How to be smart again

autopilot doesn’t announce itself dramatically; it sneaks in through small habits. the reflexive scroll as soon as you wake up. the way your hand reaches for your phone in a lull, not because you want to, but because you don’t know what else to do with stillness. the nodding along in conversations without actually hearing half of what was said. the ritual “uh-huh” you say to your child while your mind is quietly elsewhere. at first these things seem harmless — and individually they are — but stacked together, they form the shape of a life that runs without much attention.

An illustration by <n>Rose in Good Faith</n>.

sometimes it’s refusing to measure your evening in how many tasks you crossed off. presence isn’t a dramatic shift; it’s the accumulation of small refusals to drift.

when people say “this year flew by,” i think that’s what they mean — not that the year was short, but that they didn’t actually notice themselves inside it.

creativity is wired into us. neurologically, it activates the brain’s default mode network, the system responsible for memory, empathy, and self-reflection. it’s not just expression. it’s integration. every act of creation reorganises who we are. and the longer we do it, the more our brains seem to change. one study used MRI scans to observe people before and after a series of art classes³. researchers found increased connectivity in regions of the brain linked to decision-making, introspection, and emotional regulation. another study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, found that creative writing increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the area that helps us understand others, and hold together a sense of self. it’s as if art doesn’t just help us feel more. it helps us become more coherent.

the strange thing about presence is that it rarely arrives by accident. you have to invite it. and inviting it usually means choosing the less convenient option. it’s easier to let the scroll swallow your evening than to sit in the quiet. it’s easier to skim through bedtime stories than to sink into them fully. autopilot is frictionless; living awake takes resistance.