Life is hard enough. Why should we have to think all day long about we're doing? Sometimes, isn't it easier to just let your body do all the heavy lifting while your brain takes a short, sweet nap?
Or are the following stories a perfect example of why we should be thinking about what we do all the time?
Reddit user, u/MManooks, wanted to hear when you should have been more mindful when they asked:
Putting On A Show For The Class
posing bart simpson GIFGiphyOne day when I was about 10 or something, I started subconsciously undoing my shirt in the classroom. While the teacher was teaching. I don't know why and thankfully no one notice but 20 years later even today I remember and think why would that happen?
Pushing The Limits Of Biology
Unfortunately, I wasn't alone—
I was zoned out in class and just squishing my chest against the desk and playing with my bra straps. I'm not usually one to do anything like that, and it was not intentional. I hope nobody saw it. I was just "mhm yes biology— d a y u m, s o f t— ah yes hypertonic".
Swapping One For The Other
Started brushing my teeth one morning, getting ready for work, and half way through wondered why there were so many bubbles overflowing out of my mouth, and why it didn't taste minty. Realized I used face wash on my toothbrush instead of toothpaste.
Surprisingly, it did a good job.
Planning Out Everything You're Going To Say
Having a silent conversation with someone who is not there.
I've planned whole conversations before, with branching dialogue options, before having to stop myself
This Is How We Got The "Turducken"
angry season 3 GIFGiphyMy goldfish looked hungry and so I got the cat food out and almost poured it into the tank
Your cat would've appreciated the fact that you took the time to stuff his food with his other food. You're a good owner.
Wandering About
I pace through my entire house when I'm on the phone. In and out of every room in a pattern and I have no idea I'm doing it until it gets pointed out
Switch Into Auto-Pilot
Reaching home and laying down still dressed then waking up a couple hours later thinking it's early morning and I just got dressed so I get my stuff and start to leave home.
Happened to me at least one a week for a couple months.
I once went through my entire morning routine, shower and breakfast and everything, before glancing at a clock and realizing it was like 3 hours before I was even supposed to be up.
The thing was, I'd heard the alarm clock loud and clear! Turns out the alarm clock only went off in my dreams though. Looking back I realized that I had memory of the alarm going off and waking up, but no memory of ever turning the alarm off.
Careful, It's Hot?
Blew on ice cream I was eating because I was watching a cooking show where they were making soup.
...Wow.
Lmao, years ago I was on a date with this girl and we went to see Spiderman. Well before hand I had just shaved down there but didn't use any lotion. So like all throughout the movie we're holding hands and I am itching like crazy. Well without thinking I just take the back of my hand and start rubbing my pants to make it stop not realizing her hand is in mine and I'm aggressively rubbing my crotch.
After the 3rd or 4th time I did it, I had this "oh my f-cking god" just hit me and I look up and she's glaring a hole through my head. She didn't say a word, got up and walked out. It took like two weeks of texting between friends before one of them finally explained to her what happened (bc she blocked me) but the damage was done lol.
THIS PROBABLY ISN'T SAFE
stoned the simpsons GIFGiphyDriving. I'll be driving home from work and then suddenly realize I was on auto-pilot and am now half way home. Did I run every light? Who knows
I learned from a previous reddit post that your brain basically deletes memories like that right away. If you drive on the same road every day and nothing happens, the brain doesn't need countless memories of nothing happening on that road. If you'd run a red light, you would remember.
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"What’s the most amazing thing about the universe?"
Our Brains Are Like The Milky Way
"A single human brain has as many neurons as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy."
"Around 100 billion."
"Source: a neuroscientist filled with useless facts about the brain."- Afferent_Input
Where Our Deep Uncertainty Comes From
"This is one I thought about recently."
"I believe that Carl Sagan said that we, sentient entities, are a way for the cosmos to know itself."
"With this in mind, when we think about the end of our universe, whether it be through a big shrink, big cooling, or what have you, we get apprehensive."
"We probably will never see this end, many of us will be dead."
"Yet, we still get a cold fear in our hearts."
"We are also a way for the cosmos to fear it's demise."- TheClassyEngineer
A Little Perspective
"If you were on a planet 65 million light years away from Earth and had a really good telescope, you could see the dinosaurs."- Swimmergent
lisa simpson space GIFGiphyWhat Got Us Where We Are
"That every single random event since the dawn of creation."
"The birth and death of stars, planets and galaxies, the very genesis of life has led to you being here right now to ask this question."- Jesus_marley
There's Another World Out There...
"Imagine being transported to a parallel universe that was almost identical to our own."
"Somewhere out in the vastness of that universe, there is a tiny planet."
"This much is true in both universes."
"On this planet, there is a beach, and on that beach, there is a small stone."
"Once again, both universes are alike in this regard."
"Beneath that stone, however, there are several million grains of sand, and while they are all are in precisely the same location in each universe, one of them, a tiny speck of particularly clear quartz, hewn from a larger whole millions of years before, has a single atom that is positioned a fraction of a femtometer differently than its twin in the mirror dimension."
"You may think that such an insignificant difference would label these two universes as being functionally identical, and you would be right."
"In fact, they are so similar that the multiverse has long since combined them into one reality."
"That single atom in that tiny speck of sand on that lonesome beach on a distant planet merely occupies two spaces at once, seeming to an outside observer to vibrate back and forth at a predictable rate."
"That every atom in existence seems to do the same is probably a coincidence."- RamsesThePigeon
Loop Space GIF by xponentialdesignGiphySpeaks For Itself
"That it exists."- phillipsd001
The Age Old Question...
"It must be true that either it didn't exist, then it did."
"Or it has always existed."- realFraaErasmas
What Makes Our Brain Work...
"That somehow all the particles accumulated in a specific way and in specific quantities to give you conscious thought."- Sphyrwa
Stars Glow GIF by Erica AndersonGiphyThe Inevitable End...
That whatever our problems are, big or small, it won’t matter in 1,000,000 years (worst being a nuclear war or something). - Reddit
There are countless things about the universe no one will ever know.
But mysterious and, sometimes, unsettling as it may be, there's something oddly wonderful about the unending exploration and study to learn what is out there.
And all the discoveries we have yet to make.
