Whenever we find ourselves going into autopilot mode, one of the things we can do to snap ourselves out of it is to bring our attention back to ourselves. Something we don’t usually do. Especially when we’re doing something, we rarely notice how we’re breathing. And usually we’re not breathing great. Usually, we’re holding our breath a lot, or shallow breathing, so we’re not expanding our belly. And often, we’re not paying attention to what we’re doing with our hands.

So besides our breathing, we can sense our fingertips and put all of our awareness into them.

One of the incredible things about our fingertips is that they have the most nerve endings on the body. That’s why we’re really good with our hands and very sensitive in our fingertips. There is a lot of sensation there, and a lot of information going into our brain from our fingertips that we’re rarely aware of.

So putting conscious awareness into our fingertips, whatever we’re doing, touching, holding, or whatever is nearby, brings us into the present. And if there’s nothing, we can just touch our fingertips together. That really zaps us into the present moment.

If we’re not hearing what’s going on or seeing what’s around us, some self-awareness can short-circuit that autopilot mode.