Meditation helps tame the mind's wild animal

Inside of each of us, there's a creature that's not too unlike the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay.

That lonely primate flits from place to place, searching and scrambling with each step as he outruns potential captors.

Yogis often talk about the "monkey mind," the part of our brain that quickly moves from thought to thought or emotion to emotion, just like our area's itinerant mystery monkey.

My mind's "monkey" is actually a hamster. Or, at least, that's how I visualize it. The creature that runs around in my head is a tan and white high-strung rodent named Happy Menace.

When I feel the stress welling up, or my thoughts rapidly firing, I see little Happy Menace ferociously picking up speed in his wheel, taking my mind on a wild ride with him. And when he has used up all of my mental energy, he sits back, exhausted on his wheel, with his tongue sticking out and one foot twitching.

"The idea of meditation is taming the wild animal in the mind, whether it's a monkey going 'me me me' or an angry elephant," says Gwen Hanner, a licensed mental health therapist and owner of Jai Dee yoga studio in Tampa.

Or a hamster.

If you're doing yoga properly and focusing on your breath, you're also practicing a moving meditation of sorts. A yoga practice can calm the monkey mind, as can other kinds of seated or walking meditation.

Real-life monkeys are mischievous. They'll steal anything they can get their hands on and then ferociously snarl when you try to get your stuff back. Our monkey minds are no different, Hanner says.

"In this case, it steals our peace of mind," Hanner says.

"Once we get calm, we can tell ourselves the truth. When we get distance from those thoughts, then we can observe those thoughts instead of those thoughts observing us."

So how do yoga and meditation help stop your monkey mind? By honing concentration skills.

When we synchronize our bodies and breath, we begin to focus on the subtler things happening - such as shifting our weight from one foot to the other or our mental patterns in certain poses.

But you don't have to be in the middle of an hour-and-a-half yoga class to tame your wild mind. You can do it anywhere, Hanner says, by taking one deep breath at a time.

Our bodies have triggers when we get stressed - our breathing gets shallower and we feel tension in our chests - but we can begin to relax once we start paying attention.

"When we're in meditation mind, once you observe yourself and get that distance, everything calms down," Hanner says.

Happy Menace knows when I'm consistent about my yoga practice - that's when he's chillin' in his little wheel and not moving at breakneck speed.

And having peace of mind is much better than running around in circles, chasing your tail.

Here are a few exercises to meditatively develop your concentration (from the book, "Yoga: Your Home Practice Companion," by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center):

Hear your breath. In a comfortable sitting position, begin to relax your muscles, focusing especially on the face, neck and shoulders. Broaden your chest and lift your rib cage, inhaling and exhaling deeply as you concentrate on the quality of your own breath.

Focus on a flower. Sit comfortably with your eyes closed and imagine a garden filled with flowers. Gradually, bring your attention to a single blossom as you visualize its color and explore its other qualities such as shape, texture and scent.

Listen to a sound. Listen to a prominent sound - such as a ticking clock or CD with ocean waves - without reacting to it. When your mind wanders, bring it back to that sound. How long can you concentrate on it?