I have been on my own for five days.

It’s interesting to notice how many thoughts I have. My monkey mind must normally get drowned out by conversations with others, TV, radio, reading, work and other activities. While I have been alone, I’ve tried not to drown out the chatter too much. I have listened to my monkey mind.

At the risk of sounding like I have some sort of personality disorder, I will try to explain how my brain has been operating. It turns out my monkey mind is okay except when she gets stressed – then she’s a nightmare. One of the things she worries about most is upsetting other people; she also worries about spending too much money, losing the keys and making a fool of herself. But when I listen to this voice in my head, it seems to calm down. It’s as if my monkey mind is beginning to trust that I will do my best for us and can take care of us. This is a real journey of discovery for me.

I have realised that when my busy monkey mind gets stressed and panicky, I can reassure her. As a result, she seems less anxious and less critical. She has’t called me stupid for more than a day.

Of course not everyone’s monkey mind is as fearful as mine, but the ego is generally critical of either ourselves or others. In my experience, there’s no point in trying to ignore the ego entirely or block it out by watching TV, or listening to music, it is part of us and it’s there for a reason. Sometimes the monkey mind needs to be listened to without judgement. Listen to its fears, perhaps even write them down. This gets them out of your head and on to paper where they can be looked at objectively and dealt with. In this way you can unite the parts of your mind so that together they can start to build a more peaceful future.