How to Stop the ‘Monkey Mind’ Phenomenon

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Posted on January 23, 2019 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

You’ve heard of the monkey mind, right?

It’s the Buddhist term meaning a restless; unsettled; confused; inconstant; indecisive and somewhat uncontrollable state of mind. It’s when the ego thinks it’s in control and uses the mind (thoughts) as its conduit — a state most of us have found ourselves in from time to time (or, for some, all the time).

Monkey Business

Unfortunately, these ‘thoughts’ think they run the show (from the mind, which is running ape-shit — excuse the phrase but I had to). This impish-rogue, primate mind can only take you so far and no further. That’s why you can reach a stalemate in your life if you’re blocked from your higher states as the egoic mind is only a shadow of the higher mind — a pale and distorted reflection of sorts.

My penny just dropped about how I’ve been trying to manifest according to my unconscious (associated with beliefs), subconscious (associated with emotions) limiting beliefs.

Let me explain:

I am more convinced than ever that reality is an illusion — a playground for our divine, little souls to run amok. Read related article: The Holographic Universe and The Illusion of Separation
The only thing that is ‘real’ per se is our existence or oversoul/individual soul/higher self. Think of the SIMS game — you, the oversoul, are playing in virtual reality creating families, communities and playing with the concept of individuation, freedom of choice and ‘life’.
Now this ‘higher mind’ is the one with the overview (not the monkey mind or egoic mind — it can’t see further than your nose). Think of the higher self as the one standing on top of a skyscraper looking out on the city below — it can see all the streets and happenings taking place. Think of you, the part of the self in physical matter, as being on the ground — you’re level of perception is looking down an avenue and only seeing what is directly before you. You are not getting the birds eye view of the higher self up there gazing upon all possibilities below. Say for example (and this is going to be a very primitive example but you’ll get the idea): you want a coffee. The monkey mind can smell coffee brewing but takes you on a wild goose chase all over the city thinking it can pin point the location. If you had asked the higher self, it could have told you to take a right and a left and…Starbucks. Headquarters (what I like to call the higher mind) can see the quickest route while monkey mind is still swinging from branch to branch.
Let go of the monkey mind version of how you want your life to transpire and let in the guidance of the higher mind. The egoic mind can only create from past events. It has no idea of future infinite possibilities because it hasn’t been played out across the minds screen yet. That is why when you ask for something you shouldn’t try to conceive of how you’re going to get it — your job is only the asking or the ‘vision’ of what you want not how you’re going to manifest it. Only the higher mind can see the possibilities laid out before you. Have you ever manifested something by letting go of the control aspect? Did you find that you could never have dreamed it possible to show up in the way it did and were fascinated at all the signs and synchronicities (read related article: Why Synchronicity Can Change Your Life) that led you to said manifestation? That’s because your higher self has the overview and not the ego mind.
When you let go and tap into your intuition, cultivating a bond between physical mind and higher mind, you will allow infinite possibilities and realities to flow through you without the resistance and persistence of the monkey mind getting in the way. The ego thinks it knows everything but it doesn’t, it is only necessary to keep you in physicality (as far as I can tell). This means that we need the ego to keep us on earth or we’d probably want to go back ‘home’ — you get my drift, right?
So, let the higher mind pick out the destination (it knows what you came here to do, so let it do its job), you need to be open to receive the package via the physical mind and then interpret it through the physical experience. It’s really quite simple — law of least effort type stuff, savvy?

I recently applied this monkey mind vs. higher mind stuff to one of my life situations and had to laugh. I was trying to conceive the situation as ‘thus’ (via my chimp noodle) when the situation was ‘this’ (something completely different and couldn’t have possibly conceived through the ego mind until I let HQ speak up). Suffice it to say, I was WAY off course but things slipped into understanding when I got out of my own way.

So, how do you get out of the ego mind and step into the higher mind?

Easy! Have fun…lot’s of it!

The easiest way to a higher vibration (because that is where all the good shit is happening, my friend) is through joy, excitement, love and all the other delicious higher vibrational feelings. I wrote an article recently about tapping into that sweet spot, you can read it here: Find Out How to Tune Into Your Personal Higher Vibration

When you’re in a higher vibe, your soul can easily communicate ideas and thought packages to you.

Enough said, go out and do!

The art used in this article is called ‘Cosmic Dementia’ and was part of my solo exhibition called ’42’ (you can download the FREE book of art and poems HERE).

Click on the picture of the painting to your right to take you to my print store. The original painting is sold.

