Hey, this is Anne with your Coaching on the Go. 

We’re talking this week about the monkey mind.

I didn’t know what that was, never even heard of it or said it, but I know what it is now. 

Everybody knows if you think about it.

I get a monkey mind regularly. 

There are certain tasks that I’ve noticed over time that are challenging for me.

Tactics come up for me to soften those, disperse some of the energy around them, or reduce the saturation of those unpleasant moments for me. 

When my son was little, learning to read, was a struggle. 

He has some reading issues, just like me. 

When he would go to read, I would notice him hearing every noise, bothered by a bug in the room.

“Something’s buzzing.” 

A tag on his shirt is itchy, just becoming a basket of annoyance.

You know, just letting everything distract h

Because he didn’t have the patience to do the reading and it was hard, he would use distraction as a defense mechanism. 

This is what I discovered over time as I worked with him.

Then I realized I did the same thing when I would read, because reading was hard for me too. 

I found it in my studio when I would put up a big piece of paper to start drawing and get to a point where I wasn’t sure what to do next.

I wasn’t as experienced as I am now at navigating listening, and collaborating. 

I would get to a point where I didn’t know what to do next. 

I wouldn’t I had to learn something new, something technically new to proceed. 

I didn’t want to take the effort and the time, so I would walk away from that piece of work and it would sit there because I really couldn’t move forward.

I could start something else, but what was left undone “over there” was something that needed to be learned for me to expand. 

It was a challenge.

I realized when I put pieces off to the side like that and I spent months with them off to the side, it stifled my flow.

It cost me in my production of pieces. 

And the fact was that I could put it off as long as I wanted, but to move forward I was going to have to go through it.

So I began to learn that when I got to those tough places where my being wanted to sidetrack, sabotage, procrastinate, sidetrack, the sooner I could get a handle on that, calm myself down, and get in there with focus and just step through, the better.

It was waiting for me if I didn’t. 

No matter how long it took me (to get back there)

The moral of my story is when you come up to a tough spot, face it.

If it’s a fear, if it’s procrastination, whatever it’s looking like, it’s connected likely to worthiness and insecurity, which also takes you back to the first two. 

Because there’s a reason you stop. 

So what to take from today?

We’ve been auditing things. 

I like auditing things, taking a kind of step out of my body to look at what I’m doing. 

Be a scientist.

Look at the times in your calendar. 

You’ve been working on your calendar. 

Some of you have shown me you’ve put some beautiful calendars together. 

You are making adjustments that support you.

You’re noticing things that are missing. 

You are noticing things that you have too much of that you can reduce, and things you don’t have enough of, or you don’t have any of that you want to add. 

Great!

That’s why I’ve been having you keep track of your minutes.

Take note of the activities you’re doing when all of a sudden massive amounts of sidetracking pops up. 

Monkey mind pops up.

Make a notation on what you’re doing when that occurs, and then we can look at it because I guarantee you, it’s connected to something that’s presenting something deeper for you to look at.

It’s a new learning opportunity and scary, or it’s going to take some time and you’re being impatient or don’t want to take the time.

You don’t know exactly what’s involved, and you don’t even want to look. 

This is your work for today. 

This is your call to action. 

You get to look at what is behind your monkey mind.

If you want to support others and support your expedited learning, go to the Facebook page and put it in there. 

What’s behind your monkey mind?

I’m going to continue laying out some strategies for you as we continue through the week.

Sending you big love. 

Good night. 

Good morning. 

Good afternoon.

Depending on where you are in this SpiritRiver Community.