In this session, we'll explore the relationship between mindfulness and automatic patterns or habits.

Much of our thinking and many of our actions are automatic. When we're running on “autopilot”, our behaviour and decision-making often follow habits and routines, while our mind is pre-occupied with other thoughts. This ‘automaticity’ conserves our limited attentional resources, allowing us to do multiple tasks at once. However, some automatic thinking patterns can negatively impact our wellbeing.

Without becoming aware of these patterns, change is difficult, if not impossible! Paying mindful attention to our automatic reactions and routine patterns of thinking and behaviour is a powerful way to decrease their effect. Awareness of our automatic patterns creates room to choose other behaviour, instead of the automatic behaviour.