Week 2

Welcome to week 2

This second week builds on Week 1, providing a closer, more detached look at the Monkey and providing the opportunity to begin to evaluate the nature of their interruptions.

We’ll also take a more proactive stance to see if we can begin to alter or even dictate, the nature of some of the interruptions by asking for specific help.

It’s early days so the rule is don’t overthink – just get the work done and trust in the process.

These early weeks give you the foundation to move forward faster and faster, as the weeks progress so just enjoy these early exercises as you begin to play with  your Monkey.

Down load this weeks practical exercises here:

Standard Weekly exercises

Make sure you continue to record your weekly relationship score and to take any time you need to plan and prepare. You should quickly be able to reduce your planning time as the challenge process becomes familiar.

Ongoing Work

As you progress through the first few weeks, it’s worth you just noticing the nature of any interruption or distraction that pulls you away from your intended focus or activity.

Get in the habit of making a note of any interactions or distractions that strike you as interesting. If you haven’t yet listen to Bonus 4 – Expectations for Challenge Success this will help you set yourself up to see more of what is really going on.

It’s also worth getting into the habit of recording your survey scores Typical record sheet here   Survey Results

The Routine 

Each week follows a similar format to Week 1 and you will soon get in the swing of it.

On Days 1-6 we complete exercises from the book with a couple of additions that will help you progress faster.

Each daily 25-to-30-minute slot consists of a couple of minutes preparation, the exercise itself and then a couple of minutes to review and make any notes you need.

On Day 7, we use Exercise 14 to take a moment to see how we are doing, review what we have accomplished and then check our plan for the next week. We also complete Exercise 13 and retake the relationship survey to get a new up dated score.

For each exercise, try to find a quiet, comfortable place to sit where you will not be disturbed and use headphones to listen to the relevant recording. The recordings provide  in-depth guidance for each exercise and build sequentially. They take you through an evolving relaxation process that will enable you to get the most from each session so it’s worth listening to the entire recording each time.

If you haven’t yet, think about printing out the Challenge timetable – you can find it here Challenge Course timetable 2022

The Facebook Challenge page is somewhere to share your challenge story and pick up hints tips and the experiences of others please help us make this a useful resource.

 

Read More about each of this week’s exercises below –

This Week

Week 2 Day Exercise Planning and organising
  8 Exercise 3 What Drives your Monkey?
  9 Exercise 4 Asking the Monkey for Help
  10 Exercise 3 What Drives your Monkey?
  11 Exercise 4 Asking the Monkey for Help
  12 Exercise 3 What Drives your Monkey?
  13 Exercise 4 Asking the Monkey for Help
14 Exercise 13 Survey
You will always find links to previous weeks at the bottom of these pages.
 

 

Practical exercises / Audio

Exercise 3: What Drives your Monkey?

In Exercise 2, we kept our focus on breathing and redirected our focus back to our breathing when thoughts arose. This time we will still control the breath but we will focus on the nature of the interruptions from our Monkey.

This exercise also adds in a couple of questions to hone our focus and help us take a closer look at the Monkey.

As you complete this exercise, let part of your attention focus on the nature of the thoughts. When the thoughts appear, hold these questions about the thoughts that come in your mind:

  1. “What’s this really all about?”
  2. “What’s this really for?”

If there’s any resistance or it goes a little slowly for you, help yourself by adding in the phrase “If I were to know, what would I think” at the beginning of each question.

E.g., “If I were to know, what would I think this was really all about?”

Or

“If I were to know, what would I think this is really for?”

Notice what asking these questions changes. Look for subtle differences in the interruptions or the ideas you experience that begin to answer your questions.

When you have finished, take a moment to process your experience of the interruptions and the impact of the questions on your focus and the experience itself.

Exercise 3 objectives

The objective of this exercise is for you to consider what happened when you controlled the breath while engaging the thoughts and asking questions. Again, we are looking to grow our awareness of what is happening and to begin to build an understanding of what is really going on.

We ask you to do this exercise on Days 1, 3 and 5 of Week 2.

By the end of these exercises, you should

1 begin to look at the nature of the interruptions without getting drawn in and

2 be able to observe on your own terms rather than blindly participate.

Make any notes that seem relevant to you.

Exercise 4: Asking the Monkey for Help

It’s time to start testing our idea that the Monkey is there to help us and what better way to do it that than asking them to help with a difficult task like listing out what we could stop doing?

This is about building on the use of questions we began in Exercise 3. It builds on our idea that we can influence what the Monkey talks to us about. In this exercise we are going to see if we can start to drive the nature of the interruptions and use them to help us decide what we can stop doing.

As you sit breathing to the patterns, you will again notice the interruptions and the moments of peace or relaxation that occur in between interruptions.

Consider these three questions:

  • If everything I do now was really unimportant, what would I stop doing now?
  • If I wanted to free up some time for me, what would I stop doing now?
  • If I am to be everything I could be, what could I stop doing now?

Keep one eye on the breathing, notice the peaceful moments as they occur but let part of your attention focus on what feels like the most appropriate one of these questions.

Hold it in your mind as though you were actually asking the question of your Monkey.

Exercise 4 objectives

The objective of this exercise is for you ask your Monkey direct questions and notice if and how that changes the input they provide.

We ask you to do this exercise on Days 2 ,4 and 6 of Week 2. By the end of these exercises, you should

1 begin to understand how you could call on the Monkey for help,

2 start to think about the types of questions you might use, and

3 start to think about what you would like to get their help with.

Make any notes that seem relevant to you.

Standard Exercises 

Exercise 13 is the Misaligned Monkey Relationship Survey which you can complete on line. In week one we take this day seven as we will every week but in addition in week one, we also take the survey on the first day. This gives you a starting score before the completion of any of the exercises and so this gives us a more accurate before and after result when you compare it to the final score on the final day.

Exercise 14 is simply the opportunity to plan your challenge experience. We know that taking a moment to make things a little easier / organise or plan when and how you will get things done will make the challenge far more user friendly. So on the first day take the time to plan and organise for both the whole challenge and for this first week.

On day seven of each week Exercise 14 is simply about planning and organising for the following week.

This involves thinking about how it’s going to work for you.

If you can its worth having a regular time each day and even a regular place or situation in which you complete the exercises. Whether it’s in your bedroom or on the bus makes no difference it’s just somewhere that you find works for you.

It’s also worth making sure you can access to the relevant recordings and have headphones and the time and space to spend 25 or 30 minutes  or so on you.

There’s also a link below about making change easy / completing the Challenge.

Useful links

Background reading / Listening

This week have a listen to any remaining refresher / background recordings

Some reading here: