wondering from wandering

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How to Stop Your Mind from Wandering

Last Updated: August 6, 2021 References

This article was co-authored by Ni-Cheng Liang, MD . Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang is a board certified Pulmonologist and the Director of Pulmonary Integrative Medicine at Coastal Pulmonary Associates affiliated with the Scripps Health Network in San Diego, California. She also serves as a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine while volunteering for the UCSD Medical Student-Run Free Clinic for uninsured patients. With over 15 years of experience, Dr. Liang specializes in pulmonary and respiratory medical concerns, mindfulness teaching, physician wellness, and integrative medicine. Dr. Liang received her Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Liang was voted as a San Diego Top Doctor in 2017 and 2019. She was also awarded the 2019 American Lung Association San Diego Lung Health Provider of the Year. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 28,208 times.

It’s normal for the human mind to wander. There are so many different things filling your mind and pulling your thoughts in different directions. This isn’t always a bad thing, either. If you’re a creative person, a wandering mind can spark a new creative project. However, wandering thoughts can also prevent you from getting things done, keep you up at night, or hurt your mental health if you spend your whole day thinking anxious thoughts. Luckily, with some practice and the right techniques, you can learn to focus your mind on the present and control your thoughts to keep them from racing all over the place when you don’t want them to!

Doing Exercises and Activities

• You can also look up different breathing exercises , such as yogic breathing or deep throat breathing, and try those out to find something that works for you.

• For example, if you work in an office and you get 15 minute breaks, you could go outside and go for a 10 minute walk around the block to clear your head.
• If you work from home, you could take a 15-30 minute break and clean and organize your home office space. A clean workspace can also help you focus!

• Try combining this period of doing nothing with slow breathing or another type of breathing exercise. This can help keep your mind from wandering for these 10-15 minutes and calm your thoughts down.
• For example, if you work at home and find that you can’t concentrate, take a break and go sit on your balcony or lay down on your bed, away from your laptop and work things. Do nothing for at least 10 minutes and see how it affects your racing thoughts.

Tip : Stay off your phone and other electronics during this time. If you spend the time on social media, for example, you're not giving your mind a rest. Truly try to do nothing at all other than just sit or lay there.

• For example, if you’re feeling stressed, you could use a simple phrase like “everything is OK” or “life is beautiful.”
• Single word mantras you can try include “strong,” “calm,” and “finish.” These could work well if you’re trying to power through something like a run or a chore without getting distracted.

• You can search online for meditation techniques or download something like a mindfulness app to help you if you’re totally new to meditating. Meditation takes practice, but stick with it and you might find that you really benefit from it!
• The classic mantra for focusing on meditation is just “om.” You could try repeating this out loud or in your head while you meditate.

Controlling Anxious Thoughts

• This can also help you organize your anxious thoughts, so you can address their causes later on.
• For example, if you’re having trouble sleeping because you can’t stop thinking about everything you have to do tomorrow, try writing down a to-do list to get the thoughts out of your head and help you get to sleep.

• For example, if you are worried about turning a project in to your boss, think about ways it could help your career if your boss really loves your work.
• Say you’re studying for a test in a topic that you find difficult and you keep thinking about what will happen if you fail the test, so it’s hard to focus on studying. Instead, try thinking about how great you can do on the test and how it will boost your grade if you study hard.

• For example, you might be avoiding putting a big report together at work because it’s slow and tedious, but you find your mind wandering to this task that’s hanging over you. Set aside time in each day to work on the report, so you make progress instead of just dreading it.

• For example, if you can’t seem to focus on anything because all you’re thinking about is your ongoing divorce, maybe seeing a therapist to talk about it would help you control those thoughts.
• If your mind is wandering because you’re frustrated about something at work, maybe getting a coffee with a coworker you trust and talking to them about whatever the issue is will help calm your mind.

Tip : If you think you might have clinical-level anxiety, it’s always best to talk to a professional about it. They can provide you with a professional treatment to help you get it under control.

• For instance, say you’re having trouble focusing on being present with your family over a long weekend because you’re worried about something at work. Try to accept that in this particular moment you can’t do anything about your work tasks and focus on enjoying the family time.

• For example, if your mind is continuously thinking about what it would be like to work in a different job, it might be time to consider a career change and start looking for another position.
• If you keep thinking about a conflict with a colleague you’re having at work, it might help calm your thoughts to sit down with them and talk about it.

Focusing on Tasks

• Any activities you do throughout your day can be considered tasks. For instance, when you’re eating your lunch, try to focus just on your lunch. Don’t try to multitask and work or study while you eat.
• If you’re talking to someone, try to focus 100% on the conversation and not let yourself get distracted by noises or other people around you. After the conversation is over, move on to your next task.
• If you need to put together a presentation for a work meeting, focus on getting the presentation totally done before you move onto another task like checking your email or looking at data.

Tip : Training your brain to focus on 1 thing is just like training your body. It can be hard at first, but with practice you can learn to control your mind and focus it on the task at hand.

• For example, if you work in an office with a bunch of other people around, it can be tempting to look around the room to find the culprit any time someone coughs or sneezes. Don’t let yourself do this!
• If you have to sit next to a window and there is something going on outside that distracts you, such as a building under construction, practice not looking out the window every time a crane moves.
• You can also try removing distractions in settings like classrooms and offices by closing drapes or blinds to block your view or putting in headphones to block out noise.

