Beginner's Guide To Mindfulness

Turning Off Autopilot

One of the major tenets of mindfulness is no longer operating on autopilot. Traditionally, individuals immediately go from the situation to their reaction. With any mindfulness practice, the idea is to insert mindfulness, or awareness, between the situation and the reaction. For many individuals, automatic thoughts and actions often mean unhealthy habits and negative frames of mind, as it seems the majority of people are pessimists and tend to believe the worst options before anything else. Mindfulness seeks to train the brain to avoid the automatic response, the autopilot, and create a place in which the individual can make an alternate and more conscious choice from a new perspective.

Continue reading to learn about how judgment plays into practicing mindfulness.