Monkey Mind in Permanent Crisis Mode

We check our smartphones 88 times a day on average. Our minds wander 47 percent of the time. And when we're interrupted during a task, it takes up to 23 minutes to regain deep focus. Twenty-three minutes. I know — that number sounds almost utopian to most people I meet. Working on one thing for 23 minutes straight is already a challenge. And then messages keep coming in on five channels at once.

In Buddhism, there's the image of the Monkey Mind: a troop of monkeys in the jungle. Something rustles — and our attention is there. Then it rustles somewhere else — and we jump again. That's how we spend the day. In 2005, Carl Honoré described in his TED talk In Praise of Slowness how the Western world has become trapped in its own speed. We haven't slowed down since.

What happens when the alarm never stops

In my workshops and coaching sessions, I see it constantly: people stuck in permanent crisis mode. Most organizations are in a state where a sense of urgency is continuously invoked. And then the pressure comes from within, too — I can't afford to make mistakes.

Our biological stress system has one answer to that: fight or flight or freeze. We carry it with us from our ancestors, 100,000 years on the savannah. In most workplaces — with few exceptions — nobody's physical safety is actually threatened. But the mind responds as though it were. And what happens then: we narrow down. Tunnel vision. Perception shrinks. We're not capable of peak cognitive performance.

Daniel Goleman puts it this way: The biggest problem in the business world is a lack of attention.

And what do we do? More of the same. We try harder, plan more, try to maintain more control. That's understandable — safety and orientation are fundamental human needs. But it doesn't work when the world changes faster than our plans.

The nervous system perspective

Stephen Porges' Polyvagal Theory describes our autonomic nervous system as a hierarchy with three circuits: ventral vagal, sympathetic, and dorsal vagal. The key point: these are not switches that get flipped — they're a continuum. The states overlap, they blend. Still, a direction can be described. When our system is predominantly sympathetically activated — mobilization, fight or flight — creativity becomes difficult and clear thinking narrows. In the dorsal vagal range, we withdraw, freeze, shut down. And when the ventral vagal side predominates — when something like safety and connection is present — the space for openness, decision-making, and creative thinking expands.

Mindfulness practice can help us access that state more often. In our current times, I find that particularly important.

From reacting to observing

I wouldn't claim that mindfulness is the answer to everything. But it addresses precisely where more-of-the-same stops working: learning not to react automatically, but to engage with what's happening inside us — and through that, allowing equanimity to grow.

A participant in one of my seminars, she worked at an editorial office, put it this way: You can tell from the article whether I was interrupted multiple times or not. Quality requires presence — even when everyday life constantly pulls us away from it.

When we're truly present with our attention, it leads to better decisions — because I'm not driven by my emotions. There's more effectiveness in what we do, because we're not acting out of a heightened state of reactivity, but more consciously.

Jon Kabat-Zinn has a wonderful everyday image for this: Next time you're in the shower — notice where you really are. Often our thoughts are with what happened yesterday, or we're already planning the next tasks. Who is actually present for the feeling of warm water?

But when are people actually well? Exactly then — when they're in this moment. In the doing. Not standing on a mountain peak thinking about their taxes.

Further reading:

1. Mark, G., Gudith, D. & Klocke, U. (2008). The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress. Proceedings of CHI 2008. · Killingsworth,

2. M. A. & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science.

3. 330(6006). Davidson, R. J. et al. (2003). Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 65(4).

4. Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory. Norton.

5. Goleman, D. & Davidson, R. J. (2017). Altered Traits. Avery.

If you're interested in exploring mindfulness for yourself, your team, or your organization — get in touch.