• For example, you could give yourself a free thinking period from 5:30-6:00 every day. During this time, don’t try to work, study, or get any other tasks done. For these 30 minutes, let yourself think about any worries you have or do any planning you need to do.
• Say you keep thinking about an upcoming vacation and all the things you still need to do to get ready. Instead of letting your mind wander to it all day, designate a time block during which you can do things like making a packing list or researching sites you want to visit, then refocus on your other tasks.

Expert Q&A

• Mini-interactions with nature can help you feel more calm and focus on the present. For example, if you go for a walk to try and calm your thoughts, try walking barefoot across some grass or touching some trees and leaves in a park. [19] X Research source Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
• Everyone has days during which their mind wanders more than normal and it feels impossible to get things done. It’s OK to take a day off work and stay home to help relieve stress, calm your mind, and stay healthy mentally. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 2

• Persistent anxious thoughts can be a sign of a bigger mental disorder. If you can’t get your anxiety under control on your own, see a licensed therapist who can help you develop a treatment plan. [20] X Research source Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1

You Might Also Like

• ↑ Ni-Cheng Liang, MD. Board Certified Pulmonologist. Expert Interview. 18 June 2021.
• ↑ https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/mindful_breathing
• ↑ https://rachelfintzy.com/20-tips-to-stop-your-mind-from-wandering-and-overthinking/
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-s-mental-health-matters/201604/5-ways-stop-your-racing-thoughts
• ↑ https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_focus_a_wandering_mind
• ↑ https://www.fastcompany.com/90300162/ask-yourself-these-four-questions-when-your-mind-starts-to-wander
• ↑ https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anxiety-and-panic-attacks/self-care/
• ↑ https://adaa.org/tips
• ↑ https://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/concentration-mind-power/how-to-keep-your-mind-from-wandering/
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-brain-work/200910/easily-distracted
• ↑ https://www.k-state.edu/counseling/topics/career/concentr.html
• ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/11/08/7-ways-to-pull-your-wandering-mind-back-into-the-present-moment/#785965da3314

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Wander or Wonder?

600+ Confusing Words Explained E-Book Let’s learn when to use wander vs. wonder. Should we say “I was wandering” or “I was wondering”?

Wander and wonder are two completely different words, but sometimes English learners confuse them because of their similar spelling and pronunciation.

For more simple and clear lessons about the differences between confusing words in English, get my e-book, 600+ Confusing English Words Explained!  These are words that English learners often ask me about, or often make mistakes with – and when you read this e-book, you can avoid those mistakes and use these words correctly.

Wander: meaning & examples

Wander is a physical activity.

It means to move around (usually walking) without a specific destination or purpose:

• On the first day of my trip, I spent a couple hours wandering around the city.
• We wandered through the park, looking at the flowers.
• I was wandering through the forest, enjoying the fresh air.

We typically wander around or wander through an area.

If you have small children or pets, you want to keep watching them to make sure they don’t  wander off  (meaning move away from you, without a specific definition). Note that it’s always  wander off,  never “wonder off.”

Wonder: Meaning & examples

Wonder is a mental activity.

It means to feel curiosity, to want to know something.

• I wonder what happened to my friend from elementary school? We haven’t been in touch for years.
• Your wife is wondering what time you’ll be home – please give her a call.
• I’m wondering whether the food at that restaurant is any good.

We typically use wonder + a question word or wonder + whether/if for situations that are “yes or no.”:

• I wonder when the supermarket closes. (Example answer: 6PM)
• I wonder if the supermarket is open right now. (Example answer: Yes)
• I’m wondering how he got that job without any experience.
• I’m wondering whether I should look for a new job.

Note: This is the verb form of “wonder.” There is also a noun form, which means “awe or admiration.”

Pronunciation of Wander and Wonder

The WAN of wander is like the WAN of “want.”

The WON of wonder is like the words “won” or “one.”

I hope you feel more confident in how to use wander vs. wonder and wandering vs. wondering!

Clear up your doubts about confusing words… and use English more confidently!

More Espresso English Lessons:

About the author.

Shayna Oliveira

Shayna Oliveira is the founder of Espresso English, where you can improve your English fast - even if you don’t have much time to study. Millions of students are learning English from her clear, friendly, and practical lessons! Shayna is a CELTA-certified teacher with 10+ years of experience helping English learners become more fluent in her English courses.

How to stop your mind from wandering

The mind is made to wander – just take a few minutes to sit quietly and watch the mind flit around like a butterfly going from flower to flower.

With all that thinking, worrying, justifying, wondering, story telling, imagining, assuming, compulsive activity – it is a wonder we actually get anything done in a mindful way. But there is hope.  There is a way to stop your mind from wandering.

Meditation and mindfulness are two buzz words that nearly everyone is familiar with. In a world where multitasking is considered a positive trait necessary for working, it is fascinating that there is so much interest in meditation and mindfulness – which are the opposites of multitasking.

We think that when we work on more than one task at a time, we will save time and get more done. That may occur, but it is more likely that we will get more done, more accurately and creatively, when we concentrate on just one thing at a time, with mindful attention and one-pointed energy.