‘Cosmic Dementia’ by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Acrylic and Mixed Media on Boxed Canvas

36″ x 10″ x 1.5″

$690 (SOLD)

Other articles you may enjoy:

How to Redesign Yourself From the Cellular Level and Beyond!

How You Can Beat the Matrix

7 Things Every Teenager Should Know About Life

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com. Get stuck into finding your passion, purpose and joy by downloading some of those books gratis when you click HERE.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality. You can follow Cherie on Facebook(The Art of Empowerment — for article updates). She has an official art Facebook page (Cherie Roe Dirksen – for new art updates). You can also check out her Facebook band page at Templeton Universe.

Self-Empowerment Books by Cherie Roe Dirksen:

Got Blocks? This May Be Why…

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

Let’s talk about blockages — no not the physical kind (although…there is something later on about the physical manifestation). I’m talking about energetic flow kind of blocks — we all hit them at some point.

You’re cruising through life manifesting like a pro and then…voila! You hit a wall. The wall seems insurmountable — there’s no door, window, Easter egg or anything to point you in the direction of getting over this newfound hurdle, in fact the wall just seems to solidify. Your car has derailed and you are left feeling deflated and confused. Where did you go wrong?

I can only speak from personal experience, so here’s my take on it:

I’m going to be talking about hitting a ‘control’ blockage here. There are many speed-bumps on our path to awakening to our true power that pop up but the one I hit most often (and it could be through my anal Virgoic nature) is control. Yip, I’ve got control issues (join the queue).

Control is not a bad thing — it’s a grand discipline in most cases. However, to try and control everything in ones life is a dead-sure way to create a clog in that drain. Nothing blocks the flow of Universal abundant energy than your ego’s need to control every circumstance.

So, here’s my Einstein-esque formula: control=blockage.

Simple. But boy, do I have to keep on reminding myself of this.

The moment I try to manipulate and figure out my every move of how I’m going to get from point A to point B, I seize up. And not meaning to be graphic but I’m going to say it anyway…yes, I even have physical blockages. Constipation is a sure sign that you’re rigidly holding onto something.

As the Disney song states, ‘let it go‘. And make sure you’re cupboards are well stocked with toilet tissue.

Your HQ (higher self) knows how to get you what you want if it’s what your soul truly wants, so chill. If it doesn’t happen the way you wanted it to, chill. If it doesn’t happen at all, it wasn’t for you — know that you have potentially dodged a bullet, chill. Hakuna Matata.

Other articles you may enjoy:

Rekindling the Human Spirit with Lemons

The Truth About Being All Stirred Up

Don’t Let Control Issues Ruin Your Life

How to Play the Game

Rekindling the Human Spirit with Lemons

You can now hear Cherie Roe Dirksen on Big Indie Giant radio as she reads out select articles on air.

She also gives weekly news headline updates taken directly from the Conscious Life News site, so be sure to tune in.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author/columnist/radio presenter, multi-media artist and musician from South Africa.

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.

This article (Got Blocks? This May Be Why…) was originally written for and published by Conscious Life News and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author Cherie Roe Dirksen and ConsciousLifeNews.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this Copyright/Creative Commons.</

The Greatest Task That Lies Before the Awakened Human Being

Posted on April 7, 2016 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“The law of attraction is infallible, and every single person is getting what they are asking for, even though most of the time each person is not aware that they are asking for what they don’t want. There is such absolute beauty in the law, which is so responsive and giving in every single moment so that we can experience our lives.

The law never changes — we must learn how to live in harmony with the law. That is the greatest task for every single human being.”

~ Rhonda Byrne (The Secret Daily Teachings)

You got to love how the ‘law’ works, right? No? Are you pulling your hair out at some of the things you’re manifesting?

Join the club!

Upside Down and Inside Out

Yesterday I was putting my video blog together. It’s usually a wee bit of a task and I’m prepared for that. I spent hours writing the forward blog and then got to editing and splicing the footage I’d filmed the day before.

For some strange reason, the footage came out sideways. No big deal as you can rotate it in the movie editor. My eyebrow raised. Was there some sort of hidden message in this for me today? (some of you may understand this form of questioning every nuance that is happening to you as some sort of inner reflection trying to out itself. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about — just put it down to certain madness).

I pieced the whole thing together and exported the video for YouTube. Uh…the whole thing was totally out of sync.

I went back to my editing dashboard — everything there was in total sync. Did the whole thing again. Still out of sync. I did it 3 times to no avail. My blood was boiling as I’m about to go on a trip today until Sunday and I simply don’t have time for these games.

