The Wanderer Mind, what is it ?

Ode to Daydreaming or Mental Drift?

---

Have you ever experienced the sensation of struggling to keep track of your thoughts?

Of seeing your mind wander when you should be focusing on a given task?

If so, then you've likely experienced what's known as "the wanderer mind."

But what exactly is mind wandering?

It's when you're doing one thing but thinking about another. When your attention meanders along neural pathways and gets lost for a while. This can range from simple distraction to full-on daydreaming.

This mental phenomenon is unique to our species, Homo sapiens sapiens, allowing us to organize, plan, dream...

However, in a society that emphasizes overproduction and hyper-efficiency, principles instilled in us from a young age, is such mental divergence seen as positive or negative?

That's what we're going to explore in this article.

The Wanderer Mind from a Scientific Perspective

First, let's turn to the viewpoints of our scientific companions.

There are two studies related to the topic of mind wandering. One is American, led by Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert from Harvard University, and the other is Israeli, conducted by researchers from Bar Ilan University.

Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert aimed to answer the eternal question, "What are the major causes of happiness?" To do so, they surveyed a thousand people using a smartphone app, asking real-time questions.

The app generated three questions at different times of the day, asking users how they were feeling, what they were doing, and whether they were thinking about something else. Based on this study, the researchers found that 47% of respondents were engaged in a task while their minds were elsewhere. They also found a correlation with unhappiness and sadness, as most users admitted that their stream of thoughts was unpleasant.

On the contrary, those living in the present moment were generally happier.

Does this mean that mental wandering leads to sadness? This is what the first study seems to suggest. Let's explore other perspectives.

The Israeli researchers took a completely different approach. They recruited volunteers willing to enter a simulated dream state through electrical stimulation of the frontal lobe.

Afterward, these stimulated volunteers were asked to perform certain activities. The researchers quickly noticed that the subjects were more efficient in completing their tasks. Removed from their current context, they weren't bored; they were daydreaming, and this dream state stimulated their intellectual activity, making them more proficient.

This second study suggests that daydreaming can be a catalyst for intellectual endeavors and therefore has positive aspects.

While these two studies may seem contradictory, they likely represent different facets of the same coin. Indeed, mind wandering, neither inherently good nor bad, depends on how it's used. Concentration is the exercise in which the mind focuses on a specific idea or action. It's essential for tasks and understanding high levels of abstraction and concepts, while scattered thinking can generate anxiety and restlessness. However, the mind cannot always be focused; doing so leads to exhaustion. It's therefore healthy to unconsciously or consciously disconnect through daydreaming or distraction.

From a scientific perspective, the functions inherent to mind wandering are complementary. They can lead an individual to self-deprecation and sadness or allow them to rest their mind after or between moments of intense concentration. Neither wholly good nor bad.

Now let's step away from Cartesian reasoning and delve into the philosophical, artistic, and historical notions raised by this question.

The Philosophical, Artistic, and Historical Perspective

Artists and philosophers have always viewed daydreaming as a portal to our inner world, our unconscious, our connection to the divine.

Even as children, we explored it through play and imagination. "Our inner world is richer, vaster" as Nietzsche referred to Liebnitz. Some adults maintain this capacity, this wandering mind, and continue to explore their fantasies and horrors for introspective or creative purposes.

Etymologically, the term "vagabond" comes from the Latin "vagari," meaning "to wander." To roam, to digress, to wander off... All these French words, stemming from the same root, refer to wandering to varying degrees, from gentle madness to total delirium.

Vagabonds have always been seen as a marginalized class. They are those who transgress rules, the nomads, the people who don't conform to societal norms. Until the 20th century, the wandering mind was even considered a form of insanity. In the 18th century, some of these "ill" individuals were exiled from society in a rather unique way: they were allowed to live on rivers where they could navigate physically and wander freely psychologically.

Is the ability to embark spiritually on non-existent places, creating a dreamlike, chimeric world, strolling within it and bringing back fragments of fantasy, not a necessary process for any artistic creation?

The wanderer escapes, discovers the beyond, and returns with wild ideas borrowed from this escape. Just like the artist, they open doors to an invisible world, offering us an escape through imagination. The rational being gives way to the sensitive being. These wanderings remove us from the mundane; we leave the matrix for a while. As Bachelard said, "escape through dreams is also spiritual happiness," and Paul Valéry added, "What would we be without the help of the non-existent?"

What I gather from these words is that imaginative wandering is essential for any sensitive being seeking to transcend the rules and forms of their daily life. Through wandering and introspection come ideas, our ideas. Those stemming from our unconscious. They are sometimes wild, unintelligible, unusable as they are, but they open paths for future reflection or lead to our open-mindedness and imagination. Is a wandering mind then such a bad practice?

In my view, it's a double-edged sword.

A fantastic engine for daydreams, it grants access to our unconscious, our imagination, allowing us to retrieve innovative or different ideas and bring them into our conscious lives. From these ideas, we can create, evolve, expand, think differently, etc... It is the source of our imagination and thus creative inspiration.

As the Israeli study demonstrated, dreaming is an intellectual stimulant, so we have the perfect tool of creation within our minds.

However, it can be dangerous to let our minds wander down negative neural pathways.

To use our imaginative power to propel ourselves into places that distress or frighten us. Unfortunately, the American study seems to show that almost half the people are navigating these unpleasant thoughts.

Many people tend to overthink, attempting to predict and control the unpredictability of daily life, which can create stress or distress. For many, I believe we generate our own anxiety through our imagination. A form of self-sabotage that's hard to suppress.

Similarly, it's easy to lose oneself in the paths of our inner world. To fail to concentrate or to wander so far into our imagination that we feel inadequate in reality. This marginalization can be a strength when embraced, finding ways to still anchor oneself to reality and channel our spiritual wanderings toward life-serving purposes. However, if you feel lost, if it prevents you from fully living, I would advise seeking help. From a friend, a third party, a therapist, a shaman, a priest... whatever works for you. The key is to surround yourself and find a path back to serenity. You can also reach out to me; I would be happy to assist you.

Don't misunderstand me; I am an advocate of imaginative wandering, of waking dreams.

I draw from this infinite source of inspiration to write for you today and make significant changes in my life. Every day, this internal source nourishes me, disconnects me from a sometimes cruel reality, and allows me to create my own reality, not dreamlike but physical and tangible. I named my site after it for a reason, and it's the subject of my first article. We can find seeds within ourselves that will sprout wonderful ideas, both for us and those we'll share them with.

The wandering mind is our spiritual adventurer. Sometimes it roams through lavender-scented country paths; other times, it treads the steep peaks of Mount Everest in a snowstorm. It visits jungles, swamps, dark wells, hell, stars, the universe... Its only limit is our imagination. With it, we can journey far without leaving home. The key is to find ourselves, even when we start wandering into dangerous territory. Take the time to stop, to rest, to breathe, and to remember that ultimately, what matters is owning this life. This physical, sentient, wonderful life that we enjoy to the fullest every day.

I hope you enjoyed this article! Thank you for sharing this moment with me! Feel free to let me know what you thought or share your own idea of the wandering mind in the comments.

With all my tenderness, I wish you the best of the best. Sweet kisses,

Coco

P.S.: A quote from Baudelaire on daydreaming. Just because <3

"The faculty of daydreaming is a divine and mysterious faculty; it's through dreams that humans communicate with the dark world surrounding them."

Charles Baudelaire

---