Are you living life on an auto-pilot mode? While that may be advantageous when it comes to mundane everyday rituals, it is a shield that is protecting you from the fear of change, that comes from wanting to live the life of your dreams.
I can bet you 10 bucks (yeah, I’m kinda cheap when it comes to wagers…..) that you live at least some part of your life on an auto-pilot mode.
No. Don’t even bother to counter what I just said.
Coz you’ve already lost the wager! Boo ya!
OK, let me explain.
You have a morning routine you follow?
We all do.
I brush my teeth first thing, when I get out of bed. You may be doing the same.
Or you could be reaching for your smart phone to check what you missed out on, while gathering your zzz’s for the night. Or, you may have the routine of guzzling down a pot of coffee, so that you can finally open your eyes.
That is you working on an auto-pilot mode. Call it a ‘habit’ but you are still not ‘thinking’ about these mundane things.
There are other things we do on autopilot mode as well. For example: dressing up for work, making sure the door is locked when leaving the house, and perhaps even driving to & from work.
You are programmed with these routines so well that you don’t have to think twice about it. You just do it.
So the auto-pilot mode saves you time and makes life easy for you at this level.
After all, who wants to wake up and then start wondering, “What am I supposed to do next? Brush my teeth, no wait….check my email? Heck no, I think I should drink coffee first!!”
See my point? Auto-pilot mode can be quite helpful in this case.
And then there are the ‘important things which we choose’ to do on an autopilot mode. For example: continue working on that soul sucking job, or take the flak from your perpetually angry partner for no fault of yours, or lend a sympathetic ear to your gruesomely whiny neighbor.
So how is that advantageous?! Or is it not??
Confused?
Put on your ‘traditional’ thinking caps on for a moment to understand this. (Yes, I am being sarcastic here). If you continue to process this with an open & logical mind, it won’t work!
You see, when you continue to work on that soul sucking job, you are making sure you continue with the same old habitual routine. After all you are getting a regular pay check thanks to that job. So why bother?
And no, nothing wrong with that! We all need to pay our bills, right?
God forbid, you broke out of the autopilot mode, listened to your heart and changed jobs or started that dream business of yours- all hell will break loose! You will feel giddy with excitement, dizzy with fear and all bring to surface sorts of other emotions you had buried deep in your heart for years.
Or imagine what will happen when you stop listening to that whiny neighbor who bitches about everything and everyone on the planet, including you (behind your back hopefully). You will be crowned as an insensitive person, selfish and with the heart of a stone.
There is no way on earth can you break from this autopilot mode and say to yourself, “I am done listening to this crap. I’m actually going to jogging for which I stepped out of the house when this neighbor spotted me”.
So you see how the autopilot mode is protecting you from your very own dreams and desires!
As a result, you become a lifeless, joyless and expression less stranger to your feelings and wishes.
You’d think the autopilot mode is protecting you from getting hurt. It will stop you from feeling angry with yourself for not following your passion, from rebelling to authorities, from being scared of the exhilaration that comes with freeing yourself from these self-created shackles.
Change is scary, so the autopilot mode gives us the illusion of safety- no matter how binding it is.
I know from personal experience.
I have lived on an autopilot mode for many years.
And while it seemed safe to live like that, over time I started feeling sick in my body. I was experiencing chronic and excruciating pain and my digestion of completely out of whack. I had no energy to even do the mundane things like brushing my teeth, let alone go out or enjoy life.
Yet I was pretending everything was fine, because that is what we do.
It was the darkest phase of my life.
Overtime though I realized how detrimental the auto-pilot mode was! As soon as the realization hit, I did not want to live like that anymore, no matter how many advantages it had.
I made a decision to break free. I decided I wanted to be the PILOT of my life.
I began my quest to understand how to reconnect with my true self, how to feed my body and my mind so that I had the strength and the courage to change my way of being and lead the life I visualized.
I began dreaming once again. And I persisted on that path, no matter how uncomfortable and scary it seemed. Nothing was worse than continuing the way I was — -on an autopilot.
Deciding to take control changed me deeply on a physical and spiritual level.
I changed my 16 year career path from working in the 9–5 rat race to become a certified nutritionist and transformation coach.
Change is good. Self-awareness is critical.
Let’s keep the auto-pilot mode limited to brushing our teeth and other trivial things.
If you want to live freely, abundantly and joyfully- ditch the autopilot mode and begin a new, exciting and soul fulfilling journey!!
Boom!
Un-automatically yours….
Tanuja
Originally published at medium.com