Wrapping Up The Mess
I took my time to unpack this mess because healing our minds is a deep journey for Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People. We cannot understand how the monkey mind gets its content without the context of racism and oppression. I can wrap up this mess by encouraging us to open our Spiritual eyes so that we can see the many layers and levels of unconscious programming that drives our daily decisions. Our mind is like a tape recorder. When we consider the messages we've received from childhood and passed down through generations of racism and oppression, what could we possibly expect for our mind to play back to us? The few examples that I've shared are just a tiny glimpse of how the monkey mind gets its content.
In many of these examples, we can see psychological manipulation, fallacies and biases, yet when our mind runs amok, we believe and often act on what it says without questioning its validity.
First, the nature of activity and the hidden currents in it have to be understood; otherwise no relaxation is possible. Even if you want to relax, it will be impossible if you have not observed, watched, realized, the nature of your activity, because activity is not a simple phenomenon. ॐ ॐ Osho ॐ
Unpacking The Process Of Healing Our Minds: Activity And Strong Reactions
When I first became a Doctor of Natural Medicine, I struggled to get my clients to participate in the process of healing because they wanted me to give them soundbite answers allowing them to keep living the same way if they took some herbal supplements. However the process of healing our minds requires that we come to an understanding of ourselves and use what we learn to engage in the art of self-correction. It can be a rather daunting task of reprogramming because we are so trained to believe that we are not "enough" and need something outside of ourselves to improve our lives. I don't have a soundbite answer, and the process of healing our minds is a p-r-o-c-e-s-s without shortcuts. We cannot run from ourselves and expect to "quiet" our minds so that we can relax. The fear that drives us to escapism is an illusion that continues to trick us into distracting ourselves so that we don't have to look at something that we think is shameful. But unless we investigate this "shame," how will we know if it is real or true? More importantly, how can we heal something that we refuse to see?
Miseducation results when people see themselves as only a consequence of these social and interpersonal influences. One component of being miseducated is the consequence of seeing oneself as only an economical animal or the victim of a certain socio-economic environment or even as just the consequence of a set of habits and childhood experiences … self-knowledge requires us to inspect these components of ourselves and appreciate the role they have played in structuring the path that we are traveling. ☥ ☥ Dr. Na’im Akbar ☥ From: 'Know Thyself'
Osho didn't believe in writing books because he felt that the content would be obsolete before the books were printed. His lectures were so profound that most of them were converted into books. Once such book is Tantra: The Supreme Understanding. Readers of this post whose mind went directly to sex when hearing the word "tantra," have just experienced the power of a dominant culture to market what it believes tantra to be. There is no mention of sex in the book. Similarly to Qigong, Yoga and Ayurveda, Tantra (Tantric Buddhism) is a way of life. I mention this book because it does a beautiful job of taking the reader on a journey to understanding the mind. In the fourth chapter, Osho breaks down the difference between action and activity:
Try to see the delicate distinction. For example, if you are hungry then you eat. This is action. But if you are not hungry, you don’t feel any hunger at all, and still you go on eating, this is activity ... You are eating not because of hunger; you are simply eating because of an inner need. ॐ ॐ Osho ॐ
In order to outsmart our monkey mind, we need to observe "the nature of our activity." When we become more self-aware, we begin to see that these activities are masking unmet needs. We may be afraid to investigate that need because of a past trauma and addicted to the instant gratification of a distraction. However, that unmet need will never go away. It will keep gnawing at us until that need is addressed. During this time, we may seek an array of distractions in an attempt to outsmart our soul. This is a very serious concept to understand because people who engage in self-sabotaging behaviors to mask unmet needs can fall into many forms of depression and can even succumb to suicide. The tragedy of this cycle is that often times, the root cause of the unmet need may be based on something that is irrational or completely false. If we don't look at and question our activities and behaviors, we could end up basing our ability to reason, make decisions, choose relationships, etc. on beliefs that are steeped in illusion.
It's equally important to question our strong reactions. About 20 years ago, I was at a frozen yogurt store with a family member. While we were there, we noticed a father bouncing his baby on his knee. I mentioned to my family member that bouncing a baby after eating is really bad idea. Moments later, the baby started vomiting. The baby had been eating boysenberry flavored yogurt. My family member had such a strong reaction to seeing the baby vomit, that to this day I still can't even mention the word boysenberry without her becoming nauseous. She has never even tasted boysenberry, but is convinced that she hates it. She denies herself of even trying this fruit in any form because of one incident decades ago that had nothing to do with her.
