Spirituality on the Go with Brian Plachta

Episode 13: Taming the Monkey Mind: A Simple Guide to Meditation

Brian Plachta

Send me a text. What spoke to you in this episode?

Feeling overwhelmed by life's nonstop demands?  Does your mind race from one thought to the next? 

In this episode of Spirituality on the Go, we explore the power of meditation—a simple yet transformative practice that calms the monkey mind, restores inner peace, and deepens your connection with God. 

Join me as we dive into the "three-legged stool" method, a practical tool to bring balance to your mind, body, and spirit. 

Ready to step out of the chaos and into stillness? Tune in now!

Click this link to download the Free Meditation Practice Jump-Starter:

https://www.findingflowlife.com/meditationjumpstarter

Get into the Divine Flow by purchasing your copy of Finding Flow: Spiritual Practices to Reclaim Inner Peace, Balance, and Wholeness.

Click the link to purchase on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4jDXfla

Brian Plachta:

Welcome to Spirituality on the Go, the podcast where you can experience simple, practical tools to put into your spiritual toolbox so you can find more inner peace, connect with God's divine spirit, the divine flow, and experience purpose and more joy even in life's busy moments. Today we're exploring a question at the heart of the spiritual journey: why meditate? Let's face it, our minds are constantly racing. It's a common problem for all of us. Our thoughts tumble over each other, worries pile up, and our days are packed with our to-do lists from morning to night. Even when we find moments of quiet, our inner dialogue, the monkey mind rarely stops. We live in a world that values productivity over presence, action over stillness. But this endless motion comes at a cost: mental fatigue, physical tension and a sense of disconnection from our deeper selves and from God. We often feel like we're running on empty searching for peace, but unable to find it in the noise and distractions of daily life. The solution to this common problem that we all experience is to enter the silence, enter into a meditation practice. Meditation invites us to step out of the rat race cycle, if only for a few minutes each day to cultivate stillness. It's a simple, yet powerful practice of being rather than doing. It creates an inner sanctuary where we can reconnect with ourselves and God, the divine. Jesus himself often withdrew to quiet places to pray, to seek guidance from the Father. The mystics and sages across traditions, all traditions, long taught that silence is the gateway to wisdom, healing, and connection with the divine flow. By taking time to be still, we allow our minds to settle, our bodies to relax and our spirits to open to something greater than our simple selves. We move from chaos to clarity, from stress to serenity. Meditation isn't just a spiritual practice, it's a holistic approach to wellbeing that impact, in a healthy way, our mind, body, and our spirits. With respect to the mind, meditation reduces stress, improves our focus and cultivates inner peace. It rewires the neurons in our brain actually increasing the gray matter in areas of the brain that are linked to memory, learning, and regulating our emotions. Meditation creates space between our thoughts, so we're less reactive and more present, more able to respond with love. In connection with our body, meditation lowers our blood pressure. It strengthens our immune system. It releases calming endorphins from the brain that promotes wellbeing throughout our whole body. Meditation improves our sleep. It reduces inflammation and supports overall physical health and wellbeing. In connection with our spirits, in silence, through meditation, we create an inner space to listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit, to become aware of the divine presence within us and around us. We tune into the deep well of God's love, wisdom and guidance that's always available to us. We just need to be still and listen. Meditation deepens our connection to God and to our true selves, allowing us to listen rather than just speak or talk in prayer. There's a number of ways that we can quiet our minds when we sit to meditate. There's a ton of practices we can use that allow us to train our minds to be a little quieter during our meditation practice. The good news is that our minds can only think one thought at a time. So if we use a spiritual tool to allow our brains to focus on something, to give us a little more concentration, what happens is the mind sinks into the heart. And we open our spirits to listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit. One of my favorite meditation practices when my monkey mind is ooking at me is what I call the three legged stool. Let's take just a few moments if you'd like to experience the stillness to enter into a meditation using this simple three-part meditation technique. You might think of it like a three-legged stool that brings balance to your mind, body, and spirit. So take a moment if you could, to find a safe place to sit in the quiet for a few moments as we enter into the three-legged stool method of meditating and quieting our monkey minds. As we begin find a place to sit comfortably or lay down whatever you're most comfortable with. Take a few deep breaths to just relax and enter into this moment. Perhaps close your eyes and focus inward on what's going on inside of you. Release any tension in