Most people believe relaxing activities are only done in the evenings, and should be grouped in categories, scheduled, or put in an evening routine, as if its simply another item to check off your to-do list.

The good news? You dont have to wait until the evening to unwind and relax. In fact, you shouldnt. You deserve to feel grounded in your center and a sense of peace all day, not for just a few hours at the end of your day. You shouldnt have to, and you absolutely do not have to and mustnt do so. It is time to do away with the philosophy that it is only safe to entertain the idea of relaxation at the very end of your day, after spending the large majority of your waking hours walking through the day scattered, stressed, anxious, drained, ungrounded and thrown about. You deserve more, and theres a way to get there. There is a way to unwind that busy, chaotic monkey mind which owns most of your waking hours and is not aligned with your true nature, or the place deep within where stillness and serenity reside. 

Understandably, this may seem quite impossible once youve trained your body and mind to operate in a go, go, go mode without any sense of stillness.

The thing is though, you dont have to take time off or become a monk  you can rest in stillness while doing the same things youre currently doing and an added bonus to the already amazing benefit of not living a frantic life is that everything you do will be of higher quality. I think youll find that all other aspects of life outside of work (relationships, health, etc.) will dramatically improve as a result.

So, here are some tips for unwinding that busy monkey mind not only in the evenings, but throughout the day too:

• Start your day with a mental dump. Write out all the things you need to do in a notebook. This relieves a lot of stress, and by getting it all down on paper, you typically realize most of it is just mind made and you really only need to make one or two things your priorities. There is zero reason to even stress about the rest.

• Every so often, ideally once an hour if you can, set aside as little as 3-5 minute blocks of times for stillness and silence throughout your day. Meditate or go outside and sit in nature or take a walk (which, of course, are also forms of meditation). This will help you return to your core and stay more rooted throughout the day. 

• Engage in creative activity or play: Do something purely for the pleasure of doing it, do it just for fun, with no end goal in mind. An aside: unstructured time for play (an activity done purely for fun rather than to gain something from it), is said to be crucial to your creative process. So, if youre an artist of any type and youre feeling blocked, just keep this in mind. You might just need some unstructured time to enjoy whatever you feel like enjoying at any given moment without having to justify it.

• Almost all articles on anxiety and insomnia suggest putting away all electronic devices or turning them off completely for the night. Though many of us may find this difficult given our heavy reliance on technology, it is crucial to shut your devices off before bed as they can reduce melatonin production.

If you have difficulty shutting your phone off entirely, you could try a few other remedies including using blue light filters on your devices, avoiding news outlets or anything that will get a rise out of you, and avoiding violent movies and shows before bed. 

And if you read at night, there is one thing that has helped me immensely only read fiction, or less stimulating material. Avoid books and magazines that make you want to be more productive, stimulate new ideas prompting your mind to do anything but unwind, and instead just enjoy some good old fiction. Although its important to read and educate ourselves, Ive found that stimulating my brain with this content before bed can reduce my sleep quality. 

Meditation is, of course, the number one most suggested method for taming the monkey mind. However, sitting still for someone with a scattered brain can be difficult. One method to troubleshoot this and not feel like you have to discipline yourself to meditate for 20 minutes straight in the lotus position is to just sit down, close your eyes and take 10 deep breaths. After all, you can do anything for 10 breaths, right?

The Takeaway

Whatever you do during your free time, savor the pleasure of the process rather than thinking of the end goal. In fact, who cares if you even reach the end goal? Who cares if you even have one? Lets just go ahead and throw the whole idea of a goal in regards to this topic away lest we wish to possibly defeat our purpose. 

What are your tips and life hacks for unwinding your monkey mind when it gets the best of you?