How long day spent ' in the clouds '?
Disconnect the mind of the present moment and we start to think about the past, in the future, or what has never happened. And we do all too often...
Clouds
You are cooking, going to clean some data from work, walking down the street ... and suddenly you realize you bring a good time ' automatically ' without paying attention to your activity: “What was cooking me?” “Have I got good numbers in the table?” “I’ve spent the shop where you wanted to go!”
Do you feel identified? Sure did then, according to a study published in Science , we spent about 50 % of our time ' in the clouds ' or what is the same , thinking about something that has nothing to do with our present activity : maybe planning something for the future , remembering a past or thinking about things that never happened . Work results also revealed the great capacity of our mind to escape: we do it as often as once per minute.
To reach these conclusions, researchers from Harvard University, developed an iPhone application that allowed them to track adult 2,250 people aged around 34 years. Randomly, the app every so often asking them to rate how they felt at that time in a range of 0 to 100 (from very sad to very happy). Then he asked what activity they were doing at the time and, finally, participants had to answer the question: "Are you thinking right now something different to the activity you're doing?”
A more disconnection, more unhappiness
The authors found that, regardless of the activity, people were unhappy when they were in a moment of mental disengagement, and that being focused on the task being performed is a good predictor of the state of satisfaction. Results that confirm something that for many religions and Eastern philosophies is a dogma: the ability to focus on the 'here' and 'now' is a guarantee of happiness, and our trips to the clouds have a significant emotional cost. Practices such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness are suitable to train the mind and work attention in the present moment.
Curiously, the data also revealed that participants were accustomed to scatter his mind while performing any task, except when having sex . Perhaps this activity is another good exercise to help us maintain mindfulness in the present moment...
Clouds
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| Man in Clouds |
Do you feel identified? Sure did then, according to a study published in Science , we spent about 50 % of our time ' in the clouds ' or what is the same , thinking about something that has nothing to do with our present activity : maybe planning something for the future , remembering a past or thinking about things that never happened . Work results also revealed the great capacity of our mind to escape: we do it as often as once per minute.
To reach these conclusions, researchers from Harvard University, developed an iPhone application that allowed them to track adult 2,250 people aged around 34 years. Randomly, the app every so often asking them to rate how they felt at that time in a range of 0 to 100 (from very sad to very happy). Then he asked what activity they were doing at the time and, finally, participants had to answer the question: "Are you thinking right now something different to the activity you're doing?”
A more disconnection, more unhappiness
The authors found that, regardless of the activity, people were unhappy when they were in a moment of mental disengagement, and that being focused on the task being performed is a good predictor of the state of satisfaction. Results that confirm something that for many religions and Eastern philosophies is a dogma: the ability to focus on the 'here' and 'now' is a guarantee of happiness, and our trips to the clouds have a significant emotional cost. Practices such as yoga, meditation and mindfulness are suitable to train the mind and work attention in the present moment.
Curiously, the data also revealed that participants were accustomed to scatter his mind while performing any task, except when having sex . Perhaps this activity is another good exercise to help us maintain mindfulness in the present moment...
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