Last week, Belinda Brown interviewed me on her Empowered Women series. The intent of the interview was to talk about my research and book on voluntary childlessness but we ended up taking most of the hour talking about the link between mindful, conscious, decision making and success.
Over the course of our lives we develop habitual patterns of behavior which become the default. It’s feels like we are on auto pilot and our brains are not fully engaged moment to moment. You have experienced this I am sure–the times when you pull into your driveway and have no recollection of how you got there, or the time when you catch only the last sentence of what your child or spouse just said. Don’t worry, you are not losing your mind! You are just not being mindful, or engaging your brain in a conscious way.
The severe expression of this default zone is a zombie-like existence: when you sleep walk through life utilizing only habitual patterns of behavior. The Zombie doesn’t get to make a choice, but you do. In every moment and in every day.
Take a moment to watch the video of this interview. The juicy bits are after the intro, at about 8 minutes in when I talk about mindfulness and the default. Enjoy!