Once I was walking through the city, absorbed in thoughts. I walked around the puddles; held the hood when the wind blew it away; went to a coffee shop; drank coffee, threw away the glass; listened to music on headphones. But if anyone had asked me, I wouldn’t have remembered what songs were playing on my playlist, whether the coffee was good, what the barista looked like, whether it was windy outside, whether there were puddles on the road. We regularly do a lot of things on autopilot. The reason is that we cannot concentrate on several things at the same time. Imagine, for example, that you not only need to do work on the computer, but also consciously move the muscles of your arms in order to type on the keyboard. Consciously support your body in a sitting position. Consciously pronounce sounds when communicating with colleagues. But these are actions that use dozens of muscles and thousands of nerve endings. You would very quickly experience severe stress due to such a load, and for some time you would lose your ability to work completely. Therefore, your brain has learned to remember the same type of repetitive actions, and subsequently perform them without turning on consciousness. Automatisms exist because they are useful. Otherwise, every time we got out of bed, we would have to relearn how to walk, talk, and hold a spoon. More precisely, we would not even learn, because the essence of such learning is to develop automatic habits. But sometimes we give too much to the autopilot: not only walking, typing on the keyboard, driving a car - but also thoughts, decisions, time, communication. As a result we lose the opportunity to enjoy our life and make it the way we want: I could enjoy my favorite music, and the taste of coffee, and the city view, but I didn’t do any of this. I could have taken public transport if it was too uncomfortable outside, but I didn’t do that either. Therefore, controlling your autopilot mode is a very important skill. And in order to help you begin to develop it, I want to offer an exercise in two variations. Choose for him some everyday action that you don’t pay attention to: brushing your teeth, checking email, heating dinner in the microwave, etc. First option Do it with your non-dominant hand (left if you are right-handed, right if you are left-handed) who does not know how to perform these actions automatically 🖐Second option Do it with the same hand, but with close attention to signals from all senses ✋👀👃👂👅Pay attention to the taste of the toothpaste and the temperature of the water, to the sound of your mouse click, to the color and size letters in the subject line, how the food spins in the microwave, and how its smell begins to spread throughout the room. Take as many impressions from this simple experience as possible in principle. This exercise can be performed regularly, at least once a day: for example, one week with one habitual action, another with another, etc. © I. O. Volyntseva, 2021 If you found the article interesting, I would be grateful for the click/tap on “Say thank you”. Sign up for personal consultations using the link. Subscribe↓ so as not to miss new materials=)