In a similar way, our activities and strong reactions may be attached to old, outdated ideas that need to be released. I like to call this process releasing the trash in our minds. Most of us would not keep trash in our house for a week, but we'll keep trash in our minds for a lifetime and wonder why can't find peace.
Releasing The Trash To Outsmart Our Monkey Minds
Releasing trash can be effortless with self-awareness. When we become aware of restless activity, we begin to see its ridiculousness which often causes the activity to lose its relevance and fade away. When we gradually refocus our mind as we become more self-aware, we effortlessly release the trash in our minds reducing the number of random thoughts for our monkey mind to swing our way. We cannot rush through the process. The angst that we feel inside to hurry up and get to the finish line so that we can check our progress off of our list is an unhealthy byproduct of our social conditioning. Our ability to be gentle with ourselves and patient with the process is the first step in gradually refocusing our minds. If we skip this step, we'll push through for a few weeks and then backslide.
Let things drop; don’t drop them. Let activity disappear, don’t force it to disappear, because the very effort to force it to disappear is again activity in another form. Watch, be alert, conscious, and you will come to a very, very miraculous phenomenon: when something drops by itself, of its own accord, it leaves no trace on you. If you force it, then a trace is left, then a scar is left ... It dropped itself! You have not dropped it. The ego is not strengthened through it. And then more and more actions will become possible. And whenever you have an opportunity to act totally, don’t miss it, don’t waiver, act. Act more, and let activities drop on their own accord. A transformation will come to you by and by. It takes time, it needs seasoning, but there is no hurry ... Understanding is the only discipline. Understand your activities and suddenly, in the middle of the activity, if you become aware, it will stop. ॐ ॐ Osho ॐ
When we start releasing restless activities, we'll be amazed at how much energy we will have to engage in inspired actions that feed our soul and serve our highest good. With this energy comes enthusiasm to act consciously which catalyzes creativity and innovation.
What Is Relaxation?
Now that we have unpacked and are releasing the mess, we are ready to explore the types of inspired actions that will outsmart our monkey mind and retrain it to work for us. Let's begin with an understanding of relaxation.
Relaxation comes to you when there is no urge to activity; the energy is at home, not moving anywhere. If a certain situation arises you will act, that’s all, but you are not finding some excuse to act. You are at ease with yourself. Relaxation is to be at home. ॐ ॐ Osho ॐ
What fuels our restlessness? I first noticed my learned restlessness at the airport. If I didn't have someone to call, emails to check or work to do, I felt strange - like I had to do something. I slowed down and started watching other people around me who had the same restlessness. I decided to observe myself from a distance. The thoughts that came into my head were truly absurd: I have to be doing something so that other people will think I'm important/successful; so that other people will not look at me/talk to me; so that I will not look weird just sitting here doing nothing ... I realized that all of the thoughts were based on my perceptions of how other people were perceiving me.
That awareness caused me to redirect my attention to my innate intelligence. During my heavy travel phase at work, I would be on an airplane several times per month. Flying has always been a challenge for me because I am a tall woman with long legs. I continually envision myself with a private plane so that I no longer have to squeeze into an inhumane airplane seat. Even the first class seats are tight for me.
My inner wisdom started sending me all kinds of ideas about how to get through the trip without sore muscles. Many years ago, I noticed that a mini spa showed up at Dallas-Fort Worth airport. I was so excited that I started looking for flights with longer layovers so that I could get a massage in between flights. I noticed how much better my body felt when I would break up the trip with movement. At San Francisco airport, I spotted a yoga room. When did that happen and how could I have missed it? I started getting to the airport early to get in a yoga session before flights. If I was stuck with a long delay, I would do an extended practice with meditation. My body felt even better. Then, while standing in line I thought, why not stretch right here?
I still worked or talked on the phone when I needed to, but not to fill up time with restless activity. I was in my own world, and I noticed that I got more work done, was more creative at work and showed up looking vibrant and fresh. These ideas really paid off during my trip to Bali. After ten hours of flying, I was able to get a massage, take a leisurely shower and enjoy a nice meal in Hong Kong. I felt fresh and ready to tackle the next 11 hours of flying to Bali.
