Your brain is essentially composed of two basic functions (with numerous interconnecting systems). An adaptive frontal lobe (directly behind your forehead) that processes thought impulses based on past experience and an autonomic hindbrain that works on autopilot based on genetic hard-wiring, but additionally sculpted by past experiences.
Unfortunately, the hind-brain functions are much more powerful since that brain region also works to keep the heart beating and the lungs pumping. The frontal lobe is the strongest part of the brain when it comes to adaptation, but the weakest when it comes to survival, which is controlled by hindbrain limbic systems and the reptilian brainstem (fear response).
Hypothetical fears, imagined in the frontal lobe, can gradually align with hindbrain systems evoking fear based reactions to stimuli that present no threat to survival. Nevertheless, the brain only responds from the neural wiring it has at its disposal and if you've consciously or unconsciously allowed hypothetical fears to chronically engage your frontal lobe, eventually the hindbrain functions will assume control, hijacking the frontal lobe in which thought, language, logic and rational thinking become delayed, confused and chaotic.
This results in Monkey Mind:
"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. Fear is an especially loud monkey, sounding the alarm incessantly, pointing out all the things we should be wary of and everything that could go wrong." LINKAutomatic thinking from monkey mind results in depressive ruminating (a type of pre-scripted hell in which no digression from the script is tolerated). This, subsequently, requires emotional fuel (limbic system/amygdala) to maintain and magnify the scripted thoughts which leads, over time, to the emotional trainwreck.
Automatic Thoughts
Hypothetical fear (catastrophic fantasies) enlist neural circuits to justify the fear as real and over time this hypothetical fear becomes automatically evoked and can result in physical symptoms. You recall the difficulty of previous unemployment to justify how it will be worse this time, denying that you made it through last time and even experienced some positive effects. The pain experienced from the break up of a previous relationship demands you remain in a currently dysfunctional relationship. A bad car accident now tailors your decisions as to when you can and cannot drive.
The hypothetical Thought Chain of Monkey Mind, if allowed to strengthen by linking up additional worse case scenarios, will eventually restrain all rational interpretations because catastrophic fear engages the reptilian hindbrain which, through the limbic system (amygdala/emotion), provokes the body to generate symptoms that reinforce the hypothetical fear as real and this is called emotional reasoning, which becomes devoid of any rational basis.
Emotional Reasoning is a cognitive process by which a person concludes that his/her emotional reaction proves something is true, regardless of the observed evidence. For example, even though a spouse has shown only devotion, a person using emotional reasoning might conclude, "I know my spouse is being unfaithful because I feel jealous." LINKThe chief method of disengaging from monkey mind is to shock the monkey. Monkey mind frequently evolves from an electrochemical circuit that not only determines repetitive scripted thought but, more importantly, scripted behaviors as well. Scripted behaviors become more associated with monkey mind chatter because it requires your body to be positioned so as to facilitate attention to the repetitive script. Most likely mental chatter occurs during times when the body is inactive and sedentary allowing monkey mind the freedom to pontificate upon your problems, faults, insecurities, fears, worries, etc, etc.
DEEPER/DOWN METHOD:
INHALE: Slowly repeat, "deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper" silently to self 4x (reminds you to take deep long breaths).
BRIEF PAUSE
EXHALE: Slowly repeat, "down, down, down, down" silently to self 4x (imagine yourself falling into a deep state of relaxation).
Perform this breathing exercise to break from monkey mind and note that the power of monkey mind will attempt to control focus, but even 5-10 minutes of this or any other mindfulness exercise will provide momentary breaks from the monkey mind catastrophic thought chain resulting in a cumulative reduction in anxiety/stress symptoms (monkey mind will seek to bring you back into it's web of chatter. Accept that as normal and resume the breathing)Meditation and breathing exercises have been shown to disengage monkey mind. However, until you can reduce the electrochemical current enough to sit still and engage meditative practices, other methods may be necessary. I help many individuals develop a unique repertoire of using the body to disengage from the monkey chatter and this includes writing alternative scripts to read when caught in monkey mind, specially designed song lyrics, specific rituals and dances, briefly engaged exercises, etc. The point is to momentarily break the from the catastrophic thought chain, after which re-engaging monkey mind (which will inevitably happen) becomes less intense due to the forced interruptions (this works especially well with OCD individuals and the breaking of obsessive/compulsive rituals).
Thoughts evoke emotion, which further fuels the thoughts, subsequently, intensifying the emotion, leading to more intense focus on the thoughts, on and on, round and round, ad nauseam, eventually monkey mind leaves earth for the outer cosmos of catastrophe, doom and destruction in a self replicating chain of intrusive thought-feeling-behavior. Seeking creative methods of disrupting neurally hard-wired habituated thought patterns reduces the electrochemical current which keeps these thought patterns arising and eventually lessens the intensity of the thought processes making it easier to control monkey mind chatter.
How Do We Break the Habit of Excessive Thinking
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