Pause Your Machinery: Wisdom Pages

Stop and take a moment to “pause your machinery.” The concepts and techniques I present throughout my latest book, Your Mind Is What Your Brain Does for a Living, require mindfulness to learn and master, and this brief written exercise will give you the opportunity to rest, step outside the pattern of passive reading, and bring yourself into the present moment to reflect and see how the information I want to share with you can be integrated into your own life.

Keep your written answers, because they will be valuable for you to review and refer to later. You may want to buy a notebook or open a computer file so that you can keep all of your responses together in one place.

• In a new file or notebook, create your first set of Wisdom Pages. Start by writing down some or all of the Guiding Principles you created to support you in acting mindfully instead of being run by your programming. Also include observations about your core issues, what triggers your programming, and how you act in various situations in which you become activated if you’re on automatic pilot. Include, too, some of the important insights and information you want to repeat silently or aloud to yourself in these situations.

Remember to make your Wisdom Pages file or notebook six pages or fewer, and summarize each nugget of wisdom about life and about yourself as clearly and briefly as possible.

The act of writing your Wisdom Pages will help you learn the life lessons that you are teaching yourself in your process of self-transformation. And every time you read your Wisdom Pages, you will be encouraging yourself to become more and more mindful.

As we’ve seen, living mindfully takes continuing effort and, there­fore, continuing resolve, but the rewards are tremendous, especially when you consider the alternative of living within the limitations of life on automatic pilot. In the concluding chapter, I want to share with you a few simple ways to think about these basic issues in your daily life and to stay on the path of mindfulness.

An excerpt from my recent book, Your Mind Is What Your Brain Does for a Living, now available at Amazon.