[SteveMember]

Hi Laura, I’m in one of Culadasa’s teacher training classes and just saw your post about monkey mind. I’ve been practicing with TMI since July, 2015 and in the past several months had the same problem, lots of distraction and mind-wandering. I had to back up from Stage 7 practices and I went back to Stages 2-3, really focusing on several things:
1. Setting and holding intentions for stable attention and powerful mindfulness
2. closely following the sensations of breathing (not the mechanics, just the sensations like temperature, pressure, velocity)
3. connecting, noticing the similarities and differences between “this breath” and the last one.
4. checking in frequently.

There is an instruction in TMI that when the “monkey” is agitated, give it a bigger cage by intentionally expanding the scope of attention to take in more locations, even up to whole body. The key word: “intentionally.”

Going back to earlier skill building feels really good. I can think if each in breath as the only thing that’s actually happening right now, and then the same for each out breath. I like to imagine nothing else exists except “this breath.” And I know I have limited time to sit, so I try to focus strongly on each in and out breath. I discovered I wandered at the bottom of the out breath, if I hung out there too long, so I try to watch there even more closely. And sometimes I can’t even count 10 breaths! If I can’t even do that, I might switch to Metta practice for a while and come back to it. Some people get up and walk a bit.

Anyway, wishing you well.

[Author]

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