Monkey Mind and Life Purpose

[Rilles]

Hey everyone! I'm trying to build habits around my Life Purpose and its going pretty well. However I have a little problem, I'm an aspiring musician and whenever I start working I go into crazy monkey mind, this is fine during the session since I like to be creative and such but its really hard to shift my focus afterwards when I want to do something else. My monkey still goes on and on... (I really DO have no free will haha) I tried some "extra" meditating for 40 minutes and even that didn't help much, any advice? Thanks

Edited January 27, 2018 by Rilles
missed a word

[aurum]

@Rilles

Stilling the monkey mind can take years. Just keep up your regular meditation practice.

[Rilles]

Thanks! Yes and its an absolute must. Its a bit paradoxical; at the same time I love planning and being creative it can also be very distracting, for example if I want to spend time with someone but keep zoning out because my mind is going bonkers.

[The White Belt]

Like @aurum says. Extra meditation is good but it takes years to see good gains in slowing the monkey mind, so don't rely on that. I recommend before you move onto other work, take a few conscious breaths to bring your focus to your new task. Relax your muscles a little and do some -NEGOTIATION- seems ridiculous but I've found it very necessary. Set a timer and commit to that task for that time. 

25 blocks with 5 min breaks works very well for me. If you need to work for a long time, do 3, 25 minute timed blocks of focused work and then take a longer break to do whatever the monkey mind wants to do 

[Rilles]

Alright! I see! Sounds like its worth a shot. I also realized that putting the most passionate habit at the end of the day might be fruitful, then the monkey interfering wouldnt be as big of a deal since I wouldn't have to shift.

[Nahm]

@Rilles The answer is right in front of you perhaps. From your pic, I presume you play guitar. Do you sing?   Playing & singing, for me at least, is a perfect mix of occupied body & brain, and thus freeing the mind, ‘disappearing’. It should be thought of as a practice in my book. 

[Rilles]

@Nahm Oh yes! I think thats why its just so hard to get guitarists attention when they play, they're in another realm...

Yeah, I play guitar, produce and sing to the best of my ability.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Rilles
Added more information

[Nahm]

@Rilles Awesome.  Doing the stomach breathing, and the stomach / diaphragm singing?

[Rilles]

@NahmI'm practicting it as best as I can but I'm more inclined towards the composition and writing part for the moment. I'm still not decided on how to express myself vocally, maybe I'll do singing...or spoken word...or Sprechgesang.

[Elisabeth]

I'm not sure I understand. Is it that you're so passionate about composition that you get into this creative state and then you have all these ideas about your art afterwards? Or is it just general "monkey mind"? 

If the first, maybe you need some kind of notebook where you can just drop your ideas real quick even if your session is "over", so that you can keep them but not focus on them longer than necessary at the moment. 

Also, maybe think about how long of a composing session you really need to do your best work. I can imagine some work is born over several days of intense focus with leaving aside pretty much everything else - had glimpses of this state with math, though not very often. 

[Rilles]

@Elisabeth

I get into a state where I'm creative and then I get a bit hyperactive yes. I just wondered if theres any way to turn a roaring rapid into a streaming brook if that makes sense. It feels a bit neurotic to not be able to calm myself down, even though I love it.

[Elisabeth]

14 minutes ago, Rilles said:

@Elisabeth

I get into a state where I'm creative and then I get a bit hyperactive yes. I just wondered if theres any way to turn a roaring rapid into a streaming brook if that makes sense. It feels a bit neurotic to not be able to calm myself down, even though I love it.

Have you tried physical activity instead of meditation? Go do a few pushups to get the excess energy out of your system, then try to concentrate? 

[BjarkeT]

Sometimes it can help to put pressure on your self to really focusing on just one thing for example by creating a deadline that's drastically shorter than your usual deadline  other wise i have found it usefull to just keep pratice being focused without distractions  

Edited January 29, 2018 by BjarkeT

[Rilles]

I've received many great ideas from you guys just as expected so thank you!I'll try to implement as many as I can and I realize more and more that creating habits have to happen by trial and error, personally speaking. 

[Ayilton]

Don't focus too much on the negatives... Always remember the good stuff you did in that day  ! It can help 

Become aware of the magic of life  , everything just happens