More times than I would like to admit, I have rushed through projects only to find many mistakes and problems necessitating the project to be looked at again and corrected. When I take my time and focus my mind on one project at a time, I am much happier with the results.

This happens at work and at home. When I am multitasking – baking blueberry muffins, sorting the mail and ironing a shirt to wear the next day – the blueberry muffins often end up on the shall-we-say crispy side.

When I focus on just making the muffins, just sorting the mail and just ironing the shirt, each action becomes a meditation, my mind stops wandering and I am in the flow of attending to what is waiting for my undivided attention.

Have you ever been at a restaurant with a friend who is looking around the room as you are talking to him or her? That situation is a visual representation of a wandering mind. The person is distracted from what you are saying because he or she is not focused – his or her mind is wandering – “hmmm I wonder who just came through the door” or “I wonder if my boss realizes I’ve been at lunch for an hour and a half”.

The next time you find yourself and your mind multitasking, appreciate that awareness, take a few deep breaths and focus on one thing at a time – write one email at a time, mindfully drink your cup of tea, drive to work without a cup of coffee in hand – and you will have found the way to stop your mind from wandering – and have perfectly baked blueberry muffins.

6 Comments . Leave new

Wonderfully writen, wonderful to read, and wonderflly helpful.

Thanks so much! I’m always happy to hear something I have written is helpful.

Drive without drinking coffee? Really? Sounds like a wonderful way to begin changing old and unhelpful patterns! Thank you again.xoxoxoxox

Your comments always make me smile – you help me to change old, unhelpful patterns too! Thank you so much! xoxoxoxox

Very good article, but not all of us are interested in blueberries or muffins. I accept this may be a characteristically British male vice to show antipathy towards blueberries and muffins, but was this article to intended to be gender and nation specific?

What, exactly, is gender-specific about blueberry muffins? Are you suggesting it’s “unmanly” to have an interest in baking? And what’s “nation specific” about blueberry muffins? I’m from the UK and bought and ate many a blueberry muffin there.

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20 Tips To Stop Your Mind From Wandering and Overthinking

The researchers used a smartphone app to ask people at random intervals throughout the day when they were thinking about. Psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert discovered that people’s level of happiness declined shortly after they reported that their minds had wandered, rather than a lower level of happiness preceding the mind wandering. This may imply that when we become distracted from our present circumstance, we contribute to our unhappiness.

How often are you truly entirely immersed in the current moment, letting your mind take a rest from overthinking? Or are you worrying about the past, anxious about the future, or caught up in a fantasy world?

Often we can find ourselves re-running a conversation we had earlier today, last week, or even last year. “Why did he say that? What a fool I made of myself! She must think I’m an idiot!”

Or perhaps we worry about what might happen in that meeting at work tomorrow, a party this weekend, or getting our taxes done. “How will my presentation go? What if my ex shows up at the party? What if I miss a deduction on my taxes?”

We spin our wheels, knowing in our gut that analysis can lead to paralysis, but still unable to stop our whirling thoughts.

Some suggestions to combat mental wandering and overthinking:

