The Monkey Mind Workout for Uncertainty by Jennifer Shannon

Author:Jennifer Shannon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2021-12-02T23:50:04+00:00

Are you a clock checker? Do you worry about arriving later than you planned to or were expected to? Would you like to be more open, relaxed, and present in the moment, even if you are uncertain if you are running on schedule?

11.

Get Off the Clock

Pick an hour of your day today during which you will not check the time. It could be your lunch hour or any sixty-­minute period of the day where knowing the exact time is not essential for your job or well-being. This time blackout means you don’t check your cell phone or computer clocks, your car clock, or wall clocks at work or home. It is fine to set a timer for the period you will be off the clock so that you know when your practice is over.

Does an hour without a clock check sound too challenging? Then do it for thirty minutes. Or if an hour seems too easy for you, try it for the whole morning or afternoon. Wherever your need-to-know pain threshold is, that’s where you want to be working that welcoming muscle.

When we choose not to check the clock, we can expect to feel uneasy. To the monkey mind, not knowing whether we are on schedule is dangerous. We’re going to be anxious that we are falling behind and don’t have time to finish what we’re doing. We’ll feel afraid that we might be late for our next obligation. If we are relaxing and off the clock, we may feel guilty and question whether we are acting responsibly. We are also likely to feel impatient, wanting the allotted hour to be up so we can return to our regularly scheduled program! All these emotions will prompt a strong urge to check the time.

But as we have learned, the act of checking the clock confirms the mind-set that I must be certain that I am on schedule or else I cannot relax. The more we check the clock, the more we feel the urge to check. With our attention on the time, we can’t fully experience what we’re seeing, hearing, and feeling in the moment.

To get the full benefits of this exercise, we will welcome the fight-or-flight sensations that tell us to check, doing nothing in response except breathe. Instead of resisting these negative emotions, we’ll open space in our bodies around them and give them plenty of room to play themselves out. To facilitate this process, we’ll engage our new expansive mind-set: I can learn to relax without knowing I am on schedule. And don’t forget to move your wristband and praise yourself when you resist the urge, remind yourself of your expansive mind-set, and breathe into the emotions and sensations in your body!

With enough off-the-clock practice, the agenda-driven monkey mind can be tamed. Without our unconscious need to adhere to a schedule, we can be more flexible, spontaneous, and creative. Going off the clock frees us to be present, and no matter what time it is, the present moment is all we have.

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