Harvard research has shown that on average people spend 47 per cent of their time not thinking about what they are doing. In fact for any activity, except lovemaking, people’s minds wander for 30 per cent of the time that they are engaged on any given task. So mind wandering is an intrinsic part of the human condition but, unfortunately, research has also shown that a wandering mind tends to cause, not just result from, unhappiness. If you could stop thinking about what you will have for dinner for a moment, the good news is that a new study has found that it actually depends on the type of wandering that your mind engages in as to whether it will make you happy or not.
The research involved subjects being equipped with a personal “digital assistant†that asked them at random moments how positive or negative they felt, whether they were mind wandering and if there musings were interesting, useful or novel. This was done approximately 50 times over the course of a week.
The results showed that people reported mind wandering a little less than the Harvard estimates. In this study the subjects reported that their minds were wandering 26 per cent of the time. Confirming earlier research, the subjects did also feel generally less positive when their minds were wandering. However, when the mind wandering took the form of useful, creative, novel or interesting musings then this was strongly correlated with a positive mood.
So a wandering mind can be a happy mind if it wanders in the right places.
What we discover then is that ordinary rumination on events can lead to unhappiness but creative musing is associated with a happy mind. Maybe a happy mind is more creative or it could be creativity inspires happiness. The direction of the link remains uncertain, and maybe it is in fact a loop, but the link is certainly there.
This study is telling us that your mind wants some creative wandering to make it happy. As far as your body is concerned to keep it happy you should start the day with some whole grains, nuts, a smattering of fruit and yoghurt. It’s a formula for mind-body happiness that is easy to remember: muesli for your body, muse for your mind.
