Do you ever feel as if your mind has a mind of its own?
It does. When your brain is leaping from one branch of anxious thought to another, chattering like a monkey in a tree, you're hijacked by the monkey mind. And the more you feed it, the more reactive it gets, robbing you of the peace you crave. In Don't Feed the Monkey Mind, psychotherapist Jennifer Shannon reveals the hidden behaviors that reward our brain's built-in bias for safety. She shows us how the subtle ways we avoid what makes us anxious actually maintain our anxious mind-set, and trap us in a perpetual cycle of stress and worry. Using proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness techniques, she'll show you how to change your behavior in small, manageable steps. You'll create new experiences that build your resilience to anxiety and train your autonomic nervous system away from fight-or-flight and toward rest-and-digest, even in situations that make you anxious. As your resilience to anxiety grows, so will your ability to relax, and your confidence that you can cope with whatever the future holds. Only when you stop feeding the monkey can you find the peace of mind and body you so deserve!