Outsmarting Our Monkey Mind With Meditation
Because most of us we were not raised to have an understanding of how our minds work, we believe that our minds are in control of us. We listen to whatever it plays back to us. Like a monkey that swings from tree to tree, our undisciplined mind swings from thought to thought. Meditation is an exercise that cleanses, heals, energizes, relaxes and disciplines our minds. When we practice meditation, we hone our ability to focus on our breathing while simultaneously being aware of, but not distracted by whatever is happening in the moment.
Most importantly, regular practice outsmarts our monkey minds because its cleansing effect gradually shifts the focus of our attention giving control of our thoughts back to us. It's as if we allow the monkey to keep swinging, but we choose which tree it swings to and slow down the swing. The monkey doesn't realize it is losing control. The more we practice, the more we can control where the monkey goes, how fast it travels, and most importantly, what thoughts it brings to our attention.
Now one with our intuition, instead of random thoughts that seem to assault us, the monkey becomes our greatest ally, bringing us creative insights, empowering affirmations, answers to our toughest challenges and much more.
... the silence becomes heavy because you are not accustomed to it. You don’t know what the music of silence is. You know only one way of communicating and that is verbal, through the mind. You don’t know how to communicate through the heart, heart to heart, in silence. You don’t know how to communicate by just being there, through your presence. ॐ ॐ Osho ॐ
No amount of theory will help us to fully comprehend meditation because there is a dimension of it that has to be experienced to be understood. We have to move through the discomfort and reality of how our monkey mind has run amok. This will become evident as we attempt to focus on our breathing instead of our random thoughts. Social conditioning will have us believing that we are simply not "good" at or "can't" mediate because we tried it a few times and failed. There is no such thing as "trying" meditation. The first few times we get on a bicycle is awkward because, it's new and we haven't found our balance, but we don't say that we can't ride a bike because we tried. We practice meditation in order to improve our ability to switch our focus in a novel situation. If you do the demo in the video below, it will prove to you that you already know how to switch your focus. It's the novel situation that trips up your perception, causing the "I just can't meditate" fallacy. Time and practice will dissolve that obstacle.
There are no limits to the practice of meditation. We can meditate while sitting, standing, lying down, with our eyes open or closed. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith offers a powerful insight into meditation. He says that when we are first learning about meditation, our focus is figuring out how to fit it in to our schedule. However, as we mature we begin to realize that our life is a meditation.
Check out the video below to learn the basics of meditation and do a short practice with open eyes.
Meditation is a spiritual practice in that we are connecting with the truest part of ourselves, but it will not interfere with any religious practice. Anyone (Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, etc.) can practice meditation. We can think of meditation as a tool - like a microphone that amplifies our religious/spiritual practices.
It is important to explore different types of meditation to see which practices resonate with us. We can start slow and practice regularly to outsmart our monkey mind. Meditation is not a race that we must hurry up and win. What we learn as we practice will help us improve our lives in every way. We can relax and enjoy the journey. Now that we have a greater understanding of meditation, let's learn about and try a short Qigong practice, a movement meditation with our eyes open.
I prefer to teach meditation with open eyes because we live our lives with our eyes open. People cut us off in traffic, manipulate, interrupt, annoy and distract us when our eyes are open. How we choose to respond will be based upon our discipline and training. If we can meditate with our eyes open, we will cultivate an inner calm that no one/situation can take from us. Then, meditation with our eyes closed becomes much more profound.
Suggestions For Getting Started ☥ Sustainability ☥ Leveling Up
If we take the time to observe skateboarders, we'll notice a determination for achieving balance and leveling up their skill. I've watched a skateboarder take what many people would consider to be an embarrassing fall, brush themselves off and hop right back on their skateboard. Sometimes they will pause and attempt to see where they went wrong, either by talking to themselves out loud or to another skateboarder. They seem to be unaffected by falling. In fact, they use what they learn from the fall to inform how they will adjust their balance.
To a skateboarder, falling is not failing. They understand and consistently practice the art of self-correction.
