We have begun the process of revealing how the mind works and raised the possibility that your thoughts are not you.

Doing mode needs to think. It analyses, recalls, plans and compares. That’s its role and many of us find we’re very good at it.

Are you trying to get rid of them, or are you able to give them your full attention, breathing with them, accepting them, letting them be?

evidence is clear: brooding is the problem, not the solution.

For example, during the mindfulness programme you can practise letting go of avoidance and find yourself being less judgmental as well; you can work on ‘staying present’ and you’ll also find yourself taking your thoughts less literally; if you cultivate greater generosity towards yourself, you’ll find that you also have more empathy for others. And

By being present in more of your moments, and making mindful decisions about what you really want and need during those times, you can become progressively more accepting of the good and bad points of your day. You will also discover unexpected routes to happiness and fulfilment.

In the short term, the automatic pilot allows us to extend the working memory by creating habits. If we repeat something more than a couple of times, the mind links together all of the actions needed to complete a task in a brilliantly seamless manner.

You learn to stop wasting time pointlessly running through the same old habits of thinking and doing that have long since stopped serving any useful purpose. It also means that you are less likely to end up striving for too long towards goals that it might be wiser to let go of for a while. You become fully alive and aware again

When mood is low, motivation follows action, rather than the other way around. When you put the action first, motivation follows.