Mind Wandering, Personality, and Conflict Resolution

Mind Wandering, Personality, and Conflict Resolution

There was an article in the Washington Post on January 14, 2023 about mind wandering and how it can lead to creative thoughts and ideas. According to the article twenty percent of the people surveyed reported that creative ideas popped into their minds while they were doing other things. The article refers to a 2019 study of professional writers and physicists, who were asked to record the creative ideas they experience during the day and what they were doing and thinking at the time those ideas occurred to them.[1]  The research also revealed that when people “mind wandered” about things that interest them, they were happier than when they were “on task”.  For that reason, the author of the 2019 study prefers to describe the shower-type thinking, mind wondering, with an “o”. The graphic accompanying the article depicts a steam-frosted shower door with E=mc²-like formulas scrawled from top to bottom. The thesis of the article is that mind-wandering is a creative activity not just a euphemism for day-dreaming, one bane of classrooms throughout the world. But the point is, people mind wander (or wonder, if you prefer), and it can be a good process.

People mind wander. In fact, I look forward to mind-wandering, as the article describes it—when I walk on the beach, in the forest, and walking Percy Jackson, the preeminent Pomeranian, in the neighborhood; or when I clean house, rake leaves, shower, bake and frost cookies, watch a sunset . . . Perhaps moving into the mental state of mind wandering is as much conscious as it is a subconscious activity.

To understand my interest in this topic, I’ve been studying and reading about personality and how the brain reacts under stress, so I can help others handle conflict productively. I was recently reminded that throughout a typical day, the brain is reacting rapidly to every singular and series of events that that bombards the human senses. It sorts and processes all day and night and much of the time we are not conscious of it. Think about one second’s worth of information while I am writing this piece—typing one to two words per second, at my semi-tidy desk, in my robe, with a peacock outside the tall glass windows, flaring its feathers at squirrels to shoo them from his feed.  Then multiply that by the 86,400 seconds that happen every day from the time you wake till your head is tucked safely into a soft pillow and ready to slip into dreams.

We are aware of our thinking when we do things that require conscious thought and awareness. Depending on the activity—physical or mental, spatial, abstract, logical, linear, etc.—different areas of the brain engage. In general, left-brain activities engage logic and reasoning, while the right brain engrosses the creative and intuitive.[2] These activities combine and overlap during conscious and unconscious brain activity, all day and night.

While engaged in thinking and activities, other stimuli in the environment are at the same time taken in by our senses of sight, hearing, touch, and taste. The brain immediately transmits data from the senses to the thalamus, deep in the brain. The thalamus sends its data, first to the amygdala and instantaneously to the brain’s frontal cortex, where the brain makes more logical sense of the information. The amygdala is designed to react to negative, fearful, and harmful stimuli it receives. Those who study the amygdala believe it is a key part of the human neural system because it serves to protect the rest of the human by triggering what is known as fight, flight, or freeze responses to negative stimuli in the environment. Evolutionary theory suggests that this part of the brain was essential for the early survival of humans who lived in more dangerous, raw environments than most people do today. In other words, human senses and amygdala response were essential for survival when humans were more primitive.

The thalamus also sends Information to the frontal cortex, also referred to as the neocortex. The frontal cortex processes data from the senses in a logical, reasoning, and methodical way. For example, imagine stepping out the front door you see a black squiggly thing on a chair out the corner of your eye. In words, the amygdala reaction is likely, “That doesn’t belong here. Get back!” and you jump. As you focus, the frontal cortex reasons, “From the information I have stored here, that is probably a harmless garden snake. It’s heading home.” And you calm down.

Back to the shower . . . when we are less busy—not occupied with calculus, flying an airplane, driving a car, or playing soccer—and our senses are relaxed, the thalamus and the amygdala are not on high alert. The rest of the brain is free to sort and file among everything that is stored. Its objective is to make sense of information that may not have fit with anything else when it was first taken in. During states of relaxed thought,[3] some people are able to consciously bring diverse and unrelated pieces of information together. Periods of relative non-distraction, whether sitting alone or engaging in an activity that does not require concentration, are fertile moments for “mind wandering” as described by the article.