Similarly, the path to outsmarting our monkey mind is not linear. Once we have decided that we will take back control and heal our minds, we'll be tested. The tests may sometimes seem a bit frustrating at first, because, like a novice skateboarder, we haven't observed ourselves long enough to understand the nature of our activity and we have been socially conditioned to quickly get to the finish line of success. What if there is no finish line? What if the test was a way for our soul to help us achieve a higher level of consciousness?
Unless we are tested from time to time, how will we know that we've become more self-aware ☥ healed ☥ overcome past traumas ☥ transcended knee-jerk reactions?
If the cultivation of our self-care practices include the understanding that we will be tested, we are more likely to become more self-aware in all areas of our lives. I once heard Sadhguru say that we tend to pay less attention to our actions in the daylight. However, if we were in a pitch black room, we would pay attention to every move we made. How would our lives change if we lived that way? Although our self-care practices will be different, one foundational mantra can help us stay the course:
I am gentle with myself and patient with the process.
Have you ever had the experience of rereading a book and discovering new insights that you can't believe you missed? As we evolve in consciousness, we become better able to "see" solutions that were previously hidden from us because they were buried under unresolved past traumas. Understanding our minds is an ever unfolding process that is healing by default and can be incredibly exciting. Take the time to digest this blog (I've included previews of other related blogs for you to experience). It was written to evolve with us and is based on universal principles which means that each time we revisit it, we'll increase our level of understanding about ourselves and the world. Awakening and self-awareness can be disorienting -- which is a good thing because we are creating a new foundation for our lives that is based on the truest part of ourselves. When we see ☥ speak ☥ live in truth we cannot be easily manipulated. Instead of our monkey mind running amok, it will howl when we need to pay attention to a red flag.
Self-awareness is the New Underground Railroad© to mental, emotional, physical and financial liberation for Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People.
There are two people that I think about whenever I feel discouraged because of a hard test. The first person is an elderly man that I used to pass on the hiking trail in New Mexico. He was 89 years old and had lost one of his arms. He hikes eight miles every day. On the days that I didn't "feel like doing self-care," I would say to myself, If the one-armed, 89-year-old man can hike for eight miles in the New Mexico sun through the desert hills, then surely I can get through a 60 minute Qigong practice in my climate-controlled home. The other person is a skateboarder. Sometimes I'll say to myself, Whoops! I almost fell off the skateboard that time! Or hmmm, how did I fall? My energy and time is devoted to self-correction and NOT self-condemnation.
Tests help us to celebrate our strengths and identify areas needing additional practice and increased self-awareness. Drop judgment ☥ take the lesson ☥ accept responsibility for/nourish yourself to heal through the consequences ☥ move forward ☥ repeat.
I highly recommend reading or listening to The Art Of Learning by Josh Waitzkin. He shares some excellent strategies for understanding the learning process, cultivating success and embracing humble self-correction. Here are a few other ways to keep our eyes focused on the prize:
☥ Click on the links within this blog, including the images. The truth is in us, and often
times we need to experience a concept from a different vantage point in order to
access a deeper level of understanding. If a concept seems foreign, revisit it after a
few weeks.
☥ Make time to think and journal as often as possible. Use the notes feature on your
mobile phone/laptop and treat yourself to a nice journal that represents you. I have a
tiny journal in my purse and larger journals within easy reach. I found that I prefer to
handwrite some things and type others. Once you get started, experiment to find your
own rhythm. If you would like some detailed guidance, you can order my downloadable
Care ☥ Discovery Journal on the Shop page. Think of it as taking your mind out on a
date, and get ready to fall in love.
☥ Get together with trusted friends ☥ family to talk through concepts, help each other to
level up, practice healing movements and affirm each other's visioning process.
A part of the task that I see before me and all of us as descendants of the great African contributors to humankind is to restore our ancestors to their former and well-deserved dignity. We can best do this by demonstrating the power of their wisdom through applying it to our lives and condition. ☥ ☥ Dr. Na’im Akbar ☥ From: 'Light From Ancient Africa'
Practice Often ☥ Be Well ☥ Be Radiant
Copy/Paste Version Of A Full Citation Example:
Hubbard, P. S. (2020, September 27). How To Outsmart Our Monkey Mind ☥ Part III. PHYLLISHUBBARD.COM. <https://www.phyllishubbard.com/post/how-to-outsmart-our-monkey-mind-part-iii>
Epilogue ☥ Your Treasure Map For Self-Care
Thank you for taking the time to actively engage in your own self-care. If you have ever spent time at a hammam ☥ steam room ☥ sauna, you will notice that it is a comfortable space because you are wearing minimal or no clothing and you can just be yourself. However, after a short time, it starts to get hot, and you begin to sweat.
