"I never gained control of my mind--how do you dominate an ocean?--but I began to form a real relationship with it. Through writing and meditation I identified monkey mind, that constant critic, commentator, editor, general slug and pain-in-the-ass, the voice that says, "I can't do this, I'm bored, I hate myself, I'm no good, I can't sit still, who do I think I am?" I saw that most of my life had been spent following that voice as though it were God, telling me the real meaning of life--"Natalie, you can't write shit"--when, in fact, it was a mechanical contraption that all human minds contain." --