Is your brain stuck on autopilot?

Do you find that you’re living on autopilot and unaware of your conscious experience of life?

This mental state tends to happen when we’re in:

• problem solving mode
• bored
• worried

Our brain takes out out of the present moment. You start to think about solutions to that particular problem. You start to fantasize. You overthink a future event or worry about one that happened in the past.

When your mind is occupied, you lose awareness of the present moment. You lose consciousness. You’re no longer living life. You’re stuck in your head.

Here are a few easy ways to avoid the autopilot brain. You can use them to stay in the moment throughout the day, and happiness will bubble to the surface.

1. Meditation

Meditation is the most common and popular way of preventing autopilot. When you meditate, you draw your focus to the present moment. Every time your mind tries to highjack your thought process and take you somewhere else, you notice it, and gently correct it.

You can meditate anywhere! You can draw your state from within and embrace “being” from the comfort of your home, at work, or even in the car.

Meditation is a great way to master your emotions, gain clarity over your thoughts, and better understand the workings of your mind.

“There is nothing more important to true growth than realizing that you are not the voice of the mind – you are the one who hears it.” – Michael A. Singer in The Untethered Soul.

2. Let Go of Past and Future Worries

Being worried is a surefire way to get your brain stuck on autopilot. When you’re worried, you’ll think OBSESSIVELY about future events or past events and replay them over and over again in your head.

You have to give yourself permission to let go of these thoughts. You might re-visit them at another point in time, but for the next 30 minutes, hour, or day, you’re not going to.

Every-time you have a worrisome thought about the future or the past, you’re going to catch yourself, challenge it, silence it and return your focus to the present moment. That way, you’ll live with ultimate authenticity.

3. Change Up the Everyday Routine

When our day today looks exactly like yesterday, our brain goes into autopilot mode.

You’re bored. You’re comfortable. You’ve become accustomed to the day-to-day routine of your life. Since nothing NEW is happening, there’s no real reason that your brains should pay attention.

To bring back excitement and thrill to your life, you gotta change up that everyday routine. Do something new, even if it’s just taking a different route home. Attend an event nearby. Try making new friends. Take up a new hobby.

Something you wouldn’t normally do. All of a sudden, you’ll find that you feel alive again. You’ve broken out of your routine.

4. Live on Your Purpose

Do you feel like you’re living someone else’s life?

You feel so much pain, shame, and guilt over the life you’re living that it’s hard to plow through the day. The only way to make it is to go on autopilot to cope with the stress.

When your daydreams are more exciting than your life, a change is needed. Start to think about your past, your life, and examine what your purpose might be on this planet.

There are several effective ways to discover this, but it really takes some deep internal examination. The more that you can align your life with your purpose, the less you’ll want to live on autopilot.

“It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.” – The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

5. Have an Adventure

An adventure will never engage that autopilot mind. True adventures force you into the present moment. They make you feel alive.

Think about sky diving. The moment you leap out of the plane, you feel fear, anxiety, excitement, and a rush of adrenaline. Your brain doesn’t have the mental capacity to worry about your every-day problems and thoughts.

Adventures could include:

[list][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Thrill seeking like sky diving, bungie jumping, parasailing, jet skiing, scuba diving, etc.[/list-child][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Traveling and exploring a new country, state, or town[/list-child][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Road trip to a new destination[/list-child][list-child icon=”fa-check”]Climb a mountain, visit a wonder of the world, go on a safari[/list-child][/list]

The adventure must be exciting, fun, and out of the ordinary. Here are some simple examples.

6. Get Active

Your mind is connected to your body. When you’re active, having fun, and spending time with friends, it impacts your thoughts, emotions, and mental health.

Take some time out of your day to plan a get together with friends that you haven’t seen in a long time. Join a local sports team. Attend a workshop, a class, or take up a new hobby. Whatever you do, get active.

When we feel sad, unhappy, or disconnected, we have a tendency to engage in autopilot activities like TV-watching, listening to music alone, or surfing the internet. STOP.

Get out and interact in the world. This will force your brain into the present moment.

7. Stop Solving Problems

At work, it’s important to solve problems. There are serious times in life when you must solve problems.

However, whenever you enter “problem solving mode” you rob yourself from the ability to enjoy the moment and thus you go on autopilot.

You might notice that when you’ve been thinking about a problem for long enough, you can’t remember what happened to the last few hours. You’ve been so engrossed in your own thinking, that you’ve forgotten about your conscious experience

You must train yourself to catch yourself when you enter problem solving mode. Instead, draw your focus back to the moment and enjoy where you are.