NY Times -A study published last week suggests that our tendency to avoid being alone with our thoughts is in part because “we tend to underestimate the value of thinking,” said one of the study’s authors, Kou Murayama, a psychologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Dr. Murayama and his colleagues asked adults to first predict how much they would like sitting in a quiet room alone, and then actually had them do it for 20 minutes. To their surprise, the participants enjoyed the experience more than they had expected to. To be fair, passing the time thinking can be unpleasant — for instance if you worry about all the things you need to get done before the end of the day, or ruminate over past mistakes, said Erin Westgate, a psychologist who studies daydreaming and boredom at the University of Florida.
And if we let our minds wander when we should be concentrating — while doing an important work task, say, or driving — we can get ourselves into trouble, and even put lives at risk. But research shows that letting our minds wander and engaging in certain kinds of daydreaming can give us joy, serenity and even make us more creative.
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