I decided to give it a break and start my newsletter which was also due out yesterday. Another mammoth task that I don’t particularly look forward to (perhaps a clue?).

After hours of working on this, it was time to hit the send button. But what was this? My whole newsletter was suddenly out of alignment. There were boxes and sidebars in erroneous places! Oh lord!

Time to Stop, Drop and Reassess

Okay, at this point I was past mild panic and was heading straight for losing it completely. My husband reminded me to ‘take a knee’ before I blew a fuse. So I went to lie down to try and quiet the old noggin.

As I was looking up at the ceiling trying to do my breathing exercises (through flared and excited nostrils, I might add!), it hit me.

I was in a hurry — I was attracting anxiety
I was putting unnecessary duress on myself by demanding I complete these tasks today — attracting more stress and anxiety

Well, problem solved (almost). I was putting out general chaos and that’s what I was getting. Everything was topsy turvy thanks to me and my energy.

I had to stop and calm down before understanding what and why I was attracting mischief into my day. When I came to peace with my odd manifestations, I felt more in flow and in harmony with my projections. I accepted them and began to change the energy and move on.

After my epiphany, I sat down with my diary. I still had a couple of hours this morning to write a new blog (*a-hem*…this one), so, I reassigned the task and set my alarm to go off an hour early.

I already felt better. I had to still pack and get things ready for my trip but I did that with ease.

A Small Titbit About Synchronicity

I’m going to end this off by saying that the quote I started with came to me through sheer synchronicity.

I was pondering, whilst packing, what I should write the ‘new’ blog about. I thought that maybe I should be honest and write about my little meltdown (but I thought perhaps my fiasco had the potential to bore you to tears).

I strode over to my bookshelf and ‘The Secret Daily Teachings’ lurched out at me. I picked it up and randomly opened it at the quote at the top of this article.

After reading it I started to chuckle. It was pretty much what happened to me during the course of the day and it looked like my meltdown was the very thing I needed to share with all of you upon this very morn.

I’d like to think that there must be someone out there who needed to hear this. If not, you’ve just wasted a good few minutes reading about superfluous misadventure.

Original article written by Cherie Roe Dirksen for Conscious Life News

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Posted on March 4, 2015 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

“Sci-fi has never really been my bag. But I do believe in a lot of weird things these days, such as synchronicity. Quantum physics suggests it’s possible, so why not?” — John Cleese

We all hit junctions — those dreaded forks in the road — at certain epochs of our lives. The thing that frightens us the most is ‘are we making the right choice?’ when we embark on any new venture or life altering choice.

I’m going to discuss how to navigate confidently and without doubt (and without a map — just using your internal GPS) those important life decisions in 3 easy steps. But first let’s look at why we don’t need maps, books, guru’s or anything else outside ourselves to soldier on in this blossoming age of Aquarius.

What is Heart-Centered Living Really About?

The pivotal ethos to living in this new era or paradigm is to be focused on heart-guidance.

What is heart-guidance?

It’s not some wishy-washy glitter banter that requires you to don a floral bandana, fish out the bell bottoms and dance around a campfire singing ‘Kumbaya’ — it’s a serious new way of approaching our inner strength, power and ability to tap into the essence of all that is.

In a nutshell, it’s the vital self empowerment tool.

Think of heart-centered living as trusting your intuition — the superconscious universal mind. It’s the Divine Soup that makes up existence and simmers with creative potential.

External Crutches Be Gone!

When we follow our thinking alone, we tend to seek external help. We labour under the delusion that we are not good enough and that there must be someone out there who knows more than we do, so we seek the knowledge for progress outside of ourselves.

Fat lot of good that’s done us so far, right?

It’s not that some people or information can’t help us, it’s the principle that any external help is merely an aid not a solution. Going inside is inevitably the only way. We are creatures of ingrained habit and following a path that we can only see a foot ahead is no easy feat — that is one of the reasons why we slip back into old ways of doing things that feel safe.

However, there is no real safety in repetitive behavior that doesn’t lead to necessary growth.

When we trust our instincts, no matter how ‘unplannned’ (meaning that we have no step-by-step plan on how to get there), we embark on a journey that is intuitive and that is why your synchronicity feelers need to be out there tracking the waves of the universe (I’ll discuss more about synchronicity below).

When you first approach the heart (what you feel is right) and marry that with the head (the course of action to take) you are using heart-centered guidance.

So, it’s not so hippy after all, eh? It’s about bringing the two into balance.