• Ask yourself: “Is this a productive thought?” Will yet another mental rehearsal of your upcoming meeting with your boss really help you? Or is it time to trust that you’re sufficiently prepared, and now your best bet is to trust your instincts? Keep in mind that when we can relax a bit that we can most easily access our intuition.
• Put things into perspective. Will this situation you’re turning over in your mind matter in five years? Or are you blowing things out of proportion?
• Know your body rhythm and schedule your activities accordingly. Some of us are morning larks, while others are night owls. Which are you? When do you tend to be at your best physically, emotionally, and mentally? (The time frames may vary for each of these three elements.) If you focus best in the morning, try to use this time to tackle challenging projects that might seem overwhelming later in the day. If you’re at the top of your game mentally in the evening, plan to take on important conversations or assignments at this time, when you’re mostly likely to be effective. One advantage to completing matters in the morning is that you can then go about the rest of your day with a sense of accomplishment (or relief), but you’ll need to balance this with what works best for your personal time clock.
• Focus on your five senses. What can you hear, see, taste, smell, and touch right now? Such attention can help bring you back into the present moment.
• Surrender the need to be perfect or omnipotent. There is no magical finish line which you will cross where you are “done” and have nothing more to learn. We are not meant to be perfect. We are continually growing and changing. We never know all of the facts – instead, we do the best we can with the information at hand. Just do your best each day, then let the matter go.
• Accept that you cannot change the past. Maybe things didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to, or maybe you made a mistake – extract what possible lesson you can learn from the experience, then move on. Don’t let your past crowd out the present in your mind.
• Accept that you cannot predict nor control the future. It’s a pretty safe bet, though, that worrying about the future will rob you of fully appreciating and living in the present moment.
• Exercise. Take a walk around the block or down the hall, go out for a run or a bike ride, or lift some weights. Moving your body will help to generate endorphins (feel-good hormones), work off any possible anxiety, and clear your mind.
• Accept that you don’t have to understand everything. You don’t always have to know why you have habitually done something in order to change your behavior. While a bit of contemplation can be helpful, overthinking can be an excuse not to take potentially uncomfortable (but effective) action.
• Repeat phrases to center and calm yourself , such as I can deal with this; Relax; Be here now; One moment at a time; I am safe. Or just mentally count to ten, exhaling “one”, “two”, “three”, etc.
• Do only one thing at a time. Multi-tasking can contribute to the flurry in our minds. Sitting and being mindful is not always possible. However, you can practice putting all of your attention on just one thing. This in itself would probably be a significant change, as most of us usually do several things at one time. How often have you simultaneously been on the phone while also racing down the freeway, preparing a meal, or surfing the Web? It’s impossible to focus 100% on one thing when you’re juggling various activities at the same time. Instead, you end up dividing your attention between multiple items, and this can result in information overload, which is a recipe for anxiety (and overthinking).
• Acknowledge the problem, but focus more on the solution. Consider, “What is the best thing that can happen?”, rather than worrying about what might go wrong.
• Consider what you’re depriving yourself of by fantasizing and overthinking. What ah-ha moments, synchronicities, or appreciation of the present are you missing out on? Is it worth it?
• Consider what you might have to feel if you stopped overthinking. Is it possible that your constant mental gymnastics distract you from uncomfortable feelings or realizations? If this is the case, understand that you’ve been trying to protect yourself, but also recognize that any possible benefits of using this method do not outweigh the drawbacks.
• Ask yourself, “What is within my control? What isn’t?” Focus on what you can influence. Items you can do something about include your attitudes, behavior, and choices. Yes, you can communicate your feelings and wishes regarding other people’s attitudes, behavior, and choices, but ultimately other people are free to do what they want. (You can choose to leave the relationship, though, if things don’t improve.) You can’t change the past, but you can learn from it. You can’t predict the future, but you can prepare for it in moderation, while spending the majority of your time staying mentally and emotionally in the present.
• Compartmentalize worry time. If you’ve determined that the situation you’ve been mulling over really deserves a lot of thought, make an appointment with yourself to worry. Set a timer at the scheduled time, say for 15 or 30 minutes. During this appointment, “worry” single-mindedly about the issue. Make notes, if that helps you. Tear up your notes, if you wish. When the timer goes off, your worry time is over. If need be, plan another appointment for the next day or week, but in the meanwhile, let the worry go. You’re likely to learn that the world won’t come to an end.
• Practice mindfulness , defined as nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. Such training can be offered in both group and individual settings. Practice observing your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations while maintaining the stance of an observer. In time, you will learn that stimuli from the outside world as well as from within you need not set you off into overthinking or mentally exiting the moment.
• Practice deep abdominal breathing. Doing so will promote a relaxation response while also anchoring you in the present moment.
• Take a class in improvisation . You don’t have to be a professional actor to benefit from the spontaneity and creativity that improv exercises can teach you. With improv, there is no such thing as failure, and you simply don’t have time to overthink something – your responses must be instantaneous.
• Help someone else. Turning our thoughts and attention to another person or cause can often be the most effective way of getting our mind off our own issues and back into the “now”.

Filed Under: Anxiety , Emotion Regulation , General , Mental Health , Mindfulness Tagged With: mindfulness , overthinking , worry

It’s normal for your mind to wander. Here’s how to maximise the benefits

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Have you ever found yourself thinking about loved ones during a boring meeting? Or going over the plot of a movie you recently watched during a drive to the supermarket?

This is the cognitive phenomenon known as “ mind wandering ”. Research suggests it can account for up to 50% of our waking cognition (our mental processes when awake) in both western and non-western societies .

So what can help make this time productive and beneficial?

Mind wandering is not daydreaming

Mind wandering is often used interchangeably with daydreaming. They are both considered types of inattention but are not the same thing.

Mind wandering is related to a primary task, such as reading a book, listening to a lecture, or attending a meeting. The mind withdraws from that task and focuses on internally generated, unrelated thoughts.

On the other hand, daydreaming does not involve a primary, active task. For example, daydreaming would be thinking about an ex-partner while travelling on a bus and gazing out the window. Or lying in bed and thinking about what it might be like to go on a holiday overseas.

If you were driving the bus or making the bed and your thoughts diverted from the primary task, this would be classed as mind wandering.

The benefits of mind wandering

Mind wandering is believed to play an important role in generating new ideas , conclusions or insights (also known as “aha! moments”). This is because it can give your mind a break and free it up to think more creatively.

This type of creativity does not always have to be related to creative pursuits (such as writing a song or making an artwork). It could include a new way to approach a university or school assignment or a project at work. Another benefit of mind wandering is relief from boredom, providing the opportunity to mentally retreat from a monotonous task.

For example, someone who does not enjoy washing dishes could think about their upcoming weekend plans while doing the chore. In this instance, mind wandering assists in “passing the time” during an uninteresting task.

Mind wandering also tends to be future-oriented. This can provide an opportunity to reflect upon and plan future goals, big or small. For example, what steps do I need to take to get a job after graduation? Or, what am I going to make for dinner tomorrow?

Read more: Alpha, beta, theta: what are brain states and brain waves? And can we control them?

What are the risks?

Mind wandering is not always beneficial, however. It can mean you miss out on crucial information. For example, there could be disruptions in learning if a student engages in mind wandering during a lesson that covers exam details. Or an important building block for learning.

Some tasks also require a lot of concentration in order to be safe. If you’re thinking about a recent argument with a partner while driving, you run the risk of having an accident.