However, I disagree with the idea that we should call this manner of brain activity,[4] “mind-wandering”. This and its counterpart label, “day dreaming”, suggest there is no root, anchor, completion, stability, or direction. Though I haven’t found just the right word, “mind wondering” fits, as does “mind meaning”. Even Mr. Spock’s “mind melding”[5] seems a better way to describe what a relaxed brain does as it links and fuses seemingly unrelated information together so that it starts “making sense.” And “aha” moments occur.

On the other hand, I agree with the underlying idea that the undistracted and unconflicted, brain has great freedom. And when parties are at an impasse, for example, in mediation or settlement negotiations, taking a break and making a change in environment, allow for creative thinking to resume.[6] Taking a shower is a perfect setting for the brain to be free, just as walking in a forest or on a beach. In the peaceful warmth of the shower or the rhythm of a walk, the brain is free from amygdala hijacks and triggers. Without preoccupation, the brain subconsciously creates, combines, solves, and brings together concepts from different disciplines and experiences.

In mediation, it is helpful to understand some brain basics and how personality contributes to conflict and conflict resolution. Lawyers can help their clients approach mediation and like negotiations without anxiety and fear of the unknown by preparing and by familiarizing the client with the process. Client education and involvement, reduces the likelihood that conflict resolution through mediation will be derailed by the unexpected. When the brain confronts the unanticipated—like the black squiggly thing—the amygdala engages. But when it encounters circumstances, it has prepared for, the brain is freer to process information with its more logical parts.

The relationship of mind wandering to personality is that both impact how people perceive experience, take in and process information, communication, and approach conflict and conflict resolution. Personality is rather fixed, though it can change over time by choice and circumstances. Knowledge of the strengths and other aspects of your (and your counterpart’s) personality is an advantage, as that self- and other-awareness allows you to craft and deliver messages that may influence others to your way of thinking, especially during mediation. As a method of preparation for actions or negotiations, mind wandering, as described by the Post, allows a relaxed and undistracted brain to summon creative solutions to problems you, your client, and the other parties face. Thorough and structured preparation for mediation reduces or removes altogether the elements of surprise and ambush, and so avoid or lessen the possibility of amygdala hijacks. Likewise, equipped with awareness of how the brain works during stress and conflict, you can consciously slow-down to control thinking and actions for constructive and creative problem solving when negotiating for solutions.

Some may ask, what about prayer and petitions to or conversations with God? Doesn’t prayer reveal answers to conflict and problems? Yes. Prayer, like meditation, is a conscious focus on a particular aspect of life, while withdrawing from or tuning out the mundane to overwhelming distractions of daily living. Unlike meditation, prayer looks to a divine being for wisdom that transcends the limitations of human knowledge and perception for help to direct thoughts and actions. When in conflict, prayer can reveal creative problem-solving and peaceful solutions that benefit and build rather than destroy relationships and things.

In closing, when you find yourself mind wandering or “mind wondering”, enjoy what you discover! If you practice meditation as a discipline, embrace its state of relaxation where the mind is less distracted and more likely to connect thoughts in meaningful ways.  And remember also prayer for its ability to open access to the divine and wisdom for all things.

[1] The author of the study is Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychology and brain sciences at the University of California at Satna Barbara. Another study of 1,100 participants found that mind wandering insights came to people in the shower (thirty percent), in transit (thirteen percent), and while exercising (eleven percent).

[2] Humans are inclined toward certain personality types, the result of genetics and environment. These personality types, and there are many validated tools used to assess personality, incline people to choose and engage in certain activities, from dancing to astrophysics, medicine to law, the spiritual to the concrete. Those who study whether persons are right or left brained dominant, link the brain activities of those hemispheres to career choices. Personality appears to have its genesis in these parts of the brain as well.

[3] Some may call this meditation or presence in the moment, states of being that can only be achieved when one is calm, relaxed, undistracted, present, and open to the thoughts that come to the conscious from the subconscious mind.

[4] Prayer is another practice and sacred discipline, which, like meditation, focuses the mind and emotions. Unlike prayer, meditation trains individuals in awareness and being present so that they attain a healthy sense of perspective. Prayer is unique because one aspect of prayer is to seek divine wisdom from God for answers, solutions, and guidance in everything from simple problems to complex conflict resolution.

[5] Mr. Spock was a leading character in the television series Start Trek of the 1960’s. Half human and half Vulcan, Spock was able to link his brain thoughts with others using a special technique called “mind-melding.”

[6] Persisting in a train of thought or doing things that you know put you in a more creative frame of mind can also stimulate creative thinking.