Isn’t it a wonderful word? Mindwandering. I came across this word recently as part of a title of a book by Moshe Bar that showed up when I was searching (textwandering?!) for something. I realised that there is a lot of “mind wandering” that I do – just like everyone. While at a meeting, suddenly I am transported to a different place and time, triggered by something I heard or felt. And then abruptly, I am back to the present. I always keep my notebook or small paper and pen handy so I can write thoughts as they buzz by. This isn’t planned daydreaming; it is leaving the busy present in a way no one else around notices.
So, I decided to explore the topic when the book was published recently. Here is an excerpt:
So much attention has been paid to ways to unplug from the bustle, and that’s absolutely to be commended. I’ll share my own positive experiences with doing so in silent meditation retreats. But as a series of discoveries in neuroscience over the past several decades have revealed, the greater challenge is freeing ourselves from the distractions within, which disrupt our attention and intrude on the quality of our experience even when we are in a perfectly quiet place. In fact, they may do so even more in times of quiet.
Research has revealed that our brains are inherently active. A number of brain regions connected in what’s dubbed the default mode network (DMN) are always grinding away, engaged in a number of different involuntary activities that neuroscientists collectively call mindwandering: from daydreaming to the incessant self-chatter and from ruminating about the past to worrying about the future. The brain regions most often identified as being part of the DMN include the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the angular gyrus, but there are several more that come and go as part of this massive, large-scale network. Not only does all of this inner commotion tug our attention away from the present moment, but it can dampen the quality of our experience, lowering our mood and potentially contributing to anxiety and depression. Yet there’s a method to this apparent madness. Evolution has clearly taught our minds to wander. According to various studies, they’re caught up in mindwandering between 30 and 47 percent of our waking time, gobbling up a great deal of energy.
…Our sense of self, research has shown, is largely a form of prediction about who we are, about how we will think, feel, and behave in different situations, associating how we’ve thought, felt, and behaved in similar situations in the past with how we will do so now and in the future. The same is true for how we develop our assessments of others. Associations are the building blocks of most mental operations.
This is, essentially, why so much of the DMN’s mindwandering activity is concerned with thinking about the past and the future, taking us away from the now. We’re searching memory for associations to help us interpret what’s happening in our lives and what might be coming. We’re intently making all manner of predictions. Indeed, as I continued researching what people were thinking about when their DMN was active, I found that they’re often creating elaborate scenarios of future events, like little movies about how situations in their lives are going to play out. No wonder so much of our mental energy is hogged by the DMN. After all, knowing how to interpret situations, establishing a sense of who we are, understanding others as best we can, and anticipating what turn of events we might need to be prepared for are all crucial to making our way through life.
Such a wonderful explanation for what we all do! Mindwandering happens a lot when I am reading. Even as I make notes of the interesting ideas, I also add to my notes my own pointers – a stream of consciousness about what thoughts have been triggered. This is the way ideas come. Mindwandering (and I didn’t really have a name till I came across this book) is a great way to think and imagine, both precursors of creation.
