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In my early 20s, way before I knew anything about Buddhism, I remember googling if it was normal to hear a voice in my head the whole time.
I used to think my loud mind was a flaw. I genuinely assumed I was just bad at navigating life because my mind wouldn’t shut up. Well, living our daily lives is hard enough. Do we also have to live with non-stop overthinking? That endless inner chatter is so damn exhausting.
I know you’ve been there, too. You sit down at the end of a long day, eager to finally rest, only to find that your mind refuses to turn off. We might replay a rude remark from two days ago, dwell on a bad relationship from a decade ago, worry about tomorrow’s plans, or spiral into completely random hypothetical scenarios.
This mental noise can be so overwhelming. But thousands of years ago, Buddhist philosophy identified this struggle.
In Buddhism, this endless, internal chatter is known as the monkey mind. Just like a monkey swinging from branch to branch, our mind jumps constantly from one thought, fear, or memory to the next. It rarely stays in the present moment.
Buddhism explains that our minds are so loud because of attachment and resistance.
We’re constantly attached to how we want things to be. At the same time, we desperately fight how things actually are. When plans change, someone hurts our feelings, or a day feels off, our mind steps in to fix, analyze, and control the situation.
However, the noise isn’t random; it’s our mind’s attempt to keep us safe. When we overthink and overanalyze, we gain a false sense of control. We create the illusion that we can dictate reality. Because let’s be honest, doing nothing feels risky. Letting things just be—without stepping in to fix them—feels unsafe.
The problem is, the more we fight the noise, the louder it gets. As someone who deals with chronic anxiety and overthinking, I know how exhausting—and pointless—it is to fight the monkey mind. Let’s just admit that there’s no off switch for our thoughts. Trying to quiet our thoughts by fighting them is like trying to clear muddy water by stirring it (we obviously make it cloudier).
So, how do we make peace with a loud mind? If we can’t turn it off, what can we actually do?
Well, as it turns out, we aren’t supposed to turn it off. We’ve just been using the wrong tools to deal with our endless thoughts. Buddhism suggests a powerful shift. Instead of constantly fighting the mental noise or trying to eradicate it, we need to simply observe it. We don’t need to silence the thoughts; we don’t need to believe every word our mind says.
When a sudden wave of anxiety or overthinking hits, let’s step back for a moment. Instead of jumping into the false stories that our minds create, let’s notice them like background noise. Thoughts will enter the mind, but we don’t have to invite them to stay.
Know that your mind will be loud sometimes, and that’s just what human minds do. But once we realize we are the ones listening to the noise, not the ones creating it, the volume begins to drop all on its own.
That’s how we make friends with the “monkey” in our heads.
author: Elyane Youssef
Image: Stacey Koenitz/Pexels
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