ABSTRACT
Most people spontaneously experience some moments of being fully engaged with present-moment experience without being caught up in thought-based formulations or concepts about it. For many though, a fog of preoccupations and preconceptions habitually clouds the present moment much of the time. The rationale for mindfulness being the foundation of MBCT rests on the skills, which a mindfulness practice confers, of enabling one to intentionally disengage from automatic pilot with its associated style of habitual ruminative thought processes; to bring the attention back to the actuality of the moment; and so to open the possibility of a wiser responsiveness to the situation. In this Point I aim to explore the state of mind that we call automatic pilot, some of its bene®cial and harmful effects and the ways that it interfaces with the state of mindful awareness.
