If you find it harder to be pleasantly lost in your thoughts or daydreams these days, you’re not alone.
“This is part of our cognitive toolkit that’s underdeveloped, and it’s kind of sad,” said Erin Westgate, a psychology professor at the University of Florida.
The ability to think for pleasure is important, and you can get better at it, Westgate said. The first step is recognizing that while it might look easy, daydreaming is surprisingly demanding.
“You have to be the actor, director, screenwriter, and audience of a mental performance,” she said. “Even though it looks like you’re doing nothing, it’s cognitively taxing.”
Another obstacle that Westgate’s research revealed: We don’t intuitively understand how to think enjoyable thoughts.
Daydreaming Benefits
Westgate wants to help people recapture that daydream state, which may boost wellness and even pain tolerance. In a study published recently in the journal Emotion, Westgate and colleagues Timothy Wilson, Nicholas Buttrick, and Rémy Furrer of the University of Virginia and Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University instructed participants to think meaningful thoughts.Westgate anticipated that this would guide the thinkers toward a rewarding experience, but they actually found it less enjoyable than their unguided thoughts.
“I was so confused,” she said. Then, she took a look at the topics the participants reported thinking about.
“It was heavy stuff. It didn’t seem to occur to them that they could use the time to enjoy their own thoughts.”
When we’re nudged to think for fun instead of meaning, we tend to default to superficial pleasures such as eating ice cream, which don’t scratch the same itch as thoughts that are pleasant but also meaningful. But when Westgate provided participants with a list of examples that were both pleasant and meaningful, they enjoyed thinking 50 percent more than when they were instructed to think about whatever they wanted.
That’s knowledge you can harness in your everyday life by prompting yourself with topics you’d find rewarding to daydream about, like a pleasant memory, future accomplishment, or an event you’re looking forward to, she says.
How to Get Better at Thinking for Pleasure
Aside from its boredom-fighting abilities, thinking for pleasure can be its own reward.“It’s something that sets us apart. It defines our humanity. It allows us to imagine new realities,” Westgate said. “But that kind of thinking requires practice.”
Here’s how to master it.
Trust that it’s possible to have a good experience if you prime your brain with topics you’ll find pleasant. “This is something all of us can do once you have the concept. We give 4- and 5-year-olds these instructions, and it makes sense to them.”
That said, “This is hard for everybody. There’s no good evidence that some types of people are simply better thinkers. I’m the world’s worst person at this: I would definitely rather have the electric shock,” Westgate said. “But knowing why it can be hard and what makes it easier really makes a difference. The encouraging part is we can all get better.”
Don’t confuse planning things with thinking for pleasure. “People said they enjoy planning, but when we test it, they do not.”
Choose the right time to try. Research shows we’re most likely to daydream when our minds are minimally occupied with something else, like showering or brushing our teeth. “The next time you’re walking, instead of pulling out your phone, try it,” Westgate said.
“What we feel is a function of what we think. Thinking for pleasure can be a powerful tool to shape our emotions.”
