Any of those yes responses are what we called mind wandering.

Maybe these people are right. Maybe mind wandering is a bad thing.

They said By Allah! truly thou art in thine old wandering mind.

They said By Allah! truly thou art in thine old wandering mind.

In other words, maybe the pleasures of the mind allow us to increase our happiness with mind wandering.

As it turns out, there is a strong relationship between mind wandering now and being unhappy a short time later, consistent with the idea that mind wandering is causing people to be unhappy.

The leaders of his people said Ah! we see thee evidently wandering (in mind).

The leaders of his people said Ah! we see thee evidently wandering (in mind).

In contrast, there's no relationship between being unhappy now and mind wandering a short time later.

At the same time, this sort of constant mind wandering is also a direct cause of unhappiness.

And finally a mind wandering question Are you thinking about something other than what you're currently doing?

A few minutes ago, I likened mind wandering to a slot machine you'd never want to play.

We're lucky in this data we have many responses from each person, and so we can look and see, does mind wandering tend to precede unhappiness, or does unhappiness tend to precede mind wandering, to get some insight into the causal direction.

But there's something I think that's quite interesting in this graph, and that is, basically with one exception, no matter what people are doing, they're mind wandering at least 30 percent of the time, which suggests, I think, that mind wandering isn't just frequent, it's ubiquitous.

In other words, mind wandering very likely seems to be an actual cause, and not merely a consequence, of unhappiness.

Wandering.

Now you might look at this result and say, okay, sure, on average people are less happy when they're mind wandering, but surely when their minds are straying away from something that wasn't very enjoyable to begin with, at least then mind wandering should be doing something good for us.

Wandering rectangles

Wandering aimlessly.

Wandering about.

Just wandering.

Even when they're thinking about something they would describe as pleasant, they're actually just slightly less happy than when they aren't mind wandering.

Little wandering angel

Where's our wandering boy?

Oh, just wandering about.

So I've been talking about this, suggesting, perhaps, that mind wandering causes unhappiness, but all I've really shown you is that these two things are correlated.

He said O my people! No wandering is there in my (mind) on the contrary I am a messenger from the Lord and Cherisher of the worlds!

He said O my people! No wandering is there in my (mind) on the contrary I am a messenger from the Lord and Cherisher of the worlds!

For love I ceased wandering

I am not wandering all over.

I'm never gonna cease My wandering

All I remember is wandering about...

Nope. As it turns out, people are less happy when they're mind wandering no matter what they're doing. For example, people don't really like commuting to work very much.

If mind wandering were a slot machine, it would be like having the chance to lose 50 dollars, 20 dollars or one dollar. Right? You'd never want to play.

In my talk today, I've told you a little bit about mind wandering, a variable that I think turns out to be fairly important in the equation for happiness.

They said Truly Joseph and his brother are loved more by our father than we But we are a goodly body! really our father is obviously wandering (in his mind)!

They said Truly Joseph and his brother are loved more by our father than we But we are a goodly body! really our father is obviously wandering (in his mind)!

And found you wandering, and guided you.

And found you wandering, and guided you.

It lasts the life of wandering, right?

As you see, I'm just wandering around.

Your former master, now wandering in hell

This graph shows happiness on the vertical axis, and you can see that bar there representing how happy people are when they're focused on the present, when they're not mind wandering.

What I'd like to do with the rest of my time with you today is talk a little bit about one of the areas that we've been investigating, and that's mind wandering.

Cattle have been abandoned wandering in the wilderness.