On autopilot - lost in our thoughts

Every morning I drive to work. There are times when I reach work and suddenly realize that I don't quite remember what happened on the way! I stopped at traffic lights, changed lanes, passed some cars and drove past many natural and man made objects - yet I don't remember anything! I was on auto-pilot. It is not that I was asleep at the wheel. It is just that I was not really aware of what I was doing. My mind was lost in thought, jumping from one topic to the next.

You have probably had this experience in some form or another. This happens not just while driving but during other times too - while taking a shower, while eating, even while talking and apparently listening to the other person. Outwardly we are performing those actions but inside our mind we are somewhere else.

Some people might argue that doing some things on auto-pilot is not necessarily bad and that such parallel processing is sometimes necessary. I will not argue for or against that - I will even accept that for certain tasks, we do need to become experts to such a degree that it becomes automatic and can be done in autopilot mode. Even such actions can be better performed with awareness though.

While doing things on autopilot, we are really like the living dead rather than being alive. We are not experiencing life at that moment. Life at that moment has passed us by while we were doing things on autopilot because our mind was racing with other thoughts rather than being in the present moment. As some people say, life is what happens when we are busy doing 'other' things.

Indeed, it is the constant thinking and chattering of the mind that is a hindrance to us being in the moment and being attentive to what we are doing.

Let us try to pay attention to what we are doing at the moment. When eating, just eat - feel the flavor, taste the food, enjoy that experience. Give yourself up to eating! Similarly, when showering, just shower. When listening to someone, be there.

That is part of awareness - to be there, to be alive at the moment, each and every moment.