Let Your Mind Wander…You May Learn Some Shit

New research suggests that the more you daydream, the better chance you have in learning.

In fact, our brain may be most actively engaged when our mind is wandering and we’ve actually lost track of our thoughts…”Solving a problem with insight is fundamentally different from solving a problem analytically,” Dr. Kounios says. “There really are different brain mechanisms involved.”

By most measures, we spend about a third of our time daydreaming, yet our brain is unusually active during these seemingly idle moments. Left to its own devices, our brain activates several areas associated with complex problem solving, which researchers had previously assumed were dormant during daydreams. Moreover, it appears to be the only time these areas work in unison.

I’ve always been a chronic day dreamer. And I don’t feel so bad about that after reading this.

Being Happy Among Uncertainty

Using current economic conditions as an impetus, Harvard Psychology Professor Daniel Gilbert explores human anxiety when confronted with the unknown.

…people feel worse when something bad might occur than when something bad will occur. Most of us aren’t losing sleep and sucking down Marlboros because the Dow is going to fall another thousand points, but because we don’t know whether it will fall or not — and human beings find uncertainty more painful than the things they’re uncertain about.

I would consider myself a worry-wort; something that I’m consciously attempting to remedy.  Most of my stress comes from not being able to know with the utmost certainty, whether it relates to work, school, relationships, et cetera.  When something is “up in the air,” so to speak, than I have a tendency to worry myself into psychological diplegia.

And if unfortunate news befalls for whatever reason, it seems as though my previous worry dissipates.  Why?  Because, despite a calamatous outcome, what was once uncertain now has been made clear.

…when we get bad news we weep for a while, and then get busy making the best of it. We change our behavior, we change our attitudes. We raise our consciousness and lower our standards. We find our bootstraps and tug. But we can’t come to terms with circumstances whose terms we don’t yet know. An uncertain future leaves us stranded in an unhappy present with nothing to do but wait.