Wandering Mind, not a Happy Mind
People spend half of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, and this mind-wandering typically makes them unhappy. Have you ever taken the time to ask you how present you really are?
In 2010, Killingsworth & Gilbert did a study to find out exactly how much our minds wander. Considering most animals spend their time living in the present moment, it would be natural to think that human beings as part of the animal kingdom, would do the same. However as humans, we spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around us. We contemplate our past and future and things that have not even happened yet or probably will never happen.
Our minds seem to have a default behaviour of wandering. Which makes it hard for us to live in the moment unless we Actively practise Mindfulness. So what did the study find? Our minds wander 46.9% of the time in general! That is almost half our day spent wandering and not living in the moment. On top of that, our minds wander about 30% in any given task.
When our mind is truly present to the exclusion of most other thoughts, we usually tend to enter a “flow state”, which is often describe as a sense of fluidity between your body and mind, where you are totally absorbed by and deeply focused on something, beyond the point of distraction.
The study also showed concluded that "a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind, is an unhappy mind.” The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost. Your brain will scan for all the things that could happen in your life, and most of the time, these thoughts are rather anxious or negative.
KEY TAKEAWAY from this post?
1. Try to keep your mind focused when you are doing things that you enjoy first; get rid of any distractions.
2. Try to be present emotionally and physically in the task at hand by scheduling shorter working period.
3. Learning to focus is a skill that takes time to sharpen, start meditating today.
Indeed, being able to focus on the present is thought to boost happiness. Most meditation techniques involve learning to “be in the moment,” and numerous studies have linked meditation to greater happiness, better ability to cope with stress and pain and improvements in physical health. It gives you more opportunity to stand back and take a moment to choose what to do next, instead of having your mind on auto-pilot and you’re not there.
Here at Inbloom, we believe that offering a Virtual Corporate Mindfulness Meditation Session to your team will make a big difference in their day. Email us and we’ll discuss!