Earth to City. Come in City. Or Are You on Autopilot?

By Jennifer Egert, Ph.D.

Been feeling like I am autopilot these days. Everything is moving forward, day by day, the routine, the familiar, but where have I been in the middle of all this? Autopilot.

The city can be like a conveyer belt . The trains ride according to a schedule (well, sometimes). You get out the door the every morning, pick up the morning coffee/tea/water/paper and get on/in a form of transportation to wherever the day takes you routinely (school/work/family/doctors offices), and do whatever it is that you do at such places (work/learn/play/sit). And you leave at the end of the day back on/in the train/bus/car/bicycle/wheelchair/motorcycle to meet with friends/visit a relative/go to the gym/go to a bar/attend a meeting/do some other routine activity before returning to your home to your significant other/cat/dog/TV/reflection. And then, the whole thing starts up again. Feels a little like groundhog day to me. In psychology, we call this "habituation." When you get so used to stimuli in the environment, you just don’t respond to it anymore (cognitively, behaviorally, emotionally). In other words… autopilot.

Mindfulness practice tells us to live it all, live each moment, even the routine tooth-brushing, the eating of a meal, walking, breathing. But when on autopilot, that is all forgotten.

What gets us out of moments of autopilot and back into our lives? Hard to say. It is probably different for each of us. You could always bungee jump, do a run on a half-pipe, or skydive. You can’t bungee jump 24/7—well maybe you can but I imagine that would give you a big headache. And with enough jumps, you’d habituate to that too. No, something different seems required.

Stepping out of autopilot in daily life takes intention. For me, doing something different, stepping out of the routine even in small ways helps me to be mindful of the moment. Sometimes the city does it for you, presents something shocking or unexpected that helps bring awareness of the moment. Most of the time, though, we need to make an effort. We can’t wait around for something exciting or different to happen. Here are some simple things I’ve tried recently to change some of the little routine things pushing me along on the conveyer belt.

• I have a wonderful cinnamon spice tea that I really love but haven’t had in 5 months for some reason. So I made some in lieu of my regular routine morning coffee. I can’t tell you anything about the past 3 weeks of coffee, but I remember my tea.


• Changed my hair.


• Tried a new restaurant in the neighborhood.


• Spent time in a part of the city I don’t usually go.


• Wore something in my closet I haven’t worn in a long time.


• Took a different route to work.


• Paid attention to everything beginning to bloom in the city, the trees, the crocuses, the magnolias.


• Spent a long weekend away from the city.


• Took my guitar out of the case for the first time in a year.


• Said "yes" instead of a routine "no" and "no" instead of a routine "yes.

Nothing major, just stepping off the conveyor belt for a few brief moments and seeing what is there.