The Monkey Is the Messenger Meditation and What Your Busy Mind Is Trying to Tell You

An engaging, funny, and introductory guide for anyone whose overactive mind gets in the way of starting a regular meditation practice

“My mind is so busy, I really need to meditate.”

“My mind is so busy, there’s no way I can meditate.”

Familiar dilemma? These days just about all of us know we should be meditating, but that doesn’t make it any easier to sit down and face the repetitive thoughts careening around our brains—seemingly pointless, sometimes hurtful, nearly always hard to control. Rather than quitting meditation or trying to wall off the monkey mind, Ralph De La Rosa suggests asking yourself a question: If you were to stop demonizing your monkey mind, would it have anything to teach you? In a roundabout way, could repetitive thoughts be pointing us in the direction of personal—and even societal—transformation?

Poignant and entertaining, The Monkey Is the Messenger offers a range of evidence-based, somatic, and trauma-informed insights and practices drawn from De La Rosa’s study of neuroscience and psychology and his long practice of meditation and yoga. Here at last—a remedy for all those who want to meditate but suppose they can’t because they think too much.

Ralph De La Rosa is a therapist, meditation teacher, storyteller, and musician. A graduate of Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Services, he is trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) and incorporates Internal Family Systems therapy (IFS) alongside traditional psychotherapy in his work. He has been featured in numerous publications including GQ, SELF, Women’s Health, and Elephant Journal. He currently resides in New York City.