Perhaps you’ve heard about being mindful from practitioners of meditation or maybe you try to be mindful in your everyday life. Then you know that being mindful is about being present in the moment. New research suggests that those who are mindful are happier.
Research described in the paper “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind” (published November 12, 2010 in Science) utilizes an iPhone application to accumulate experience sampling data to an online data repository at TrackYourHappiness.org. According to the authors, experience sampling is the most reliable method for investigating real-world emotions. The technique involves randomly contacting people as they engage in their everyday activities and asking them to report their thoughts, feelings, and actions at that moment.
The team reported three findings from their research based on data from 2,250 adults living in the United States. First, people’s minds frequently wander (46.9% of samples). Second, they found that people were less happy while their minds were wandering than when they were not. This was true during all activities. Third, they found that what people were thinking about was a better predictor of their happiness than was what they were doing.
Our ability to think of things that are not presently happening seems to take an emotional toll. Why is mind wandering apparently the brain’s default mode of operation? Stimulus independent thought is apparently what enables people to reason and plan.
Would you like to track your personal happiness and find out what factors are associated with greater happiness for you personally? You can become a participant at TrackYourHappiness.org. When you do you’ll also contribute to studies like the one reviewed here and help to increase our scientific understanding of happiness.
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