Opinion – Luciano Melo: The mind wandering, the flow of errors and creativity

Our mind wanders between past and future, imagining what could have been, anticipating events that will most likely never occur, in addition to elaborating fanciful narrations. The mental pattern is to create random thoughts, spontaneously, apart from what we do and present circumstances.

Some examples are typical of mental illness, such as the melancholy ruminations characteristic of depression; the obsessions, obsessive compulsive disorder identity; daydreaming, common to those with attention deficit disorder. In persons free from these infirmities, the consequences of intrusive reasonings may be minimal, nor do they disturb the purpose. Or not….

Sometimes we catch our minds off, for a surprisingly long time. Resigned or dissatisfied, we will not avoid this repetition. Procrastination and impulsiveness, frequent causes of frustration and disgust, are consequences of this cognitive failure, the incompetence in connecting thought to contemporary action. A failure of self-control.

Even more mildly, the divergence between thinking and acting generates sadness. Some philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness resides in the present, so its adherents are encouraged to recognize mental wanderings and focus on the here and now. These practices suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. But is this principle true and can it be objectively tested?

Complicated questions like these invite rambling. Fortunately, some curious and persistent ones went to work, specifically in 2010, at the Faculty of Psychology at Harvard University. These insistent, or rather researchers, sent questions, several times and at random, to the cell phones of 2,250 volunteers. The motto was to find out what they were doing, if what they were thinking was relevant to the moment and how they felt. The conclusions drawn from this classic study: participants were less happy when their minds wandered, no matter whether the activity was pleasant or unpleasant, or whether the thought was about pleasant topics or not. The wandering of the mind was the cause of sadness, not its mere consequence.

So, is the key to success and happiness voluntary mind control, the end of daydreaming? I disappoint my hopeful reader, it is not possible to achieve this objective.

Wandering thoughts occupy much of our time, as a normal aspect of the human condition, a remarkable effect of evolution that enables us to learn, reason, plan, and shape metacognition. The mental journey from past events to future possibilities helps us integrate experiences and anticipate consequences. Not to mention that these ramblings help you tackle the drudgery of monotonous tasks, as they add some refreshing breaks.

The human experience of consciousness is fluid, rarely confined to a single topic for an extended period, without deviation. Its nature is dynamic. Some reasonings that arise during the mind wandering tend to orbit some previous pending issues and can bring “Eureka” moments, which perhaps would not be achieved during the exhaustive search for a solution.

Mental impasses happen, and sometimes human concentration deviates from the obstacle. Reason then automatically engages with another activity, taking care of random themes. The problem is incubated, submerged in our consciousness. What happens during the incubation period is a mystery, we don’t know what goes on underground in the brain. But amidst the diversity of erratic thoughts, a solution can be found.

Immersed in thoughts and feelings, one can become lost in daydreams. However, mental simulations can reveal aspects of reality. The diversity of random thoughts, rather than a focus on a repetitive idea, is a determinant of creativity.