Wake up! Escaping a life on autopilot

Wake-up calls often happen when things get really bad. Pain motivates us to change because generally we don’t make changes when we’re comfortable.

That’s why I have loved Chris Baréz-Brown’s Wake Up! column in Psychologies this year – a more joyful way to inch out of our comfort zone and try a weekly ‘wake-up experiment’ where we were encouraged to make conscious choices about the way we live.

I believe that if we work on regular ways to stop putting up with what we don’t want and start creating what we do, we stop feeling disempowered and can be part of the solution versus the problem.

A year ago, we invited you to blog about your experiences and the results have been astonishing. From the Wake Up! 2016 test research of Wake Up! 83% of the experiences were deemed to have had a positive impact, 96% of people felt happier and 92% would strongly recommend them to others.

We invited Chris to talk to Psychologies editor, Suzy Greaves, at a Facebook Live event to give us more ideas about how to have more fun, be happier and more conscious about how we spend our time. The event has already taken place, but you can still watch the watch the video here for inspiration. 

Join Wake Up!

And, here’s your chance to get involved. The Wake Up! team are looking for people to take part in a free 10 minute experiment. ‘We are learning so fast through experimenting with people. We have much better insight as to what triggers autopilot, what helps people escape it and most importantly what happens as a result of waking up more frequently, to feel more inspired and alive,’ says Chris Baréz-Brown.

‘However, we do think we could learn so much more and are chomping at the bit to do so. If you are up for helping, we would love to learn through you and your experiences.

Unless we get sufficient people doing one specific experiment, the learning is slower. So we are encouraging all our friends to have a go at one experiment over the next 10 days in a Wake Up! research programme.

Free download

What we would love you to do is go onto the app (it’s free to download) and complete the experiment ‘Get Back In Touch’ sometime over the next week. Not only is the experiment impactful, it’s a fun thing to do and we are sure it will help make you feel more engaged and alive.

All you have to do is get back in touch with an old friend you haven’t seen for some time. Most importantly we would love to hear the impact that it has on you, so please tell us about your experience on the app itself when it prompts you to share how it made you feel.

By doing so we can then find more about the way the app works so that every experiment in the future can be that much more Technicolor. And please tell your friends. The more we get on it, the more chance we can make this planet get its groove back.’

Join the Wake Up! research programme: Download Wake Up! free of charge at The App Store and Google Play and click the ‘Get Back in Touch’ experiment to complete your feedback by 15 February.

Find out more and get involved here.

Click here to read our Wake Up! bloggers’ diary journeys and discover more Wake Up! inspiration.

Photograph: iStock