Is it worth to be mindful?

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. While mindfulness is something we all naturally possess, it’s more readily available to us when we practice it on a daily basis.

Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful. And there’s growing research showing that when you train your brain to be mindful, you’re actually remodelling the physical structure of your brain.

The goal of mindfulness is to wake up to the inner workings of our mental, emotional, and physical processes. Mindfulness is the art of paying open, non-judgmental attention from moment to moment.

Have you ever had a feeling while driving that you remind yourself you are driving, and you have no idea where your thoughts were for the last 5 minutes? Or maybe while watching a movie your mind wanders off and you have no idea what the plot is about anymore? This is when your brain goes into autopilot mode.

Brain scans have revealed that when your mind wanders, it switches into “autopilot” mode, enabling you to carry on doing tasks quickly, accurately and without conscious thought... This research provided the first evidence that our brains are active even when we aren't consciously putting our minds to work.

Challenge for this week is to observe when you have switched off into autopilot mode.