Remember those bathroom readers filled with trivia, factoids, and stories? They’ve been entertaining in the throne room since 1988. Though the 35th anniversary edition came out last fall, it didn’t hit the bestseller lists.
The truth is most of us have something else to distract us in the bathroom—our smartphones. We pull them out on the john, at stoplights, in line at checkout, while we pump gas—virtually anywhere we have to wait for more than ten seconds. The lure of social stimuli gives us a dopamine hit that keeps us coming back any time we get a minute.
What possible contemplative state might we be cheating ourselves out of? What if we resisted the ceaseless urge to pull out our phones and instead—spent some time just thinking? Sounds crazy, right? What a waste of time!
A recent study reported in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggests that the act of “just thinking” can be more rewarding than we might realize. The authors of the paper acknowledge that the ability to engage in internal thoughts without external stimulation is a unique characteristic in humans, yet we regularly underappreciate the benefits of doing so. This constant feed of external stimulation fills the space where our own thoughts once lingered—we don’t even remember what we’re missing.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted a series of experiments with more than 250 college students in both Japan and the United Kingdom. Participants were asked to sit in a quiet room without doing anything for 20 minutes. The authors consistently found that people experienced more enjoyment, engagement, and motivation than they had predicted they would beforehand.
“[P]eople often proactively avoid just waiting to think,” report the authors, under the assumption that just thinking would be boring and not stimulating. But, lo and behold—we’re designed to think—if we give it a chance: “[P]eople can sustain intrinsically motivated behavior because they can generate internal reward from the change in mental representation.”
In other words, we can benefit from just thinking. Spontaneous thinking, notes the study, includes daydreaming, mind wandering, episodic future thinking, recollection of autobiographical memories, and nostalgia.
Each of these thought processes is valuable to us. For example, daydreaming, as psychologist Jerome Singer’s research has revealed, is our unique ability to alternate between fantasy and reality—a force that can facilitate change and shape a life—more bearable at every stage.
“Mind wandering,” or the “stream of consciousness,” gives us several mental gains, including the ability to consider obstacles to future goals, generate novel, creative thoughts, and place our experiences in meaningful context—which can foster well-being and enhance our overall health.
Even nostalgia, an emotion long considered medically and socially detrimental, has recently been shown to be a psychological resource that can provide us with a reservoir of meaning, increasing our sense of belonging and acceptance—restoring our self-continuity—the connection between our past-living and our present life.
Are you charged up and ready to tap into the benefits of task-free thinking? Try it for two minutes as you pump gas—instead of checking your phone. Take a 10-minute walk and daydream or let your mind wander. Work up to at least 20 minutes a day of “just thinking.” Before long, you’ll experience more clarity and motivation in your daily thought process.
Meanwhile, keep a journal handy and jot down some of the things you think about during the week. What new ideas transpired? What obstacles do you need to overcome to surge forward? What past events came to mind? Keeping a record of your spontaneous thinking is a way to process what’s emerging in your head and may come in handy later, helping you to fulfill your goals.
In today’s information-laden age, it’s more important than ever to make the time to just think. It’s a simple practice that can profoundly enhance your direction in life, your sense of purpose, your unique human intimacy—the very basics of a meaningful life.
This article was originally published in the New York Post.