This is a good thing because you are helping your body to eliminate toxins. If you want to detoxify your body correctly you will:
☥ Breathe slowly and deeply to help your body adjust to the intensity of the heat.
☥ Sip water every 15 minutes to stay hydrated.
☥ Have a piece of fruit ☥ pumpkin seeds ☥ favorite healthy snack available.
☥ Take a shower after excessive sweating.
☥ Go into a cold room/take a cold plunge/cold water rinse off to cool down before doing
another sweat and to stimulate your lymphatic system.
☥ Go for a walk in nature, spend time in meditation ☥ contemplation, have a healthy meal
and give your body some time to complete the healing process (which could include
sending you messages through your intuition about your next steps).
As you journey through ☥ interact with the blogs ☥ other content on phyllishubbard.com, you might have an insight that causes you to suddenly feel mentally ☥ emotionally “hot” -- which could show up as:
☥ “Ah-ha” moments
☥ A hop-in-the-bed-and-cry-yourself-to-sleep or fetal position crying time of intensive
self-care
☥ Intense feelings of anger/regret about something in your past
☥ Disorientation caused by the realization of truth
☥ Strong reactions such as heightened senses, vomiting; an urge to release emotions
such as yelling/screaming, going outside for fresh air/to take a walk, punching a
boxing bag/pillow; a feeling of tightness in the chest, etc.
If you find yourself having a strong reaction, I encourage you to flow with it while helping your body to release mental ☥ emotional toxins by using the same five self-care strategies listed above for releasing physical toxins. Your body talks to you all the time, but unconscious adherence to social conditioning can mute its messages.
Strong reactions are your body’s way of letting you know that there is a deeper issue requiring your attention.
Keep revisiting the content ☥ utilizing the five self-care strategies until you no longer experience the strong reaction, release fears and have identified ☥ transformed ☥ removed the root cause of the issue. You will find additional strategies throughout this website that you can add to your mental health self-care toolkit.
Self-Care Sustainability Suggestions
☥ A Cross-Cultural Healing Haven – read this blog to understand the purpose of
phyllishubbard.com and the meaning behind its organization ☥ symbols.
☥ Revisit the content periodically and make a note of if/how your perceptions have
evolved. Check out our blog page for an experiential healing journey.
☥ Check out the other pages on phyllishubbard.com:
☥ Home - watch the videos. Click on the images in the Spiritual Guidance
section. Each image has a story that might assist your self-care journey. Learn
about other spiritual practices.
☥ About - Learn about my background ☥ reasons for co-creating
phyllishubbard.com with Spirit. Explore healing through the image carousel and
videos.
☥ Shop ☥ Kamitology - Purchase and download vital tools for your personal growth
☥ development. Order The Chakra Emotions Energy Wisdom Quick Start Toolkit to
help you identify and heal feelings as they arise.
☥ Reclaiming Our Humanity - Help us develop and disseminate video courses.
☥ Rise TV - Practice breathing and movement exercises and deepen your
understanding of healing through the experiences of community members.
Check back periodically to discover new/re-experience the content.
☥ Journey - This is your invitation to own the journey to radiance. Experience the
journey and download healing resources to share with your friends, family and
community.
When you share healing, healing comes back to and flows through you.
About Sharing ...
During my first presentation to an all-Black audience, I introduced 20-year-old research on the hazards of sitting. I presented the research because I noticed that people sat for way too long at convenings and realized that the information was not disseminated to Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant communities. I was determined to intentionally include this research, often surprising participants by getting people up to stretch. After more than 13 years of intentional work, Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant People are just barely beginning to normalize conscious movement. We still have a long way to go, and it is important that we share what we know as much as we can to prevent the disenfranchisement of wellness information to Black ☥ Indigenous ☥ Immigrant communities.
Please do not keep phyllishubbard.com to yourself. We will not co-create a better world until we heal our current, past/childhood traumas. We will not love others until we learn to love ourselves.
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