3 Benefits of Letting Your Mind Wander
Losing focus could lead to your next great idea
Imagine you’re in the shower — the warm water trickling down your back, the mist moisturizing your lungs, and a gentle tune escaping your lips. You’re relaxed, scrubbing your body with soap absent-mindedly.
Suddenly, you realize, “the only time I clean my skeleton is when I brush my teeth!”
Wait, how did I think of that?
Your mind wandered, constructing a chain of thoughts that led to your unexpected realization. Our wandering minds don’t always find such intriguing discoveries (because hey, cleaning your skeleton isn’t something you think about everyday).
However, we certainly spend a lot of time lost in thoughts unrelated to the task at hand. 47% of our waking hours are spent daydreaming — not very surprising when the average human’s attention span is only eight seconds.
Unfortunately, in a society dominated by productivity, daydreaming connotes laziness, boredom, and ignorance. No one wants to associate with these traits when workplaces are full of cutthroat competition to see who can be the most productive.
We look at our watches trying to squeeze in as much activity as possible, never realizing we’re humans — not machines.
The act of simply gazing into the distance for a mere second of wandering can lead to a path of creative thoughts we sometimes forget we’re capable of producing. Whether you’re an aspiring author looking for a new plot twist, or a budding business owner looking for a creative solution to your organizational systems, the benefits of letting your mind wander could lead to your next great idea.
Boosts Creativity
If you were handed a paper clip and asked, “write a list of all the things you can do with a paper clip,” your eyes would probably narrow to the corner of the room, your mind searching for an assortment of answers. Because the task requires a variety of answers, your mind is open to hundreds of possibilities.
This type of thinking is widely known as divergent thinking — when you’re faced with an open-ended task that could have any number of responses. This form of thinking lacks considerable mental constraints meaning your mind has the flexibility to think however it wants.
Encouraging an open-mind boosts divergent thinking, and can result in enhanced creative problem-solving abilities and more original ideas.
To illustrate how creativity spikes we can examine a peak source of creativity in our lives — our dreams. REM sleep, the stage in which we dream, deactivates the prefrontal cortex, or the part of your brain in charge of logic and decision-making. Instead, the amygdala, the part of your brain in charge of emotions, lights up with activity.
This imbalance leads to a heightened creativity meter in your unconscious mind. Have you ever woken up to a dream that felt like a movie? Your creative juices were hard at work.
Although mind-wandering is done while fully conscious, the same idea is reflected. When you aren’t so focused on making the most logical decisions, your brain will revert to embracing emotions, spiking creativity.
Who knows — next time your eyes blur over your computer screen, your wandering brain could produce a creative solution to your business’s biggest flaw. In fact, scientific evidence suggests that those who daydream about their goals are more likely to achieve them.
Happy Thoughts
When we sit down to work on a grueling task, we begin to resent the job, hoping time will move faster. When our brains are stuck in a void of resentment, it isn’t uncommon to wander off into a daydream, grasping onto any idea that’ll make us happier.
One study showed when the content of someone’s mind wandering was composed of positive and interesting thoughts, their moods elevated. When we’re happy, our creativity is more likely to blossom. As a result, our minds create new, creative thoughts we would’ve had a much harder time finding when lost in a sadness slump or aggravation episode.
Up Your Performance
As I said before, we’re humans, not machines. We don’t run on batteries or get plugged into the wall — our brains need breaks. As much as we’d like breaks to consist of nice long vacations on a sandy beach, it’s unrealistic for most lifestyles.
However, no one’s stopping you from daydreaming about your dream vacation! Daydreaming about your happy place can take your mind away from grueling work that heightens stress levels. As a result, mind wandering can improve one’s mental health.
One study found that when participants’ frontal lobes were stimulated with a small electric current intended to boost mind wandering, participants’ performance increased while engrossed in attention-seeking tasks.
Letting your mind wander gives your brain a moment to relax. As a result, you’ll have improved focus after taking a break from your work. Better performance equals more effective results, which in turn generates better approaches to problem-solving.
The Takeaway
Society forces us to work for hours on end without ever truly getting a chance to sit down and take a break. Without the much-needed rest our minds require, we cannot explore the creativity that’s rooted in our best ideas. Next time someone criticizes you for letting a daydream slip into your thoughts, make it known that your daydream may evolve into your next great idea.