That being said, it can be more difficult for some people to control their mind wandering. For example, mind wandering is more prevalent in people with ADHD.

Read more: How your brain decides what to think

What can you do to maximise the benefits?

There are several things you can do to maximise the benefits of mind wandering.

• be aware : awareness of mind wandering allows you to take note of and make use of any productive thoughts. Alternatively, if it is not a good time to mind wander it can help bring your attention back to the task at hand

context matters : try to keep mind wandering to non-demanding tasks rather than demanding tasks. Otherwise, mind wandering could be unproductive or unsafe. For example, try think about that big presentation during a car wash rather than when driving to and from the car wash

content matters : if possible, try to keep the content positive. Research has found , keeping your thoughts more positive, specific and concrete (and less about “you”), is associated with better wellbeing. For example, thinking about tasks to meet upcoming work deadlines could be more productive than ruminating about how you felt stressed or failed to meet past deadlines.

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Wandering vs. Wondering: Difference and Comparison

Difference Between Wandering and Wondering

Wandering vs. Wondering Comparison Chart

Basic definition, context of use, associated actions.

Wandering vs. Wondering Definitions

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◉ Wondering

Wandering vs. Wondering Frequently Asked Questions

Is wandering a physical activity, can a person be wondering while wandering, what does wandering mean, which word describes a lack of direction or purpose in movement, can wandering apply to topics in a conversation, what does wondering involve, does wondering mean moving about, in literature, which word might be used to describe a character lost in thought, which word is related to intellectual curiosity.

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7 ways to tame your wandering mind and achieve better focus

By Caroline Williams

17 May 2017

“I never knew that helped concentration!”

Laura Kate Bradley/Getty

Mind wandering has long been thought of as the enemy of concentration, but that’s not always true – the right kind of daydreaming can actually help you focus (see “How to daydream your way to better learning and concentration”) . Read on to discover how to take control of your wandering mind, and other simple ways to stay sharp when deadlines are looming.

How to win at work

Make your work work better for you – from dealing with pesky colleagues to taking the perfect break and doing less for more money, 1. give your mind more to do.

Give your mind more to do: Research by Nilli Lavie at University College London has found that adding deliberate distractions – a jazzy border on a page or a bit of background noise – actually reduces distractibility . Her “load theory” proposes this works because attention is a limited resource, so if you fill all the attentional “slots” in your mind, it leaves no room for other distractions.

2. Bribe yourself

The prospect of a treat can keep people focused , but only when it is well-timed, studies show. Offering people small rewards throughout a boring task didn’t stop them from losing focus, but the promise of a larger reward that they would receive at the end of the task kept them alert. This approach probably works best with an accomplice to keep you from caving early, says Michael Esterman , at the Boston Attention and Learning Laboratory, who did the research. “It’s hard to fool yourself.”

Read more: State of unrest – Can fidgeting really help you concentrate?

3. test yourself.

We’re currently finding that there’s more than one way your mind can wander, and that knowing how to navigate your daydreams could save you come exam time. One trick is to make sure your mind is wandering about the stuff you need to learn . To do that, test yourself often. People retained more of a boring lecture if they paused to test what they remembered every 5 minutes. Their minds still wandered, but wandered on topic, rather than anything but .

4. Daydream during breaks

Stopping every now and again to give your mind a chance to wander can invigorate focus, says psychologist Paul Seli of Harvard University. “If you say to yourself, now I’m going to think about something unrelated, maybe problem-solve something else that is on your mind, and then come back to your task. That can definitely be beneficial,” he says.

5. De-stress

You might think that an adrenaline boost would focus the mind, but stress actually stimulates the release of hormones, including noradrenaline, which bind to receptors in the cognitive control circuits. This in turn makes it harder for them to keep tabs on mind wandering.

6. Get some zeds

A lack of sleep hammers mental performance in general, and reduces our ability to resist both internal and external distractions. And there’s an added bonus – sleep is also important for memory consolidation. In fact, recent research suggests that if you have an hour spare before an exam, a nap could be a more effective use of your time than spending it revising.

In one study, people forced to listen to a boring voice recording were able to remember more afterwards if they were allowed to doodle. But content is important. Doodling about something related to what you are trying to remember is more likely to qualify as intentional mind wandering, which can help you focus on the task at hand. Don’t be too elaborate, however – if your doodles become too engaging, the whole thing might backfire.

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How to Keep Your Mind From Wandering

It is the habit of the mind to wander and move from one thing to another.

What happens when you sit quietly for a few minutes trying to think about a certain subject, or just sit down to relax? Next time you do this, try to watch your mind, and you will discover that it flits around like a butterfly, going from one thought to another.

The mind keeps thinking, worrying, asking questions, answering, giving excuses, telling stories, imagining, creating problems and solving them.

This happens not only while you sit down to relax, but also while working, driving, cooking, eating or doing anything else.

This non-stop activity weakens your ability to focus your mind, and as well as interferes with your ability to deal effectively with what you are doing at each moment of the day.

Learn How to Focus Your Attention

A wandering mind can prevent you from falling asleep, finishing your tasks and work, and completing what you are doing. It also wastes your time and energy, and can be tiring sometimes.

Some people would tell you that if you perform more than one task at a time, you will save time and get more done.

This might be true at times, when carrying out automatic tasks that do not require your or attention , but you will get done, and more accurately and efficiently, if you focus on just one thing at a time.

