Healthline: Unplug and Let Your Mind Wander — Research Shows It’s Good for You

“When people have a few moments to kill, they often pull out their smartphones to check their email or read the news.

“We tend to think that ‘just thinking’ or ‘just waiting’ is boring,” said Kou Murayama, PhD, who co-authored a new study recently published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

By contrast, Murayama and his colleagues found that people actually enjoyed being alone with their thoughts much more than they expected.

“In the modern digital world, it’s so easy to ‘kill time’ when there is free time,” Murayama said. “But it may be a good idea to immerse ourselves in thinking in such a situation.” Distraction-free downtime may be more pleasurable than people may believe, he explained.

Murayama added there may be other benefits to mind wandering beyond simple enjoyment. He said previous studies have found that spending time letting your mind wander can help people to be more creative and better at solving problems. He noted that if we avoid quiet reflection times, we may miss out on these benefits.”

Some Insights From This Article

• According to this article, having a distraction free downtime may be beneficial for us and help our brains reset and be more efficient the next time we get engaged in an activity or job.

• Often disconnecting our brain from distractions like phones and other things can help “mentally” reset it, allowing it to relax and in essence prepare itself for the next time it needs to be used.

• People assume a period of “doing nothing” may be boring but the research actually discovered that people enjoy this activity a lot more than they think!

• The article does note that this time may not be beneficial for every group of people such as those who tend to sit on negative ruminations for a long time.

Have you ever just sat down and just thought to yourself? How did you feel?

Full article is here!

#Unplug #Cognitive #Mental