Autopilot

Posted by Jenny | 0 comments

On one very, busy day of mine recently, I managed to drive to my destination (which was a good half-hour away) while completely daydreaming. When I pulled up to park, I then realized that I didn’t even consciously drive at all, because I had no idea on how I even got there. How scary is that? I was on autopilot the whole way. My brain obviously knew the route, and took over since I was in la-la land. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been on autopilot?

I was thinking how our lives can be like this. Our behaviors that we act on unconsciously can make our lives stagnant and hurt the ones we love. Instead of living consciously and with purpose from our own convictions, we live off of the steam from our past or with mainstream ideals, without a second thought. How we relate to our loved ones, can be entirely done on autopilot; from how we relate to our spouse, friends, family and our children. Stop and think for just a moment and ask yourself… is what I’m doing working? Is it the right thing to be doing? Why am I doing it? Are my behaviors helping me grow personally, spiritually, and emotionally? Are my behaviors influencing others or hurting?

I have spent a lot of my twenties on autopilot. Never questioning my patterns of behavior, or what I believed; even when they were obviously ineffective. What is thought provoking and irresistibly funny, is my autopilot behaviors I once had and have since changed and/or eliminated from my life, were the beliefs I was most passionate about! I was extremely stubborn and had major blinders on. The only thing that changed this for me was God. He opened my eyes and shook me to listen; I was open to change, by God changing my heart. Big changes were made in all my relationships, some big ones were how I related to my husband and my children. I honored my husband more, and backed down off of punishment/reward-style parenting. I began digging and dissecting into some more of what I’d always done, and was quite blown away. I had to grieve, pray about it, ask for forgiveness and become fully mindful of my life and everything I did from that point on.

Once I consciously had an open mind and became mindful in everything I did, I felt like a new woman, and like a sponge! I wanted to continually seek God on who He wanted me to be as a mom, a wife and a friend. I wanted to learn all I could on self-betterment; I was feeling renewed and liberated! This new way of conscious and mindful thinking gave me purpose behind everything I did from that point on. My pen was flying in my planner with all the new goals I had for change, for me personally and my family. Of course this didn’t mean that I was perfect all the time with never ending patience and kindness. Being mindful just keeps you aware so you’re able to correct it as soon as possible; you’re not on autopilot, anymore.

Being a mindful parent means that you will begin to truly enjoy living with your children; your mindset changes instantly and your mood follows. You now get-it that the messes can always be picked-up, and the realities of children growing up too fast is all too a reality. You are attentive and always listening, you are less reactive to the everyday problems that arise in child rearing and instead of using punishment to squelch bad behavior to try and stop the problems; you instead learn to handle them, and patiently, teach instead.

It is not easy, being mindful and living consciously, but nothing worthwhile usually is. God is ever present when you are mindful…and that is where your truest joys are, your true blessings from God are yours when you are here. We are always on a journey, and we must do it consciously and mindful.

Are you living on autopilot?

Jenny Penton is a homeschooling mother of seven children and loves the closeness that being home with them provides. Un-schooling is how they live and learn and she blogs about their learning experiences at Homeschoolingbelle.com. Jenny also has a passion for inspiring women to become master life planners and that includes menu planning. Check out her sites for life planning and her inspiring recipes on her food blog at plannerperfect.com and plannerperfectmeals.com