I don’t know if there’s a name for it… that experience where you’re driving but your mind is completely somewhere else and you kind of shake your head and snap back to the present moment, having virtually no recollection of getting where you are, like that total autopilot moment… that’s August for me, every year. I just realized it last night, as we got into bed and I shook my head fiercely and thought, “Holy stuff, it’s almost over.” This is my brain on August, autopilot, struggling to get back to the present.
My mindfulness practices are inconsistent—but that’s why they call it a practice and not a perfect, right? I am routinized and committed to many things so it’s not like I can’t; I just haven’t yet. But I will. The struggles are thematic (and I almost blush at calling them struggles because it’s really not so bad in the grand scheme of this whirling world). I hit speed bumps and roadblocks at similar places and phases, the same way, I imagine, a serial dieter does. I am aware of my patterns and my inclinations. I’m here, trying to balance acceptance and growth.
Again, it’s a practice. I’m finally at a place where I don’t feel like my vacations are too short (those of you who don’t get the number of weeks off that I do can continue cursing at me now—I can’t hear you anyway). I don’t feel like the days or my life is racing by because I am paying attention on purpose, with purpose. I’m making it count AND giving myself a giant break that I denied myself in the past. I’m consciously shutting down the August Autopilot now. So today, or even just for the next hour, give the autopilot a rest. Let it recharge—after all, we need it in its highest working order in times of necessity—and be present with yourself. Take it all in. Accept your patterns, your habits, your predilections and grow through the elements that could use change. Be here now. Much love.