your body. And just be here in this present moment. As you sit or lay in this moment of inner peace, bring a gentle smile to your face. Just gently turn your lips upward in a gentle, quiet smile, and feel the shift in your body as your brain releases calming endorphins as a result of that smile, a calming presence that flows through your body because the smile signals to your nervous system that you're safe and at peace. So for a moment, just experience how a gentle smile releases those calming endorphins from your brain flowing through your body. Next, as you sit there with your smile, allow yourself to create a prayer mantra. Silently repeat a simple phrase to yourself like,"may I be still or"may I be at peace." Whatever it is you need in this moment, peace, balance, clarity, patience, just let that virtue be part of your prayer mantra as you repeat to yourself softly:"may I be..." whatever it is you need in this moment. Say the words gently in your mind, letting the words settle like ripples on a pond. And if your thoughts wander, which they're often meant to do, simply return to your prayer banter. May I be still. May I be at peace? May I experience God's divine love and embrace whatever it is you want to offer yourself in this moment as a loving kindness mantra, your prayer mantra. Next shift your awareness to your body. If your prayer mantra was, may I be still, then whatever it is, notice what stillness feels like within your body. Or if your prayer mantra was, may I feel God's divine love, notice whatever it is, whatever virtue you offered yourself as a prayer mantra, what does it feel like in your body? It might be a gentle warmth that flows throughout your body. You might sense a feeling of being grounded in your feet, or it could be a spaciousness in your chest. It also might be just a gentle flow of your breath moving in and through the inside of your lungs and flowing through your whole body. Whatever it is you notice in your body, just experience the felt sense of what it feels like; let that virtue flow in and through your body here and now. As you sit in the quiet, just remember that this stillness you can come back to it anytime you like. Just simply by following the three steps of the three legged stool: bringing a smile to your face, offering yourself a prayer mantra, a loving kindness mantra of whatever it is you need in the moment, and then noticing the felt sense of whatever virtue you offered yourself within your body. When you're ready, I invite you to gently open your eyes carrying this sense of stillness, this sense of just being present to yourself in this moment, the felt sense within your body of what you experienced noticing you can carry this into the rest of your day and return to that experience of stillness as often as you need to allow yourself to pause. Remember that meditation is a journey, not a destination. So here are a few ways that you can deepen your meditation practice. First, start small. Even five minutes a day can make a difference in your life. And as time allows and as you feel moved, gradually increase your practice each day to as long as you need to feel comfortable to feel grounded. It's helpful if you establish a regular time for each day to sit in the quiet so that your body, your mind, and your spirit get used to the fact that this is your time to enter into the quiet. It's also helpful to create a sacred space within your home or whatever it is that's helpful for you. A quiet corner for meditation. Maybe put a cushion, a candle or sacred objects in that sacred space to really make it your prayer space, your quiet corner in the world. Also use a guided meditation if silence feels overwhelming. You can listen to this or a number of other guided meditations on my YouTube page to help direct your focus. You can go to Brian Plachta on my YouTube page. If it's helpful, use the three-legged stool as a way to center yourself. You could also focus on your breath as a way to quiet the monkey mind. Our breath is the spirit of God that the Creator blew into your lungs when you took your first breath. And every breath you take until your last one is the Holy Spirit breathing life in and through you. So in addition to the three legged stool practice, you can try focusing on your breath to enhance your meditation, calming the nervous system, and anchoring you in the present moment. Finally, be gentle with yourself. Some days meditation will be easier than others. The goal is not perfection. There's nowhere to go. It's just about showing up and being present in the quiet moments, allowing whatever it is that apears to just be in the space that you need in the quiet. In closing, if you already have a meditation practice, I am encourage you to keep going. Trust that each moment of stillness is reshaping you from the inside out. If you're new to meditation or have fallen out of your practice, you can start fresh today. Just take 5 to 20 minutes a day to transform your mind, body, and spirit. To help you begin, I invite you to download my free Meditation Jumpstarter on my website. It offers simple tips to create your own meditation space and develop a practice that fits your life. The website link is at the bottom of this podcast. Finally, thanks for joining me on this podcast of Spirituality on the Go. Until next time, may you be still, may you be present, and may you rest in the divine flow of the Spirit's loving embrace. Namaste.

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