We think we know who we are but do we? How much of your life is on autopilot?
Do you know how many times you have just jumped from doing one thing then another without even thinking about it?
Autopilot Test
Try this autopilot test, every time you are about to go and do something, before you do it, breath deeply.
Results of the Autopilot Test
You either managed to do it a couple of time then forgot to do it or you didn't do it at all? But it should have brought to your attention how often we just move from doing one thing to another without thinking?
Choosing an Alternate path?
How can you choose a different path if you don't stop long enough to stop rushing from one thing to another?
Choosing a different path means choosing the better path based on what you think and not what you feel you should do. Better to be proactive than reactive mindfulness helps you to easily choose on alternate path based on what you know of what is actually going on rather than you relying on feelings and memories from your past to tell you what is going on.
We live on autopilot, we mindless about what we are doing. If we lived a mindful life we would be less stressed, less anxious and less likely to be depressed. All of your relationships with others from our past, present and future would be in balance. We would be aware of the feelings an thoughts that control our life, that controls our behaviour, that controls how we think and we feel.
Our thoughts and feelings feed of each other and can create a happy cycle or create a horrible cycle that we can't get out of. Mindfulness encourages us to observe our thoughts and feelings with a beginners mind, in a kind, caring, compassionate and friendly way.
Mindfulness teaches you to let go of that which would harm you. You do this by focussing on your breathing whilst you observe the feelings in your body and the thoughts in your mind without touching them and end up asking
- why do I feel/think like this
- why am I feeling/thinking like this
- why did I feel/think like that
- will I feel/think like that
Because when you do, you start going down memory lane, waking up dead negative memories from the past that just make you feel worst and before you know it you are either in flight or fight mode and feeling angry, stressed, anxious or depressed or all of them.
When you are happy you don't think about how you got to be happy because you are too busy enjoying the moment of being happy.
Your mind is not investigating the past and nor is it building up 'what if disaster scenarios' about the future.
The great thing about being mindfully happy is that the more you practice the easier it is to not have to think about being mindful because you do it automatically. Because it makes you feel good, you just keep on doing it and you and your mind love it. You have time to get to get to know you, to get to know people better because you are living in real time, not the past or the future, but the present time.
It's a wonderful life living without those negative voices in your head messing with your mind and emotions. You get to breath, get to feel healthy and happier than you ever felt before.
How to Start?
Starting means doing something, there's no magic pill, there's no magic key on the keyboard, you are going to have to do something for yourself.
Working on your own
Some of us can work on our own. We can use online resources like
It is important to be able to work alone but it is also important to work in groups and be with other people. Try to find a meditation group in your area or a mindfulness course in how to become a mindfulness practitioner and of course you can attend my free mindfulness classes at http://www.hng.org.uk/index.php/stressproject on Thursdays starting at 3.30pm, arrive early to get a place, it's really popular.
It's not easy to change? Sometimes we wish there was a key on a keyboard that you could click and everything would be as how we would want it to be? Well life is not that simple. But what is simple is picking up the phone and calling me, Garvey, (+44) 77 22 05 85 50.
We'll have a quick chat and then if I can help you we'll make arrangements to have our first consultation.
- In person
- Via Skype
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