creativity

Becoming better mind-wanderers to boost problem-solving and mood

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I’m a big believ­er in day­dream­ing now and then—especially when I’m out hik­ing. There’s some­thing about being in nature that helps me let go of dai­ly cares and allows my mind to wan­der where it will, which feels great and often jump­starts my cre­ativ­i­ty as a writer and musician.

I admit, though, I’ve been trou­bled by research show­ing how mind-wan­der­ing could make me less pro­duc­tive or depressed—the last thing I need! But it turns out this gap between per­son­al expe­ri­ence and sci­ence may best be explained by how researchers have lumped togeth­er dif­fer­ent kinds of mind-wan­der­ing. Not all research has dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed between depres­sive rumi­na­tion (like replay­ing an ongo­ing dis­agree­ment with our spouse in our minds) and pleas­ant day­dream­ing (let­ting our minds wan­der freely). [Read more…] about Becom­ing bet­ter mind-wan­der­ers to boost prob­lem-solv­ing and mood

How Pixar’s “Soul” met the Science of Awe

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Five years ago, I (Dacher) received a call from Pixar writer and direc­tor Pete Doc­ter to talk about his new film. The last time I said yes to such a request, I served as a sci­en­tif­ic con­sul­tant for his film Inside Out. So, I was intrigued.

Before my vis­it, Pete offered a brief sketch of the film. The main char­ac­ter, Joe, is a mid­dle-aged jazz pianist in a rut as a mid­dle school band teacher in Queens. Just before his break­through show with a famous quar­tet, he falls into a man­hole and dies, enter­ing into anoth­er realm of con­scious­ness. There he encoun­ters “The Great Beyond”—but escapes to a pre-life realm, the “Great Before,” where he befriends a cyn­i­cal “new soul” named 22. The sto­ry is about their respec­tive quests: for 22 to find her rea­son for liv­ing, and for Joe to get back to life in his body for a once-in-a-life­time gig. [Read more…] about How Pixar’s “Soul” met the Sci­ence of Awe

Reading science fiction can help children build critical thinking and resilience

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Young peo­ple who are hooked on watch­ing fan­ta­sy or read­ing sci­ence fic­tion may be on to some­thing. Con­trary to a com­mon mis­per­cep­tion that read­ing this genre is an unwor­thy prac­tice, read­ing sci­ence fic­tion and fan­ta­sy may help young peo­ple cope, espe­cial­ly with the stress and anx­i­ety of liv­ing through the COVID-19 pandemic.

I am a pro­fes­sor with research inter­ests in the social, eth­i­cal and polit­i­cal mes­sages in sci­ence fic­tion. In my book [Read more…] about Read­ing sci­ence fic­tion can help chil­dren build crit­i­cal think­ing and resilience

Four ways hiking promotes cognitive and emotional health

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I’m a hiker—“born to hike,” as my hus­band likes to joke. It does my heart and soul good to strap on a pack and head out on a trail, espe­cial­ly when I’m alone and can let my mind wan­der where it will.

The expe­ri­ence of hik­ing is unique, research sug­gests, con­vey­ing ben­e­fits beyond [Read more…] about Four ways hik­ing pro­motes cog­ni­tive and emo­tion­al health

Three evidence-based ways to develop a resilient mind

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Life throws chaos at us on a reg­u­lar basis—whether it’s our finances, our rela­tion­ships, or our health. In the work world, around 50 per­cent of peo­ple are burned out in indus­tries like health care, bank­ing, and non­prof­its, and employ­ers spend $300 bil­lion per year on work­place-relat­ed stress.

In response, we just keep on push­ing through, sur­viv­ing on adren­a­line. We over­sched­ule our­selves; we drink anoth­er cof­fee; we respond to one more email. If we stay amped up all the time, we think, we’ll even­tu­al­ly be able to get things done.

But all that does is burn us out, drain our pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and lead to exhaustion.

There’s anoth­er way—a calmer way. Cul­ti­vat­ing a more rest­ful, relaxed state of mind doesn’t mean we’ll drown under all our respon­si­bil­i­ties. Instead, research sug­gests it will bring us greater atten­tion, ener­gy, and cre­ativ­i­ty to tack­le them. And sci­ence also points to sim­ple ways we can tap into that calm state of mind to [Read more…] about Three evi­dence-based ways to devel­op a resilient mind

Mind-wandering may help enhance creativity, job performance and general well-being, studies show

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When writ­ing a song or a piece of prose, I often choose to let my mind wan­der, hop­ing the muse will strike. If it does, it not only moves my work along but feels great, too!

That’s why I was trou­bled by stud­ies that found an asso­ci­a­tion between mind-wan­der­ing and prob­lems like unhap­pi­ness and depression—and even a short­er life expectan­cy. This research sug­gests that focus­ing one’s thoughts on the present moment is linked to well-being, while spac­ing out—which I per­son­al­ly love to do—is not.

Now, new stud­ies are bring­ing nuance to this sci­ence. [Read more…] about Mind-wan­der­ing may help enhance cre­ativ­i­ty, job per­for­mance and gen­er­al well-being, stud­ies show