Yesterday, I was driving my eight-year-old son (Kayne) and his friend home from school. His friend was repeatedly putting himself down. I asked him if he noticed how hard he was being on himself. And then Kayne jumped in and said, “Yeah, you know that’s just monkey mind saying all those mean things in your head.”

I was so thrilled that Kayne was able to separate thoughts from reality. And that he wanted to share the concept with his friend.

The three of us went on to have a wonderful conversation about why it is that our minds often tell us we said/did the wrong thing or we can’t do something or that we should be different.  Kayne’s friend made a point that sometimes he hears other people say mean things to him, so then it gets stuck in his head and he starts to believe it.

So we talked a bit about what it might say about someone who says mean things about someone else. The boys both thought that maybe the kids who said mean things might be sad or angry about something in their own lives.

Listening to those two third-graders, I was beaming. I felt this surge of hope for the world.

How much of what we are told - inside or outside of our heads - is true? I invite you to check it out for yourself. Just imagine how different our lives would be if whenever we heard that monkey chatter in our heads, we could make the choice to see it for what it is and then just shrug it off.

I’ve been practicing all day today. Makes me feel like a kid again.

Sherry Belul

Author, Simply Celebrate:

http://www.SimplyCelebrate.net