Life, Philosophy, Neurology, Science
Why does your mind always wander?
If you thought you were alone, think again
Ready, steady, focus. You are going to be reading something that might answer what you are so intrigued about. Try hard to keep your attention, albeit it won’t be feasible to have executive control over your attention, you don’t have to worry about it.
Something is almost certain to intrude on your consciousness. It might be an intrusive thought, or it might be a memory of yesterday. Perhaps It could be a desire for coitus.
As you read further, your mind will certainly wander at least once. Some studies show that we may spend nearly 50 % of our lives just wandering in our heads.
Lucky for you, it is a sign of a healthy mind! Zoning out is extremely common, and it takes place at any instance in our quotidian lives, often without us being aware of it. For a long time, this lack of focus has been considered a failure. Executive control — The ability to filter distractions, was thought to be the fortune of individuals who were smarter and zoning out of individuals who are not smart. But as we will find, this is wrong.
Yes, people with high executive control tend to have a higher IQ on average and ace analytical problems but being analytical isn’t everything. People with a high level of executive control tend to fail on tasks that require creative flashes of inspiration.
People who have low levels of executive control and wander in their thoughts are generally more creative on average than people who are analytical and have high levels of executive control.
These findings hint at an answer to the question of why we zone out so quickly: it might lead us to think more creatively. It certainly makes sense since one important skill for creativity is the ability to link disparate concepts, which might come across when your mind is wandering.
Think about the time when you are looking for a word, a date, or a quote in the back of your head, and you never get it whilst thinking so hard, but then miraculously it comes to you when your mind wanders about something completely different.
An example of how daydreamers are more creative is this: Alcohol may be the enemy of focused attention. But the focus is the enemy of creativity. Logically, Alcohol ought to be the friend of creativity. And behold it is!
When researchers got a bunch of students a bit tipsy on vodka and cranberry and asked them to solve a series of tricky puzzles that require creative rather than analytical solutions, the drinkers zoned out more than students given soft drinks. But they solved the puzzles faster and in a great number
Studies also show that our “Default Network” — brain network primarily composed of the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and angular gyrus, starts working only when we wander in our thoughts.
The job of the default network is to daydream. Neuroscientists think that it is the ultimate tool for incorporating lessons learned in the past into our plans for the future. The pathways that assist in this searching exercise could well be essential to creativity; helping us to assess and link disparate concepts held in our minds. Hence, the benefits of zoning out.
So if you drifted off while reading this article, don’t feel bad. It’s almost impossible not to.
