Taming the Monkey Mind: A No-Nonsense Guide to Meditation and Mental Clarity

The weird thing about burnout...

Most people suffering from burnout are feverishly trying to save the very things making them sick in the first place. Whether it’s their job, their marriage, or their business, they’ll go through hell to keep things exactly how they think they should be.

Burnout, then, becomes the unwelcome messenger screaming at them that they’re wrecking their nervous systems and bodies in the process. And like any unwelcome guest who points out inconvenient truths, instead of kicking it out, we awkwardly smile and hope it leaves by itself.

But it doesn’t.

Even worse—stress and anxiety have become so ingrained in our daily lives that we barely notice them anymore. In some business circles, they’re even worn as a badge of honor. We've become so used to living in a constant state of mental alertness that we don’t realize the damage—until it hits us hard with panic attacks or deep burnout.

That pesky, pesky mind of ours...

Let’s be honest—if we had our way, we’d want our minds to stay calm, enlightened, and Zen 24/7. We’d love to handle work and home stress like a Zen ninja or ultra-monk.

But if that’s too much to ask, we’d gladly settle for a mind that just shuts the f*ck up once in a while—without jump-scaring us with worry and anxiety at every turn.

A busy mind is like a drunken toddler on its third sugar-infused energy drink—it wants to do everything except calm down.

And that’s where the marketing gurus step in.

Most meditation products give you more to do. They love selling 'short-span meditations'—quick 10-minute guided sessions, breath tracking, body scans. Preferably four times a day, with mood trackers and reminders that—you guessed it—only add to your stress.

(Side note: Not all of them suck. Some lay a solid foundation for stillness, and apps like Calm actually have some great ones.)

But here’s the real challenge:

A busy mind craves action. It wants a task. It needs to solve something.

The truth? You don’t need a 20-minute meditation task. You need more space throughout the day—moments of doing nothing.

Put this on your wall:
Most things to manage your mind are about subtraction, not addition.

How do we fix this mess?

As with anything—name your enemy.

Once you name something, you gain power over it. Luckily, in meditation circles, we already have a name: the "monkey mind." It behaves like an untrained, hyped-up monkey ready to steal the museum keys if you let it. (If you get the reference, we can definitely be friends.)

Not only do we have a name for it, but we also have a fireproof way to train it to behave and even bring us those keys when we need them.

The 3 steps to taming the monkey mind:

Think of an unruly toddler in the grocery store—you know, the one screaming on the floor. That’s your mind. But let’s get that little f*cker in line, shall we?
We will follow these 3 steps:

1. Give the mind something to do.
2. Teach it to return to the task when it wanders.
3. Observe it and understand its patterns.

Just like with kids, pets, and anything trainable—we start by setting boundaries and enforcing them in a healthy way. Once the boundary is set, we develop compassion and understanding.

Step 1: Creating space

We already instinctively give our minds something to do—scrolling the internet, binge-watching shows. It's like planting a toddler in front of the TV for those glorious 30 minutes of peace (that turn into 5 hours).

But here’s the kicker: scrolling keeps the mind quiet, but it doesn’t train it. And that bites us in the ass later.

Instead, let's take a step back and give our minds real space to breathe.

Meditation, at its core, isn’t something you do. It’s what happens when you stop feeding your mind junk.

As Naval Ravikant beautifully puts it:
Meditation is the art of doing nothing. If you’re doing something, you’re not in meditation.

So instead of creating a to-do list for meditation, let’s make a stop-doing list.

• Stop overcomplicating meditation.
• Put your phone away for a few hours each day.
• Avoid screens like they carry the plague.

That’s it.

Doing nothing gives your mind space to clear out its mental inbox—decluttering illusions, compulsive thoughts, and endless to-do lists. Piece by piece, you’ll reveal your true nature.

Step 2: Handling the storm

When you create space, expect resistance. Your mind will throw all sorts of junk your way. Think of it like feeding your toddler coffee and letting them loose in the house. Unfortunately this is exactly what we are going to do. I hope you've put a cover over the furniture...

But don't worry it is for the greater good.

Over time when you know how to play this game, your mind starts to restore itself. Like a body recovering from stiffness, it regains clarity and strength. And when that happens, just like with the body you’ll feel the urge to explore its potential. That's where this website comes in. We'll be diving into all the cool things we can do with our minds like The Spirit Animal Meditation

But let's continue.

Step 3: Observing the mind

The mind can only speak to us in three ways:

1. Images
2. Inner voices
3. Feelings and sensations

This huge!
Understanding this simplifies things so much. It makes it so that we only have three "behaviors" to deal with. Again; name your enemies!
On the website we will be exploring cool ways not only to deal with these three, but to leverage them for some awesome things.

But first let's gat that monkey mind under controll

Training begins now:

1. Set a timer and sit up straight.
2. Follow your breath.
3. Lose focus (it’s supposed to happen).
4. Notice you've lost focus.
5. Gently return to the breath.

This is our first boundary—teaching the mind that wandering is fine, but we can call it back anytime, like a well-trained dog.

Next, we practice noting.

Read that again!
Not NOTHING we practice NOTING without the H

Whenever you notice a thought or feeling, label it: "image," "sound," or "feeling." If you want to take it further, add "pleasant" or "unpleasant." This helps detach from the chaos without feeding it more energy.

What this does is that we learn to recognize the behavior of our mind and minimize our reaction to it.

For example when your kid is whining over a cookie we can explain it doesn't get a cookie because it will spoil its dinner etc etc.
We then step into the scenario (and make it worse because the subject changes to the yes or no on a cookie).
However if we tell the kid to stop the whining we stay out of the scenario and the kid knows that this behavior will 100% not get it a cookie, We deal with the root instead of the content
(I hope this makes sense, if not leave a comment below and I'll explain it in more detail)

Final thoughts:

Creating more silence, guiding your mind back when it wanders, and giving it space are the keys to freedom.

Want to explore more? Check out SenseiBas.com for cool things we can do with the mind like deep dives into augmented reality meditations, embodied shadow work, and martial arts mental models to play with.

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Until next time, cheers!