Monkey Mind on the Digital Age

Have you ever heard of the term Monkey Mind?

Imagine a great jungle, full of incredible flowers, plants and trees, and in this great scene there is a little monkey anxious to discover the world that surrounds him, and he keeps jumping and running from one place to another, almost uncontrollably, trapped by al that is shown before him.

Sound familiar?

Let's make a little analogy with our life. Obviously, we are that little monkey, and the incredible jungle represents the temptations that are presented to us in our lives. And although these concepts can apply to more than one situation in our daily lives, today we are going to talk specifically about our mind.

The concept "Monkey Mind" describes this same situation, but it is the mind that is tempted to go after every thought that appears before us, losing the ability to concentrate or focus in the present moment.

The same Eckhart Tolle explained, in his book "A New Earth", when he tells us about his first flash of consciousness:

Eckhart was on his way to college when he saw a woman who was talking non-stop, looking like she was having a conversation with herself.

When he saw her, he thought that she just seemed insane, and was surprised when he realized that she was a professor at the same university.

In the midst of his prosecution against her, he finally realized that he was doing exactly the same as that woman... She was thinking aloud, he was thinking in her mind. If she was crazy, then he was too.

In the story, Eckhart says that in reality all people are trapped (to a greater or lesser extent) in their uncontrollable thoughts.

Another excellent example of the Monkey Mind occurs on the internet. Has it ever happened to you to enter thinking about looking for something in particular, and an hour later to realize that you are looking at memes or videos of kittens?

Our mind and the internet work in the same way, through connection networks. Always one thing brings another.

The challenge is to be able to find ourselves, most of our time, in consciousness.

For this, I am going to share some exercises to deal with it:

The first is Eckhart Tolle's:

The best way to get out of this situation of involuntary and compulsive thoughts is by becoming aware of what is happening. That is, every time I realize that I lost myself in a network of thoughts, I recognize it and try to return to my main objective.

By becoming aware each time this happens to us, we can (step by step) begin to avoid it.

The second is that of Henrik Edberg:

We have a series of activities that we can carry out to stay focused on the present moment, in the here and now, on the activity we are doing:

• Always do one thing at a time. Multitasking is very cool, but it makes us lose focus.
  
  
• I did everything a little slower. Let's be aware of every little step we take.
  
  
• I repeated internally what you are doing: "Now I'm brushing my teeth." To avoid our mind being anywhere else.
  
  
• Don't start the morning watching the news or social media. Let's take care of what we expose ourselves to.
  
  
• Find a phrase that helps you return to this present moment.

"Don't dwell in the past, don't dream about the future, focus your mind on the present moment." ~ Buddha

The third is my advice, with the focus on what we can do as designers:

• Visual impact. It is essential that our design has enough presence so that the person decides to look or read what we want to convey, and that is achieved through amazing designs.
  
  
• Immediate understanding. This is where we use all our skills so that at a glance the person already knows what we are trying to say. Some recommended resources are typographic variables, hierarchies, and the use of images or illustrations.
  
  
• Coherent and cohesive message. It is super important to have a consistent message throughout our communication piece, it is not enough to say it just once.
  
  
• Rhythm and visual pause. Let us always give the place where people can rest without the need to go out or stop seeing our design, at this point we can focus on the density of information that we handle, but also the use and design of blank spaces.

If we want to find ourselves more relaxed, understanding and ready for life, we will be ready to transmit (through our designs) that same temperance and philosophy, because everything we learn to apply to ourselves will be something that we can deliver to others.

Let's recover our Human Nature.

Thank you read and reflect.

~ Agustín Sciotti.