How many times have you tried to do several things at the same time, but ended doing mistakes and then having to correct them?

When you focus on one task at a time, you do it more efficiently, easily and quickly. Paying your undivided attention to one subject is a sort of meditation, and this action teaches your mind obedience and discipline.

When your mind is obedient and disciplined, it stops wandering, and you are more at peace .

How Do You Stop Your Mind from Wandering?

There is no magic formula. The recipe for stopping your mind from wandering is practice, and more practice, perseverance and patience.

Don’t look at this as a boring and tiring task. Consider this as a game that rewards you with a precious prize. A prize that is a powerful tool for making your life better, happier and more successful.

Multitasking is an advantage at certain times, but focusing your mind on one thing, and preventing it from wandering to other tasks or thoughts can save you the time you might waste on correcting errors and mistakes due to lack of attention.

How to Keep Your Mind From Wandering:

• Try focusing on one thing at a time.
• Write one email at a time.
• Eat your lunch Mindfully.
• Drink your cup of coffee attentively.
• Read your book with full attention.
• Drive your car with full attention.
• While conversing, keep your mind on the conversation and prevent it from drifting to the TV screen in front of you, to the noises around you, or to people coming and going.
• If you meditate, focus on the subject of meditation, and when your mind wanders, bring it back.
• Align your mind with what you are doing. Don’t do one thing, while thinking about something else.
• When you catch your mind wandering, bring it back to what you are doing. This might not be easy, but if you keep trying you will gradually succeed.
• Become aware of your thoughts, and always bring your mind back to what you are doing.

For him who has no concentration, there is no tranquility. – Bhagavad Gita

Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them. – Johann von Goethe

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it. – Jiddu Krishnamurti

If you direct your whole thought to work itself, none of the things which invade eyes or ears will reach the mind. – Quintilian

Books with information and exercises that can help you focus your mind:

How to Focus Your Mind Willpower and Self Discipline Peace of Mind in Daily Life

About the Author

Join him on a fabulous journey to self-improvement, success, positivity, inner peace, and meditation through his website, articles, and books .

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How to Stop Your Mind From Wandering During Meditation

Active meditation can prevent intrusive thoughts from sabotaging your practice..

Posted March 27, 2018 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

The virtues of meditation and mindfulness are being extolled almost everywhere. Research has shown the practice of meditation can have positive benefits on emotional well-being and physical health and has been indicated for managing serious conditions such as depression , anxiety , heart disease, high blood pressure, sleep problems, and chronic pain . Getting people to try meditation, however, can sometimes be a challenge, particularly for people who have very active minds. They will often say things like: I just can’t sit still. Meditating makes me anxious. I can’t turn off my brain. I’m just bad at it.

Most meditation teachers will tell you that having your mind wander during meditation is perfectly normal and that bringing your attention back to your meditation every time you notice it wandering is simply part of the process. While mind-wandering is indeed quite normal for beginning meditators and even some experienced ones, it can be very frustrating and can result in people giving up before they get to experience the benefits of meditation that they are seeking. There are also times when stopping certain thoughts is the goal of the practice itself. This is particularly true if you are caught up in a spiral of negative thinking and would like to use meditation to alleviate the ruminative process. When you stop flooding your brain with fear and worry about the future or resentments from the past, this has a profoundly positive effect of resetting your emotional state to calm and peaceful. Luckily, there is something you can do to substantially reduce your mind from wandering. It’s called active meditation or focused meditation.

The brain has a limited attentional capacity. This means that you can only think about a certain number of things at any one given time. One of the challenges with meditation is that as you are clearing your mind, you are creating an open space that wants to be filled. Sometimes when people are coping with stressful events, they turn to meditation to calm their mind and find that their mind floods with even more thoughts of what they are trying not to think about. Active meditation helps this problem by giving you a task to do that takes up all of your attention and occupies its working capacity, so that there is much less room for other thoughts to creep in.

Here is an example of an active meditation:

• Pick one word from the list below that describes an emotion you would like to feel more of: Joy, Love, Happy, Peace, Calm, Hope .
• Close your eyes and visualize the word in your head.
• Pick a color that goes with the word and visualize the word in that color.
• Fill the background with another color.
• Now, with your eyes closed and writing in your head, write the word one letter at a time.
• As you are writing the word, say the letters quietly to yourself in your head.
• Write the colored word on the colored background over and over in your head while you say the letters quietly to yourself.
• Set a timer for 10 minutes and keep doing the exercise until the timer goes off.

If you find it challenging to do all the steps at once, do as many as possible to take up all of your focus. Most people report the activity fills their mind so that they have few intrusive thoughts, but if your mind does wander, don’t judge yourself or label yourself as doing it wrong, simply go back to the activity and focus on the vividness of the colors and seeing the word in your head. You can also add in more steps if you need to occupy more of your attention. For example, you can add the step of trying to feel the emotion of the word as you are writing it in your head.

Once you have done an active meditation a few times, you may find it easier to try a more traditional mind-clearing meditation. There are wonderful benefits to both, though in order to experience the benefits you must practice on a regular basis. Once a week won’t get you there, but 10 minutes a day is enough to start to feel the benefit in a matter of a few days. You should subtly start to notice you feel calmer and less stressed; within a week or two things that used to upset you may not bother you so much anymore. You will feel greater clarity in your thinking and ability to focus.

