Yoga Silent Experiment Works

What could you do less of?


“Distraction is the main problem for us all – what the Buddha called the monkey mind. We need to tame this monkey mind.”
(Tenzin Palmo)

Jet Pack Prompt 12/8/25

In my yin yoga class today, our instructor tried something different to conduct class. Instead of playing the usual background music and periodic chanting/drumming during class, we were told that for the entire hour, “dead silence” would take place. With the room for our practice being soundproofed from outside noise as well, only the “inner voice” in my mind remained to disturb such extreme quiet conditions.

As expected then, I immediately began to dwell on thoughts of restless unease of the future, in doing each pose, 3-5 minutes at a time. But eventually such mental chatter seemed to calm down in this period of sustained quiet. In turn, I began to just focus more on the physical movement of the poses themselves along with my breathing then for the remainder of the class.

So based on this example,it appears I’ve begun to answer my inner critic as to the need to do less monkey mind” thinking that so often fixates my attention on the “what if” future. For it seems hypocritical of me to refer to myself in this blog as one who embraces the present moment in travel and yet frets about what might happen later on in my hometown surroundings to go wrong.