Getting Off Autopilot with Michelle Rios

Ever find yourself driving home without recalling the journey, or mindlessly scrolling through your phone? You're not alone. This week on the Live Your Extraordinary Life podcast, we delve into the phenomenon of autopilot living –- that all-too-common state where life seems to just happen to us. We'll explore why our brains default to this mode and the surprising impact it has on our lives -- from mild disconnection and unhappiness to anxiety and even depression.

We discuss the science behind our subconscious minds and the startling amount of mental activity that occurs without our awareness -- think upwards of 95%!  We also tackle the challenge of disconnection that autopilot living breeds, and share strategies for switching off autopilot, cultivating greater presence, and creating an life of intention.

So, if you're ready to get off autopilot and start truly living you don't want to miss this episode!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Simply breathing in and out helps to overcome autopilot. Living brings us back into a state of awareness, allows us to begin engaging in new and challenging activities, which we need in order to thrive. Hi, I'm Michelle Rios, host of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. This podcast is built on the premise that life is meant to be joyful, but far too often we settle for less. So if you've ever thought that something is missing from your life, that you were meant for more, or you simply want to experience more joy in the everyday, then this podcast is for you. More joy in the everyday than this podcast is for you. Each week, I'll bring you captivating personal stories, transformative life lessons and juicy conversations on living life to the fullest, with the hope to inspire you to create a life you love on your terms, with authenticity, purpose and connection. Together, we'll explore what it means to live an extraordinary life, the things that hold us back and the steps we all can take to start living our best lives. So come along for the journey. It's never too late to get started, and the world needs your light.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Welcome everyone to this week's episode of the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast. I'm your host, michelle Rios, and we are talking about a concept that's incredibly pervasive in today's society yet often goes unnoticed, and that is autopilot living. Have you ever found yourself driving to work and not remembering the journey? Or maybe zoning out while reading a book? That's your brain operating on autopilot, and during this episode we're going to dive deep into why this happens and how it impacts our lives and, importantly, how we can get off autopilot living and start living with more intention, which is a main pillar of living an extraordinary life. So let's start off with just understanding what's happening when we're in autopilot. Autopilot living happens when we do things without really thinking about them right, without thinking about them right, without thinking about them, consciously at least. It's like our brain has a background app running that automates our behaviors, everything from brushing teeth to commuting. This mental mode helps manage daily life without an overload, so in that sense, it's a good thing, but autopilot living has a downside too. For instance, have you ever eaten a meal and not tasted a single bite because your mind was elsewhere? That's autopilot living.

Speaker 1: 2:54

Autopilot living can be far more damaging than that, however. It leads oftentimes to disconnection, a rise of depression and a pervasive sense that life lacks meaning, and that is because we get into this mode where life is happening to us and we are not actively, or at least proactively, with intention, making choices about our everyday life, having goals, pursuing goals, and we're all guilty of this. This is something that happens to all of us at various points of our life. The problems arise when it happens for long periods of time. So let's think a little bit about the science behind our subconscious.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Intriguingly, many psychologists and neuroscientists estimate that up to 95% of our mental activity isn't fully conscious. Our subconscious mind handles a lot, from our habitual reactions to those deep-seated emotions we all have, all without us needing to press the go button. So imagine, if you will, your brain is a giant iceberg. What you think, you think, which is your conscious mind, is just the tip of the iceberg, while the vast expanse beneath the water is all the subconscious processing you're not even aware of. So what's the issue with letting our subconscious run the show?

Speaker 1: 4:28

Firstly, it can disconnect us from living fully. That's really, to me, probably the biggest problem with autopilot. Living is a sense of disconnection. When we're not present, we miss out on the richness of experiences. It can also lead us to react without thinking. I know I'm guilty of this Ever snap at someone after a long day almost reflexively. That's autopilot in action, not always reflecting our true feelings or intentions.

Speaker 1: 4:59

There was a groundbreaking study out of Harvard University that sheds more light on this. Researchers found that about 50% of the time people are thinking about something other than what they're actually doing. And here's the kicker this mind wandering typically makes them less happy. When we're not focused on the present, we're not just missing out, we could be subtly undermining our own happiness. Now think about that for a minute. Autopilot living is associated with dissatisfaction and unhappiness. When we're not focused on the present, we're not just missing out, we could be subtly undermining our own happiness. Let that sink in for a moment.

