The very things we do to control anxiety can make anxiety worse. This unique guide offers a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based approach to help you recognize the constant chatter of your anxious “monkey mind,” stop feeding anxious thoughts, and find the personal peace you crave. Ancient sages compared the human mind to a monkey: constantly chattering, hopping from branch to branch—endlessly moving from fear to safety. If you are one of the millions of people whose life is affected by anxiety, you are familiar with this process. Unfortunately, you can’t switch off the “monkey mind,” but you can stop feeding the monkey—or stop rewarding it by avoiding the things you fear. Written by psychotherapist Jennifer Shannon, this book shows you how to stop anxious thoughts from taking over using proven-effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness techniques, as well as fun illustrations. By following the exercises in this book, you’ll learn to identify your own anxious thoughts, question those thoughts, and uncover the core fears at play. Once you stop feeding the monkey, there are no limits to how expansive your life can feel. This book will show you how anxiety can only continue as long as you try to avoid it. And, paradoxically, only by seeking out and confronting the things that make you anxious can you reverse the cycle that keeps your fears alive.

Shares the author's personal experiences with anxiety, describing its painful coherence and absurdities while sharing the stories of other sufferers to illustrate anxiety's intellectual history and influence.

Cheney and Seyfarth enter the minds of vervet monkeys and other primates to explore the nature of primate intelligence and the evolution of cognition. "This reviewer had to be restrained from stopping people in the street to urge them to read it: They would learn something of the way science is done, something about how monkeys see their world, and something about themselves, the mental models they inhabit."—Roger Lewin, Washington Post Book World "A fascinating intellectual odyssey and a superb summary of where science stands."—Geoffrey Cowley, Newsweek "A once-in-the-history-of-science enterprise."—Duane M. Rumbaugh, Quarterly Review of Biology

What can the study of young monkeys and apes tell us about the minds of young humans? In this fascinating introduction to the study of primate minds, Juan Carlos Gomez identifies evolutionary resemblances--and differences--between human children and other primates. He argues that primate minds are best understood not as fixed collections of specialized cognitive capacities, but more dynamically, as a range of abilities that can surpass their original adaptations. In a lively overview of a distinguished body of cognitive developmental research among nonhuman primates, Gomez looks at knowledge of the physical world, causal reasoning (including the chimpanzee-like errors that human children make), and the contentious subjects of ape language, theory of mind, and imitation. Attempts to teach language to chimpanzees, as well as studies of the quality of some primate vocal communication in the wild, make a powerful case that primates have a natural capacity for relatively sophisticated communication, and considerable power to learn when humans teach them. Gomez concludes that for all cognitive psychology's interest in perception, information-processing, and reasoning, some essential functions of mental life are based on ideas that cannot be explicitly articulated. Nonhuman and human primates alike rely on implicit knowledge. Studying nonhuman primates helps us to understand this perplexing aspect of all primate minds.

Anxiety in children is increasing at an exponential rate all over the world. Living with anxious thoughts is like having a monkey that's constantly chattering inside your head. Parents and professionals agree that early intervention is the key as childhood anxiety impacts on development and learning. Strategies to build resilience and to encourage persistence are highly valued in schools, higher education and the workplace. However, the competitive nature of our world has led children to believe that mistakes lead to failure, rather than leading to learning and growth. Children need to know that its normal for people to feel anxious, particularly when they are faced with something new. For adults, it may be starting a new job, traveling overseas for the first time, or meeting potential new in-laws! For children, it may simply be to ask questions in class, trying to make a new friend or playing a new sport. We can all develop personal techniques and strategies that help to 'tame' our monkeys, as the method that works for one person, might not work for another. MonkeyMind is a picture book designed to open the conversation with children, parents and carers. Having a growth mindset is when a person knows that mistakes are part of their learning journey; it's how we grow emotionally as well as intellectually.

A delightful read-aloud book for bedtime. The charming tale deals with the concept of the "monkey mind"--the busy, chattering, over-occupied mind--and how the yoga technique of deep belly breaething can help banish those impish little monkey thoughts. Kids will love the colorful monkeys...grown-ups will appreciate the quiet that ensues after some deep belly breathing sends the monkeys away!

People who struggle with perfectionism often suffer from anxiety and internal anxious ''chatter, '' also known as the ''monkey mind.'' This mindset keeps them trapped in a cycle of fear, judgment, and self-doubt. In this fun and illustrated guide, psychologist and anxiety expert Jennifer Shannon presents a thirty-day workout to help readers break free from perfectionism, develop self-compassion, set realistic goals, and build the mental muscle and resilience needed to thrive in an imperfect world