The biggest obstacle in the path of growth is our monkey mind.

It jumps from thought to thought, place to place.

It is capable of thinking about weird ideas.

When tamed it can make us powerful, and take us to places we didn’t even know existed. Only if taming it was so easy.

And, if we follow its lead, which we usually do, we find ourselves in places where we don’t want to be. Or at least we don’t like the aftermath of being in those places. 

What do we do about it?

The simple solution is to learn to observe it and then create a space between what it tells you to and what you do. Meditation helps.

But that simple solution is not so easy.

So until you have some control over it and you can confidently say I won’t give in, do this.

Avoid being in places where you are tempted to do something a monkey wants you to do.

Learn to sit still, even when or even if you don’t mediate. There is something about sitting still that it stills your thoughts also.

Avoid being awake or free when the monkey mind tends to overpower you.

And, follow this hack – knowing this is a band-aid. Let yourself loose for a while, and do whatever you want to do except what can hurt you or someone else really bad, or kill you or cause some irreparable loss.

Train yourself to not be in this mode for more than once a week. This is the cheat day for your mind. If you overdo, you will lose what you gained by not letting monkey mind rule.

And, while you do this, don’t stop your effort to tame the monkey mind.