Inviting a monkey to tea - Nancy Colier

To "invite a monkey to tea" is to befriend your own mind -- which is often compared to a drunken monkey for all its mad twists and turns. A wild monkey is full of irrepressible desires, and thus chases its own tail in its search for happiness! This book is about learning to welcome the mind as an ally without fear or resistance, thus relaxing that frantic search, discovering genuine contentment and resting in the joy of who you are. As a psychotherapist, author Nancy Colier has accompanied hundreds of people in their "search for happiness" for nearly two decades. She has watched her clients try everything under the sun to be -- and stay -- happy. Witnessing and participating in this process, she has become an expert in happiness, or more specifically, in the monkey-mind's search and demand for it, and the unhappiness that all the striving ultimately creates. Along the way, the author has come to understand the workings of the mind -- both from her clients and by her own diligent practice of meditation and self-observation. This book distils the wisdom and experience of her dedicated work, and offers readers a roadmap of the territory of mind, plus a toolbox of practical means for identifying and working gently with the unrealistic expectations that keep us from the enjoyment of who we are.