The Science of Mindfulness

Harvard researchers Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert wanted to find out if the premises underlying the philosophy of mindfulness were true.

“Unlike other animals, human beings spend a lot of time thinking about what is not going on around them, contemplating events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or will never happen at all,” they wrote. “Indeed, ‘stimulus-independent thought’ or ‘mind wandering’ appears to be the brain’s default mode of operation. Although this ability is a remarkable evolutionary achievement that allows people to learn, reason, and plan, it may have an emotional cost. Many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering and ‘to be here now.’ These traditions suggest that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Are they right?”

The answer, according to their research, is yes.

They learned three things: that people’s minds wander frequently no matter what they are doing, that people are unhappier when their minds are wandering than when they are not, and — most importantly — that what people are thinking is a better predictor of their happiness than what they are doing.