Now here’s an interesting study for you. A handful of researchers decided to find out how people reacted to being alone with their thoughts. The article:
Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind

In 11 studies, we found that participants typically did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think, that they enjoyed doing mundane external activities much more, and that many preferred to administer electric shocks to themselves instead of being left alone with their thoughts. Most people seem to prefer to be doing something rather than nothing, even if that something is negative.

Idle hands (and minds) are the devil’s workshop? Apparently.

Unfortunately I haven’t read the actual study, just a summarized version by Yahoo News, but even just the summary raises interesting questions.

Personally, I like the occasional bit of free time to just relax inside my own head. I don’t do it as much as I used to (ah, the demands of life), but I accredit many of my best ideas to such moments.

Through the ages, great thinkers have bemoaned that not enough people just sit and think, but I wonder, is sitting and thinking now harder than it’s ever been, in our world of constant distractions? What would happen if we all gave our lives a little more thought, I little more- OH LOOK, SQUIRREL!

What about you, dear readers? Can you do it? Can you turn off your phone and your computer and just sit with your thoughts for 15 minutes? Would you enjoy it? I’m curious to know!