Mind Wandering and Aging Cells

Mind wanderings is when task-orientated thoughts are taken over by internal, unrelated thoughts. Such as “wandering”, it is a common mental state for humans. It is said that mind wandering takes up about half of our mental time and most times leads to our unhappiness. When we stop our minds from wandering we are focusing on the present, staying focused on the present leads to more happiness. I find this very true. I catch myself “wandering” all the time, especially when I listen to music. It is interesting to see where your mind leads too but in all honesty, when I let my mind wander off I think about negative things going on in my life. Next thing you know one negative thought takes you to another negative thought and it never ends. For example, last semester I was scared of a group project. I thought I was going to fail and then it lead to me to thinking I won’t graduate on time and that I’d have to stay back another semester, then leading me to think about all the extra money I’d have to save and how I’d have to pick up another part time job just to afford college. Mind wandering can be very dangerous and unbeneficial. Had I brought myself back to the present, focused on finishing that group project only, I would not have thought about all those negative outcomes that could happen. When you come back to the present and focus on what is at hand, you are able to achieve more. You find yourself in a more positive thinking environment and it helps reduce unhappiness in your life.
Insight: Now I understand why Professor Le has us come back from our wandering thoughts when we do our mindfulness exercises before and after class. It’s to remove our wandering