From early adolescence, the normal mind has been idling in neutral. Normal adults sleepwalk their way through life - our not noticing does not detract from the fact.

You won't wake up if you don't actively and deliberately decide to wake yourself up. In fact, you're hardwired to amble along in neutral.

So, wakey, wakey. Take five minutes. See, feel, hear, smell and taste where you are at this moment. It pays to check-in to your own life.

I recently had a call from someone who asked me if I work with children - which I do on occasion. I enquired as to what the problem might be. "Johnny's a great little worrier" was the reply.

It appears that we are hard-wired to worry - it keeps us on our toes and ensures that we don't get our head ripped off by a sabre-toothed tiger. But, how recently have you stumbled across one of those on your daily commute? The way we're wired plays havoc with us in the course of modern living.

Which brings me to today's story. A couple of years ago, a good friend rang me to tell me that he woke up in the middle of the night in and I quote "a fierce state of worry" - a gentle Irish way of putting things. When I asked him what he was worried about he replied: "I'm dead worried because I've nothing to worry about!"

I've had a running debate by email for the last few days with a reader who is trying to get his head around how he can be calm, focused and present given that he's feeling the stress of being under pressure. It puts me in mind of a conversation with a client many years ago: "I'm stressed out" he said "No you're not" I replied "I know that I'm allowing myself to be stressed out" he responded "No you're not - not even that" I continued "you simply think that you're stressed out!"

Here's my latest reply to my current correspondent:

Presence under pressure is achieved by being totally immersed in what one is doing under pressure, rather than feeling under pressure doing it.  It's a state of mind.  To help yourself ensure that you stay present when under pressure, you need to take a short pause - only seconds - to either take a couple of deep breaths or to touch or feel (really feel) something close at hand - to, quite literally, come to your senses. It is thinking that we're under pressure that creates the pressure - less thinking and more doing gets the job done!

Hope that makes some practical sense - I believe it does.