Sometimes I find myself reacting to one stimulus after another - an email, a phone call, someone walking in the office, a thought about a project I need to work on, then a calendar reminder of a meeting in 10 minutes, and on and on. Once that starts, it feeds on itself and I lose all focus and sense of priority.
The Buddha is said to have described a condition called "monkey-mind." B.J. Gallagher describes it this way: "Buddha described the human mind as being filled with drunken monkeys, jumping around, screeching, chattering, carrying on endlessly. We all have monkey minds, Buddha said, with dozens of monkeys all clamoring for attention."
One purpose of meditation is to quiet the monkeys down a bit. A couple of weeks ago, I realized that I could use my breath to combat the chaos, not in a meditation session, but as it was occurring. What I need is just to interrupt the unconscious mental processes that are leaping from one thing to another, to bring awareness and mindfulness back into the forefront.
I'm beginning to develop a new habit. When I realize that my mind is wanting to flit to another thing I interrupt the process by focusing on my breath - a long, relaxed inhalation followed by a long, relaxed exhalation. Then I bring my conscious awareness to what I am doing, and why.
This process, which takes just a few seconds, is quite effective at making the monkeys go sit down and chill for a bit, while I turn my attention to the activity that I have chosen to do next.
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