You’re going to be out of whack if you use only your head or only your heart. It’s the old Yin and Yang aspect of self again. You can’t lean too heavy on either side — you need to find that Goldilocks zone to get the balance right.

Let’s get to the 3 steps of using that inner GPS system:

Intuition — This is going with your gut instinct or listening to your heart. You know what makes you happy and what doesn’t. Most of us run on auto-pilot and let the subconscious mind take over which usually leads us to repetitive behavior and not expansive creation. Using the intuition or heart center will help you to tap into the superconscious mind (read more about the superconscious and subconscious mind HERE).
Synchronicity — Trust in those meaningful encounters and situations, they are not mere ‘coincidences’ , they are actually pointers from spirit that guide us to the right path. If you have no idea what synchronicity is, then I strongly urge you to read more about it HERE — it could change your life and way of thinking. We are made of energy and exude a certain frequency or vibration with our emotions — especially the highly charged variety. When we send out a vibration into the universe it is matched and then certain markers are sent back to us as precursors to the frequency we are trying to manifest. If we ignore those markers, we could end up ignoring the trail that is lighting up for us to follow. This is why synchronicity is vital to take note of.
Flow — We’ve got to keep making sure that we are surrendering to the universal flow. If we struggle against what is and try to paddle furiously against the stream of the present moment, life becomes a floundering fight. If we give in and stop resisting, we let the current take us with grace and ease to our destination. How do you slip into this flow? Be at peace with yourself and your NOW moment. Trust that you are heading in the direction of your greater good and keep aligning your self to joy and being in touch with spirit. Get plenty of rest, meditate and try to feel that everything is in Divine Order. What you inject (through feeling and intent) into the present is what you will reap in your future NOW moment.

Happy Trail Blazing!

Original article written by Cherie Roe Dirksen for Conscious Life News — click HERE to see why nearly 400 000 readers follow them daily

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Posted on November 6, 2013 by Cherie Roe Dirksen

How to use a Little Spiritual Alchemy

Do you sometimes feel that you are manifesting the good along with the bad? The good manifestations are fantastic but what do you do when you have created a not-so-desirable situation?

The best thing to do is to start to see your potential problems in a new light — what can they teach you?

Once you figure out why they are there and what your lesson is you can turn them around. Does it work? Hell yes!

Here’s some helpful advice:

Accept — when life throws a curve-ball (or 3 or 4 or 12 or whatever your circumstance has chucked at you recently), you need to give yourself some time and space to absorb. To give your acceptance to what cannot change because resisting it will fuel its growth or allow more negativity to enter your slipstream. Acceptance can even transmute the problem as you give it no power. You can visualize how you would rather see it and then let it go. I did this with many problems I have recently faced to see those very situations change to positive in a very short time and I did very little (just a bit of positive affirmations and visualizations) to make it happen.
Act — take action with what you can do and don’t stress about what you are not able to do. Simply knocking down one thing after the other gives a great sense of satisfaction even if you have a mountain of things to do. You will conquer Everest one step at a time. Then when you look back, you’ll see just how much you can get done and how powerful a being you are. I felt completely swamped lately with so much to do but little by little I got things done. Most of the ‘struggle’ was actually in my mind. I still have a few things to wrap up but I know I’ll get it all done in divine time!
Trust in the Flow — I find myself surrendering to the present moment a lot and blissing out even amidst the most chaotic times. I just have a knowing that I am in that Universal flow and everything is going to be alright. So exercise that grounding present moment awareness and trust that everything is in divine order. I have literally sat back and watched the most astounding things flow and fit into place like a giant jigsaw puzzle that I could never have orchestrated if I tried to control the outcome.

Try and perceive your problems as learning curves and transmute the bad to good — after all, you’re an alchemist you know?! Read related article: Why Rejection Can Be a Blessing

The Definition of Alchemy

In times bygone, alchemy was turning matter into gold (the short and sweet version :D).

What you are going to achieve with ‘spiritual’ alchemy is turn your ‘matter’ (situations, etc) into ‘gold’ (treasure/abundance/wealth).

To alchemize a situation is to step inside it and transmute it from the inside out. Get into what is bugging you (through meditation or quiet visualization) and start working your magic — find that gem of understanding/learning that the situation has to offer and morph it (through picturing what you want to see in your mind’s eye) into what you do want to see manifest in your life.

Keep on aligning yourself to your ‘new’ vision especially when you feel that sinking feeling in your stomach (solar plexus) when thinking about the distress it may be causing (keep alchemizing it!).

Please let me know if this works for you (leave a comment below). 🙂 I love to hear your feedback.