Who is Driving Your Life? How to Take the Brain Off Autopilot
THE BONFIRE BREW
8/21/20263 min read
If you’ve ever felt like you’re simply coasting through your weeks on autopilot, you are far from alone. On August 20th, our ThriveHost community gathered for another live session of The Bonfire Brew. It was one of our most interactive calls yet, packed with raw stories, incredible insights into brain science, and plenty of brilliant breakthroughs from our participants.
We laughed, we folded paper, and most importantly, we learned how to deliberately invite our creative minds back into the driver’s seat. Here is a look at what we uncovered together.
Shaking Off the Day
We kicked off the call by doing something a little unconventional to release the heavy, intellectual stress of the workday. While sitting comfortably in our chairs, we focused on our bodies and shook out our hands, wrists, and shoulders to shift our energy.
I shared a personal challenge I recently set for myself: taking my mountain bike completely off my normal, comfortable trail. It was terrifying in the moment, but finishing it brought an absolute rush of "Wohoo!" That is the magic waiting for us just outside our rigid comfort zones.
This sparked a beautiful wave of interactive conversation. Instead of just typing in a chat box, participants unmuted and spoke directly, sharing just how long it had been since they did something purely for the fun of it. It proved how easily our protective routines can turn into accidental mental prisons.
Meet the 4 Characters Inside Your Head
The core of our discussion centered around Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor’s Whole Brain Living framework. We broke down the four distinct cell quadrants—or "characters"—that dictate how we think and feel:
Character 1 (Left Thinking): Your analytical, structured planner.
Character 2 (Left Feeling): Your cautious, anxious protector who relies on past fears to keep you safe.
Character 3 (Right Feeling): Your spontaneous, thrill-seeking present-moment adventurer.
Character 4 (Right Thinking): Your calm, deeply connected, all-knowing observing sage.
The consensus among everyone who spoke up was clear: most of us spend nearly 90% of our waking hours trapped in the left side of our brain (Characters 1 and 2). We get so busy planning the future and organizing our obligations that we completely numb ourselves to our present surroundings.
Deepening the Practice: Questions from the Circle
Because the call was highly conversational, we had time to dive deep into two incredible questions raised by our participants:
1. "How do we give the other parts of our brain a real chance to participate?"
When we are stuck on autopilot, the loud, analytical left brain completely blocks out the quiet, intuitive answers we desperately look for. To counter this, I shared Dr. Jill’s BRAIN exercise—a intentional, five-step tool to pause emotional reactivity, connect with your inner landscape, and let your right brain take a turn at the steering wheel.
2. "What happens when a character has been dominant long enough to become a permanent 'mode'?"
Another participant asked about what to do when a rigid or anxious state starts to feel like your permanent default identity. I acknowledged that this is an incredibly common experience. The key to breaking through a dominant mode is remembering the 90-second rule of emotions. The actual physiological flush of an emotion only lasts 90 seconds. We can consciously break the cycle by deliberately changing our physical posture or our thinking state, and the emotional cycle will follow.
Finding Flow with an Origami Fox
To put theory into practice, we wrapped up the evening with a hands-on exercise right on the call. Together, we stepped entirely away from our analytical thoughts and used our hands to fold an origami fox.
Seeing everyone hold up their finished foxes to the screen was pure joy. The room's collective energy shifted entirely from rigid and tired to light, connected, and vibrant.
Ready to Reclaim Your "Yes"?
Breaking out of autopilot is hard to do alone when your routine has completely taken over. If you feel too buried under daily demands to even know what you would say "yes" to, let's connect.
You can click here to book a free discovery call with me. Together, we will clear the clutter, rewrite your daily rhythms, and safely bring your creative, curious right brain back to the forefront of your life.
Until next month, keep chasing those small moments of wonder!
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