, how did I get on this boat? I wonder where it’s going? Does it have a captain? Are there snacks? Being on the boats represents thoughts and how we’ve attached to them. The magical moment is when we realize that we’re on the boat. We can now awaken and recognize that we can get off the boat and put ourselves back on the bank”. And, of course, this takes practice.
Another way of shifting our thoughts is through the practice of “Citta Bhavana“, or moving the mind. In this practice, you can create any state of mind you would like to cultivate, according to Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D. In order to do this, we bring to mind a memory of the state we seek, such as deep relaxation or connection to something greater. Once we find that memory, we recreate as much of the feeling of that memory as possible: Where were you? What was the light like? Were you alone? How was your posture? Were there any sounds or smells? Really bring what this experience felt like and locate where you’re feeling this in your body. Then…let the memory go and stay with the feeling of it.
Most recently, I had this feeling of deep peace and inner stillness while at Sanctuary Retreat in Far North Queensland. I had been teaching for a few days and was back in my cabin. My husband, Ed, had gone up to the longhouse as it was getting close to dinner. The sun had set and the rainforest was growing dark. I had the screen door closed and as I sat on the bed, I realized I didn’t need to do anything. I didn’t need to review the day or plan ahead for the next, but to simply be present. As I closed my eyes, I simply listened to the sound of the evening frogs and crickets, feeling the light breeze pass over my skin created by the ceiling fan overhead. A deep sense of connection and peace arose and I could feel myself being part of the beautiful and simple moment of connecting to nature. As I conjure up this memory once again, I can sense the tension releasing from my forehead and my shoulders relaxing. This is a form of Citta Bhavana…creating the desired state of deep relaxation and connection. I was able to find my quiet mind as I do now in simply writing this.
So if you find you’ve been hijacked by a monkey mind and it’s drawing you away from how you wish to be, remember that you have some options in shifting the current state. Get off the boat and head back to the bank or step into the memory bank of past desirable states of mind. After all, you are the captain of your own ship!
