What is the mundane? The term “mundane” when we define it in simple terms will serve our purpose of changing our perspective. The mundane is the dull, boring, unexciting everyday life. The mundane is the brushing of the teeth and it is the writing of reports, the driving in traffic and the paying of bills. The mundane is this earthly world that is so dull and boring that it can, and often will overwhelm the mind. Hell on earth would be clear and vivid memories of each and every time we brushed our teeth or every number filled out in every report during our lifetime. How many bills does it take to break down the soul and eventually the will to live? The mundane is where fun goes to die and subconscious habits reign supreme. We live life as if the meaning of life is paying bills and being on time to work. Those things require little effort or skill and become automated, they become habits, even breathing is such an ingrained habit that it switches to automated mode without conscious thought or effort. It doesn’t take long before we become experts at waking up on time and getting to work on time, to get home on time and get dinner done on time and we do those things enough many times that they become habitual. We give little thought to our everyday lives because once the basic routine has been established, little thought or effort is needed to maintain it. Years can pass by without us being really aware of life taking place all around us. Habits are the body’s own way of protecting the conscious mind from the mundane. The body’s automation process is similar to an overly generous grandma, she keeps feedings us and doesn’t notice how fat and lazy we are getting. The body keeps automating processes without noticing their effects. Paying attention is the conscious mind’s job, a job that requires presence of mind to be done well. Life would be overwhelming if we were conscious of everything all the time, the mind would just break down. In the habit of driving cars, the more ingrained the habit in the subconscious mind, the safer it becomes to drive a car, the subconscious mind becomes leaner. The conscious mind is not as good as the subconscious mind at acting in real-time. The conscious mind decides to practice driving and the subconscious picks up the habit and becomes adept at driving over time. When the conscious mind decides the destination and the subconscious mind does the hard work, we get healthy habits like brushing our teeth or driving well. If we let the monkey decide, if we let the subconscious mind follow the old programming, it will follow its whims and the habits will be unhealthy, like smoking. We can’t hope to get a severe cold and then hope some more that we will kick the smoking habit by not being able to smoke for a week or two. We need to take charge and make conscious changes to our habits.