To add a meditation practice into your routine, it is best to set aside a regular time to do it every day. First thing in the morning is a great way to start your day off on a positive note; however, for some, mid-day is a time that offers a needed break, and right before bed can have a calming effect. You can also break it up into small brief meditations throughout the day, three to four minutes in the morning, three to four minutes mid-day, and three to four minutes in the evening can really add up. What is most important to know is that there isn’t a wrong way to meditate, it’s a matter of finding what works best for you.

Jennice Vilhauer, Ph.D. , is the Director of Emory University’s Adult Outpatient Psychotherapy Program in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science in the School of Medicine.

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Wander vs. Wonder: How To Use Each Word

• Wonder Vs. Wander

⚡ Quick summary

The verb wander (pronounced [ won -der ]) typically means “to roam” or “to meander.” The word wonder (pronounced [ wuhn -der ]) is typically used as a verb to mean “to think curiously,” “to be amazed,” or “to doubt.” As a noun, it’s used to mean “something strange and surprising,” “a miraculous deed or event,” or “the emotion excited by what is strange and surprising.”   

The words wander and wonder look very similar, but they have very different meanings and uses. 

In this article, we will define wander and wonder , explain how we use them differently, and provide example sentences that show how we typically use them in sentences. 

wonder  vs. wander

The word wonder (pronounced [ wuhn -der ]) is used as a verb and a noun. As a verb, it typically means “to think curiously,” “to be amazed,” or “to doubt.” 

For example:

• I wonder what will happen at the party this weekend. 
• They wondered at the amazing acrobatics of the circus performers.
• I wonder if Oscar can really speak Spanish like he claims. 

Wonder is also used as a noun to mean “something strange and surprising,” “a miraculous deed or event,” or “the emotion excited by what is strange and surprising.” 

• The collection was filled with wonders from around the world. 
• The magician was able to perform such wonders as turning dirt into gold. 
• We were filled with wonder as we watched the firework show. 

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The word wander (pronounced [ won -der ]) is typically used as a verb to mean “to move about without a set path, to roam,” “to follow a circuitous route, to meander,” and “to take a direction without conscious intent, as with thoughts,” as well as several other similar meanings. 

• She wandered through the woods for a while before she found a lake.
• The story started out good, but then it wandered off into a confusing mess. 
• He was so bored that his mind began to wander into thoughts of lunch.

It is possible to use the word wander as a noun, but this usage is rare. Instead, the noun sense of wandering is much more likely to be used. By contrast, both the noun and verb sense of wonder are commonly used.  

Examples of wander and wonder in a sentence

Let’s amble into some amazing sentences that show how we typically use wander and wonder .

• They got lost on the way to the pool and wandered into the sauna. 
• As a kid, I always wondered about how different machines worked.
• The president wandered off on a tangent about pizza before getting back to his speech. 
• The wizard’s tower was full of magical wonders, including a flying carpet. 
• We were full of wonder as we wandered through the science museum.

Don't wander off course when learning how to distinguish "coarse" from "course."

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• Mental wellbeing

The science behind your wandering mind and what to do about it

Get the full scoop on the good, the bad and the not-so-ugly of zoning out.

Despite what your parents or teachers may have told you as a child, daydreaming , aka, when your mind wanders off task and into the wilderness of unrelated thoughts, good, bad and in-between, is not always a bad thing.

While until fairly recently neuroscientists thought that the electrical activity of the mind at rest was just neural background noise , it actually looks like all of that mental meandering likely serves a purpose.

In ancient times , being able to remember what happened in the past, and predict what might happen in the future probably helped our ancestors avoid catastrophe. And today this ability may be a major source of support and inspiration when it comes to creative problem solving and planning.

Is mind-wandering a default?

We all zone out far more than we’re probably willing to admit. In fact, according to a 2010 study , our minds wander around half (47%) the time we’re awake. And mind-wandering involves a system in our brains called the default mode network .

When your brain is at rest, but not asleep, i.e. not focused on anything in particular, your default mode network is at its most active.

This network consists of some important structures in the brain and although it’s known to be involved in things like thinking, it's deactivated when focussed on a specific task.

The default mode network is also active when you are thinking about yourself, about others, remembering the past or planning for the future, aka, letting your thoughts roam wild and free.

While some past studies have associated a wandering mind with a general decrease in mental wellbeing , more recent studies have demonstrated that daydreaming can improve performance on repetitive tasks , increase creativity, divergent thinking, and novel ideas and could even make some people feel happier as they indulge in pleasant, off-task musings to distract themselves.

Which means that letting your thoughts drift might actually help you reach a breakthrough or come to a new conclusion that changes your current project for the better. In fact, a study of writers and physicists indicated that while they came up with creative ideas on task too, the ideas they had while their minds were somewhere else (aka, not on the task at hand) were more likely to be associated with overcoming an impasse or having an "aha" moment.

This is why taking a break when you’re feeling blocked and doing something else (like going for a walk or recording your thoughts in Foundations ) can free the block and help you refocus.

Of course, your brain’s roaming isn’t always a good thing. When it leads to worry , overthinking , or worse still, rumination—things can quickly take a turn for the worse and ruin your mood (and your day).

