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 Balancing mind and body – the monkey and the elephant
But why do it? It goes against everything we are taught is right and good: to be busy and to keep achieving. In America now, it is even considered a weakness to be still. Well, we have forgotten how difficult it was to learn how to walk. And, in our culture, we have no training at all in how to “walk” emotionally, let alone how to “run”. And so we plough on, driving ourselves harder and faster, without having any idea of how our emotions work, or how to look after ourselves emotionally, or even that we need to Physical balance Swimmers and runners in particular shake and move their bodies to warm and loosen up before a race, then stabilise and position themselves on the blocks. If they are even slightly off-balance when they start, they will progressively lose their balance as they move. By the time they regain their balance, assuming that they do, they will have lost the race anyway. Emotional and mental balance Much of our thinking is inefficient and unproductive, and this has profound implications, particularly in the workplace. Often when people are stressed or tired at work they push on, overriding the needs of their body. When you push hard, your work ceases to flow and, although you don’t realise it, your thinking can become inefficient and the work often needs to be redone. The monkey and the elephant The monkey has a wonderful view––it can see clearly where it is going and where it has come from. It jumps around, grabbing at whatever it can. It doesn’t even know the elephant exists, let alone that it is riding the elephant’s back. The elephant is our body – our Emotions and Instincts. Our instincts pre-date human history, and our emotions developed around 50.000,000 years ago. Our instincts and emotions also form the subconscious part of our brain. The elephant has no awareness of the monkey either. It is only concerned with what is immediately in front of it and its immediate needs for survival, responding to its deep-seated instincts. It simply goes where it has been conditioned to go. While the monkey is small and quick, the elephant is large and slow. The monkey doesn’t realise it is not deciding where it is going––it’s literally being taken for a ride by the elephant. Because it can see, it has the illusion of making decisions, but it can’t get anywhere without the elephant. In fact, because the elephant carries the monkey, the monkey goes where the elephant goes. However, the elephant has nothing like the view of the monkey. It cannot plan or see the past and future. It is slow and powerful and motivated by its instincts. This image demonstrates that the monkey is totally dependent on the elephant. The elephant could survive without the monkey, but the monkey is literally riding on the elephant’s back. This explains why neat, well-planned decisions often have little relationship with what happens on the ground. What does meditation do? A young elite cricketer came to me to learn meditation because, as he said, he had trained his body and now he knew he had to train his mind. After learning to meditate he achieved his first 100 runs, and was delighted. Also, by knowing how to balance your mind and emotions you can maintain them in good health. Our mental and emotional health can also have a profound effect on our physical health. Dr Andrew Weill in his book Spontaneous Healing, says that all illnesses have an element of stress playing in. We have much more control over our emotional and mental health than we realise, and learning how to use meditation can save us from many of the problems that have become endemic and which are totally preventable. The monkey, with its clear view can gather information and plan ahead. The elephant decides where the action is, but can’t see into the future. The monkey can see the best place to go but the elephant has to take them there. Related pages
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meditation courses
Every time you meditate you bring yourself to your natural state of balance – physically, emotionally and mentally. It’s simple to learn and easy to do. It’s also a very blissful thing to do, and at Lifeflow we also show you how to recognise when you are in this state of balance
