Mindfulness classes often begin by warning students about the dangers of automatic pilot–the state iof being where we engage in an action without even realizing we are doing it. The classic example is driving a car, say, on a route you have often taken before but needing to deviate it from it on this particuolar day. However, without knowing it , you find yourself at the destination you have often gone to before. You have travelled there automatically, without even realizing where you were going. Another example is taking a shower and at the end of it, not remembering if in fact you have washed your hair. It’s easy to slip into this mecahnistic mode of being.
Teachers of mindfulness usually talk positive experiences lost when we engage in this automatic mode, the fact that we miss the beauty of the present moment. Granted, the present moment may be only the sensation of hot water cascading across my body. But not only is this experience itself pleasant. More importantly, the more we act automatically the more likely we are to engage in automatic action in the future, increasing our separation from the present moment and the beauty thereof.
This is all true enough, and really by itself ought to get us to attempt to shake ourselves out of automatic pilot. But in addition to depriving us of positive experiences, the state of automatic pilot can increase on common type of experience. When, for example, we are taking a shower on automatic pilot, we are often at the same time running through some painful past event or ruminating over some future trouble, perhaps playing out an unpleasant encounter with a co-worker that I know I will be having today. That is, automatic pilot makes it easier to rehash the past or rehearse the future in ways that often do nothing but bring psychic pain.
I was reminded of this when I read a recent article in the New York Times, “Always Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop? Here’s How to Quit Worrying” (Jennifer Taitz, Aug 8, 2019). Among other observations on worrying, the article cited a paer in the journal Emotion in which researchers found that students who predicted getting a poor grade felt bad for days before the exam. The article points out that the students’ stressing “didn’t diminsh the disappointment they felt once they got their scores.” This was just excess and unnecessary psychic pain. Clearly, these students weren’t in the present moment when they were doing their worrying, and neither is the person in the shower contemplating the painful past or anticipaintg an unpleasant future event.”
So as Jon Kabat-Zinn said on a 60 Minutes interview, when you’re in the shower, be in the shower. You will not only be clearner; you’ll be a lot happier too.
