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Sleepwalking Through Your Life? Here's How Mindfulness Can Help.

Guest post by: Gerard O'Donovan

Article Overview: Today, many of us refer to this mindless activity as “being on autopilot”. Many daily habits can be completed without our full attention. It seems our minds are constantly running ahead to the next activity to be completed, the next phone call, or meeting, or place we need to be.

Sleepwalking Through Your Life? Here's How Mindfulness Can Help.

Have you ever sat down to watch TV with a bowl of popcorn on your lap, then suddenly realized twenty minutes later the bowl was empty? Have you ever driven somewhere and arrived safely, only to realize you didn’t really remember the trip?

These kinds of experiences happen to everyone. Today, many of us refer to this mindless activity as “being on autopilot”. Many daily habits can be completed without our full attention. It seems our minds are constantly running ahead to the next activity to be completed, the next phone call, or meeting, or place we need to be.

All of this multi-tasking, however, is taking its toll on our lives. A bit of inattention now and then is not necessarily a bad thing. But sleepwalking through life, always rushing off to the next thing and never truly living “in the moment”, can come at a high cost. Relationships with family, friends, and coworkers eventually suffer. We miss out on the special moments that happen every day. We ignore important messages about our health, our well-being and our life. Our bodies and minds remain in a perpetual state of stress and self-criticism for not being “better, doing “more” and being “more successful.”

If multi-tasking is the disease, then mindfulness is the cure. Mindfulness is the practice of paying more attention to ourselves and the world around us; achieving an awareness of what is going on inside our minds and bodies, and outside, at the very moment. We all have the ability to practice mindfulness. It is a simple matter of establishing a new habit of paying attention, not to what you have to do tomorrow or ten minutes from now, but right now, in this minute. Or, as some describe it, to simply be “here” as life unfolds before us.

Once you are able to understand and grasp the spirit of mindfulness, it is the “doing” that helps one to become more informed, responsive and healthier in body, mind and soul. Every minute of every day takes on new meaning, and your ability to embrace life and find much-needed emotional and physical balance becomes effortless. While mindfulness can force us to face painful issues long buried, most people are happy to remove old burdens and embrace the future with a renewed zeal for life after learning how to apply mindfulness in their everyday life.

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