The Monkey Mind: That endless stream of troubling thoughts or other distracting chatter can zap confidence, preventing a person from focusing on what is truly important. In today’s fast-paced world of multi-tasking, working lunches and drive thru dinners, attention spans seem to be getting shorter and shorter. But, with a little mindfulness, the monkey can be tamed. Mindfulness? “Mindfulness means paying attention,” said Lalli Dana Drobny. She teaches classes in mindfulness as well as other subjects at Santa Barbara City College. Drobny, who has been meditating for 25 years, started offering mindfulness classes in Santa Barbara about eight years ago as a public service “Because I knew how important it was, and I had seen the difference in my own life.” Intention is an important component of mindfulness, so Drobny asks students to choose one goal for class. “Everyone who comes to my mindfulness classes comes for a reason,” she said. They want to handle their (physical or emotional) pain
