Take a moment to practice mindfulness and gratitude.

We spend most of our lives in the Default Mode Network of our brain, also called the resting state, it is a place of habitual patterns of thought. We dwell in memory, make judgments about ourselves and others, and imagine the future.

These thoughts are well-trodden neural pathways – by some estimates 95% of our daily thoughts are the same thoughts we had the day before, and 80% of those are negative. After many years of programming the brain, knowing how to recognise familiar sounds, smells and sights - we stop hearing, smelling and seeing, and assume the experience of our environment. We live increasingly in memories of our world.

Mindfulness is a practice that removes us from habitual thought patterns, it allows us to experience our surroundings in different ways and to think in new ways. We can experience the world as it actually is, not as our well-programmed brain expects it to be.

Next time you wake up, before your brain can kick into the default mode, have a go at experiencing the present moment.

1. **Notice sensations in your body** - don’t label them as good or bad, just notice them.
2. **Notice parts of your body that you’re not normally aware of.** Notice warmth and coolness.
3. **Notice a smell** - try not to label it or work out what it is.
4. **Notice a sound** - listen to it as though it was the first time you heard it.

After a few minutes of mindfulness, allow your brain to return to executive functioning. Think about something you are grateful for - combine the somatic and mental experience by feeling the sensation of gratitude in your body. How does your body feel? Where is your awareness at this moment?