I came across this article (full text) in Science titled A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind.The authors developed a web application for the iPhone to create a large database of real-time reports of thoughts, feelings and actions. The volume of data was impressive with a quarter of a million samples from approximately 5000 people, across 83 different countries.
Mind wandering is frequent, in greater than 46% of the cohort. Participants self reported less happiness when their minds were wandering. People were no happier when thinking about pleasant topics.
To quote the authors: A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is and not happy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost.
We train our bodies for greater fitness yet commonly neglect to train our minds for greater focus. Let your mind wander and think of what we could achieve with greater attention.
