SOAR TO SUCCESS / Personal Growth Strategies unhappy. Yet mind-wandering is such a natural part of how our brains work, that our thoughts wander about half of the time. It defies logic to think that our brains would be spending that much energy on something bad for us. This is according to a 2021 Forbes magazine article, New Science: Why Our Brains Spend 50% Of the Time Mind-Wandering. Mind-wandering seems to involve the default network of the brain, which is known to be active when we are not engaged directly in tasks and is also related to creativity. It can also serve important functions for our performance, well-being and elevated mood. Whether or not mind-wandering is a negative depends on a lot of factors—like whether it’s purposeful or spontaneous, the content of your musings, and what kind of mood you are in. In some cases, a wandering mind can lead to creativity, greater productivity, and more concrete goals. It’s no wonder that my best inspirations come to mind when I take a long bike ride or walk or stare out the window above my desk. Creatives and innovators have used mindwandering to solve difficult problems or generatenew ideas. Zachary Irving, anassistant professor at University of Virginia argues that mind-wandering works differently than we think. Irving is a philosopher of cognitive science who proposes that mind-wandering should be understood as ‘unguided attention.’ Mind-wandering may appear to be purposeless, but our thoughts have a surprising way of wandering to our goals. Irving calls this the “Puzzle of the Purposeful Wanderer.” He writes, “My solution to the puzzle is this: mind-wandering is purposeless in one way—it is unguided—but purposeful in another—it is frequently caused, and thus motivated, by our goals.” If mind-wandering is a positive feature of cognition, what is it doing for us? Well for one thing, the alpha waves that show up when our minds arewanderingmeanwe are relaxing. Our brains cannot maintain focus and productivity without regular periods of relaxation. But there is another thing mind-wandering does for us. It may seem counterintuitive but letting our thoughts drift can actually help us solve problems when focusing on them does not work. So, the next time you want to solve a problem or create something new, you might want to crank up the alpha waves and let your mind go. In some cases, a wandering mind can lead to creativity, greater productivity, and more concrete goals.
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