Speaker 1: 5:45

The World Health Organization reports that depression is a significant global health issue. We're all very aware of that, particularly following the pandemic, but the links to autopilot living are often understated. What they are finding is that depression is almost always linked to a lack of engaging experiences. That's kind of the definition of autopilot living, and a recent Gallup poll showed that 85% of employees worldwide are not fully engaged, or, better stated, they're actively disengaged at their jobs. This disengagement, often a form of autopilot, can lead to higher levels of dissatisfaction and even more profound mental health issues. The American Psychological Association highlights that repetitive autopilot tasks can lead to increased stress, anxiety and depression. It's a cycle. Unengaging work or activities leads us into autopilot behavior, which in turn feeds back to this disengagement and discontentment.

Speaker 1: 6:53

So think about it. There are certainly activities that require this habitual action, but often autopilot living is something we allow to take over. When we do not have specific goals or pursuing and I would go a step further when we do not feel that we are worthy of our goals or we don't see a way of actually pursuing and realizing our goals, when there is a fear present, we allow autopilot to take over, almost to protect ourselves, right, kind of push down those emotions. The problem with that is that great level of discontentment. We think kind of in the moment we're going to just sort of zone out and allow ourselves to be in a happier, less contentious state of being with ourselves. Over the long run, however, it's far worse. It's much more damaging than finding ways to actually identify goals, pursue those goals and even at the risk of failure, the journey of completing those goals will be far more satisfying than living in this autopilot space.

Speaker 1: 8:11

So, beyond individual wellbeing, autopilot living affects everything from personal relationships. Think about the last time you heard someone without actually really listening to them. Certainly, we're all on our phones. We're guilty of that from time to time. I know I certainly am with both my husband and my son and active listening has become something that we have to be very conscientious of. But where people follow these outdated norms without question, the cost of going through the motions is immense, touching really every facet of our lives. It's not just the overworked or the stressed that are living on autopilot. Students in classrooms worked or the stressed that are living on autopilot. Students in classrooms, professionals in offices, parents at work we're all susceptible, particularly in today's fast-paced, high-demand world. But here's the good news we can take back the control.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Techniques like mindfulness, meditation have been proven to allow people to be more present, be more aware and be more intentional with their thinking, with their behaviors, with their mindset, which increases positive emotions and leads to increased happiness. In fact, researchers have found that spending 10 minutes a day, that's not a lot of time people. 10 minutes a day in quiet reflection, quiet meditation, simply breathing in and out, helps to overcome autopilot living. Autopilot living brings us back into a state of awareness allows us to begin engaging in new and challenging activities, which we need in order to thrive, and simply taking time to reflect can help. The benefits of turning off autopilot are really immense. It's deeper engagement with life, more joy and a richer, more connected experience that, to me, folks, is really the underpinning of living an extraordinary life.

Speaker 1: 10:19

So I want you to think about autopilot and where you are experiencing autopilot living in your life. Where can you start to be more intentional? Where can you start to take back more control? Certainly, it's one of those things where we all fall into it, but we don't want to stay there. It might be happening during high stress periods, but then come back to your center. Incorporating 10 minutes of mindful meditation can be the game changer in your life from living a mundane, ordinary existence that, quite frankly, can lead to great dissatisfaction, to living an extraordinary experience with a heightened sense of meaning and purpose in your life.

Speaker 1: 11:07

So, with that, I want to thank you for tuning in to this week's Minnesota. I hope that you've enjoyed it. I hope that you spend time this week maybe incorporating a few minutes of mindful meditation into your day. Remember, the first step toward change is awareness. So take a moment, breathe and tune in now to this present moment. I hope that you'll join me next time for the Live your Extraordinary Life podcast, where we'll have another enlightening topic to help you live your extraordinary life each and every day. Until then, be mindful, live consciously, get off autopilot and live with intention. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to rate and review. If you have recommendations for future topics, please reach out to me at michelleriosofficialcom. Lastly, please consider supporting this podcast by sharing it. Together, we can reach, inspire and positively impact more people. Thank you.