I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Mindwandering is a book that blends neuroscience with personal experiences of mindfulness meditation in a way that I found pretty delightful as a person who enjoys bouncing between disciplines and making connections. Though the structure of the book I found a little difficult to follow at times—a little ironically, Bar can kind of wander and make it hard to track where you are in the narrative or what the ultimate conclusion will be—if you release expectation of a fully unifying result and just enjoy some of the insights from the research, you’ll learn some fascinating things about how the brain works!

Bar, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores research from different disciplines in order to form not quite a unifying theory of mindwandering, but certainly an interesting set of connections that are directly applicable to experience. “Mindwandering,” in this context, refers to all the activities of the brain that take place when we are not focused on a specific task. These activities can be creative and expansive, such as daydreaming and creative association, but mindwandering also can take us out of the present moment, lead us to overly trust internal patterns over external observations, and spiral into rumination. Ideally we want to be aware of how our minds wander and direct this “default mode” in desirable directions.

The functions of mindwandering occupy a broad range. We use it for creative incubation, to run simulations that keep us prepared and more able to make decisions by predicting what will happen in the future, even to form a sense of self. I found the latter particularly fascinating. As a neurodivergent person, I couldn’t help but resonate with an explanation of how we develop a “false self” when our needs aren’t met through being our authentic selves (e.g., masking) and wonder how my difficulty detecting sarcasm might relate to the differences in how my mind wanders (as mindwandering is also implicated in Theory of Mind).

While much of the research described in this book is most significant simply in how new connections are being made regarding how the brain works, there are also plenty of practical applications. Perhaps the simplest is understanding that constant focus is not the goal. Meditation is explored as a tool for developing awareness and more ease in switching between “modes” of concentrated focus and more open association, and Bar’s findings on how our states of mind are composed of a number of linked elements (some of which are in our conscious control) can help readers to take advantage of their current state and perhaps reduce boredom or improve mood. Certainly worth a read for anyone who is interested in understanding a little more about how the brain works.

Mindwandering by Moshe Bar

What: This non-fiction book is a deep dive on the brain. It goes behind the scenes to describe how our brains work and what’s going on when our minds disappear down rabbit holes.

Who: Author Moshe Bar is a cognitive neuroscientist.

When: Bar describes the results of research studies undertaken in the past 10 to 15 years.

Where: Primarily the United States and Israel.

How: It’s possible to actively promote creativity and other mind states, such as flow.

What I Thought: In an engaging style reminiscent of Ethan Kross’ Chatter, Moshe Bar’s Mindwandering is an interesting look at the mind, the brain, and the role biology plays in our day-to-day experiences.

Author Moshe Bar deftly switches between his personal experiences, research studies, and pop culture references while talking about a rather scientific topic. His tone is clever and interesting, and while sometimes he gets pretty wordy, his analysis is infused with humor.

Bar describes the evolutionary basis for our thoughts, including the way people perceive imminent threats and prepare for them (which can contribute to anxiety), the use of past experiences to predict future possibilities and patterns, and the biological reasons our brains keep us grounded in either the past or the future.

Technological advancements have allowed scientists such as Bar to explore and confirm theories about how human brains behave even when people aren’t engaging in a specific task. The term “mindwandering” is another way of describing mental drift, or daydreaming. What are our brains busy doing when we aren’t doing anything at all?

It turns out they are often processing thoughts such as ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. We can choose to engage in activities that improve our moods by changing our thought patterns.

There are three types of idleness: doing nothing and being bored, doing nothing and being happy about being nothing, and doing nothing but extensively and creatively daydreaming.

Throughout the book, Bar proscribes different activities that can be done to help improve our moods, expand our creativity, and tackle challenging problems. Much of the book can be looked at as an advertisement for meditation, which is the second type of idleness: purposefully doing nothing, and which is helpful for brain functioning, life satisfaction, and mental health.

Bar describes types of thoughts and thought patterns as either top-down or bottom-up and reveals the situations in which each is preferable. He also introduces concepts including states of mind, tolerance of uncertainty, and inhibition. The appendix to the book features recommendations from the author on how to best appreciate life by immersing oneself in the present moment.

My thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of Mindwandering.

The first book for me to read by this author but I will be on the lookout for more for sure! Highly recommend this one!