Ivan Aleksic via @ unsplash

Ruminating , a negative sort of mind-wandering where your mind keeps running off to the same negative place, again and again, can become intrusive and hard to reign in, especially when what we’re worrying about is something outside our control.

Fortunately, there are a few easy ways to replace your unhelpful thoughts and help you redirect your attention.

The not-so-ugly

And, as it turns out, daydreaming is a default behaviour , and our brains automatically do it whenever we’re not actively directing our attention elsewhere. But whether or not that default has a positive or negative influence on our wellbeing depends on where the mind tends to go.

Our brains are attracted to unresolved issues and can lean towards hope or worry, depending on the situation at hand, the person in question and their biological disposition and life experiences. Fortunately, we have a substantial amount of influence on how (and where) our minds wander. Read on for a few things you can do to help your mind wander in a more positive direction.

3 things you can do (when your mind wanders)

1. get mindful and meditate.

Mindfulness and meditation help us change how we relate to the present moment, and over time, the world and people around us. Compassionate meditation in particular (like the Loving-kindness meditation in Foundations ), can make for more positive mind-wandering. This sort of meditation can help people feel more caring towards themselves and others—both of which are tied to happiness.

Doing mindfulness meditations can also make it easier to redirect your thoughts in moments you need to concentrate, as part of the practice consists of noticing when your attention gets off track and gently directing it back to the present moment with a breath or a mantra. For more on mindfulness, read our post on evidence-based reasons to practise mindfulnes s.

2. Record your thoughts

Tame your unruly mind with this simple technique from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy . Make a regular habit of getting your thoughts down (on paper, or in your Foundations Thought record) and give your brain a break. It’s an excellent hack that can help shift your default .

Looking to learn more about this technique? Foundations' Challenge your thoughts program walks you through the basics.

3. Let your mind do what it wants

Instead of trying to force your brain to focus, give yourself a break. If your mind is wandering a lot, give yourself permission to take a few minutes off to see where it wants to go. Take five and let your thoughts go wherever they will.

And if mind-wandering is a recurring problem for you, try scheduling a regular time of day to give your thoughts free rein . Research shows that letting your focus move away from the task at hand helps relieve any boredom associated with concentrating for longer stretches and helps people return to what they’re doing with new ideas, feeling refreshed.

Do you get distracted while working and find your mind wandering ? Let us know at [email protected] .

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Wandering vs. Wondering — What's the Difference?

Difference Between Wandering and Wondering

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Why Your Mind Wanders While Reading & How To Stop It

This post contains affiliate links.

You’re reading a new book and after a few pages in you completely forgot what you just read. Turns out, your mind was wandering while you were reading. Sounds familiar? As an avid reader, I’ve had plenty of experiences like this and have found a way to live with it which I’m going to share with you.

Your mind wanders likely because you have a short attention span. By listening to music that is 50-80 bpm, incorporating rest breaks, and breaking the reading materials into sections, my mind wandered less and I was able to focus more on what I’m reading.

Ahead, we will look at some of the most common reasons why your mind wanders. We will also look at some strategies you can use to stop your mind from wandering while reading.

Why Your Mind Wanders While You’re Reading

Wondering what causes your mind to wander while you’re reading a book? Here are some of the most common reasons.

You’re Processing Too Much Information at Once

One reason why your mind might wander while you’re reading is that you’re trying to process too much information at once.

When you’re bombarded with a lot of information, your brain has trouble focusing on any of it.

To avoid this, try to break down the material into smaller chunks. For example, if you’re reading a chapter in a book, read one section at a time and then understand it.

Some books split a chapter into sections which makes it so much easier to read.

Or if you’re reading an article online, read one section at a time and then scroll down to the next section.

The Book Bores You

Another reason why your mind might wander while you’re reading is that you’re bored. If you find yourself zoning out or daydreaming, it’s likely because the material isn’t interesting to you.

If you’ve been reading a lot, you probably experienced this at least once.

I have multiple times. And even though The Intelligent Investor is considered by Warren Buffet as the best investing book of all time, I just can’t read it without my mind wandering.

You’re Reading In A Busy Environment

If you’re trying to read in a place where there are a lot of distractions, it’s going to be a lot more difficult to focus.

Your mind will wander because it’s constantly trying to process all of the different stimuli around you.

You Have A Short Attention Span

If you find that your mind wanders often, it could be because you have a short attention span.

There are several “tricks” that could boost your attention span a bit longer which we will talk about in the next subheading.

But ultimately, if you have a short attention span consider practicing meditation daily.

And since most of us have a short attention span (according to a study, our attention dropped from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to just 8 seconds today . Yikes! ), it’d probably help a lot if we could just get the key insights of the book and apply them to our lives.

Luckily, you can do that now.

Blinkist is an educational program that gives you the key insights into more than 5,000 nonfiction book titles in 15 to 20 mins each.

That way, you can skip through the fluff, get the information you need while you’re attention is full, and move on to the next book.

If you like what it does, you can save 20% off your first year if you sign up through this link .

You Read Too Slow

Jim Kwik, the author of Limitless , has a very good analogy for this.

Reading a book is like driving a car. If you drive slow, your mind wanders. You can sing along to your favorite music, drink some smoothies, or talk to your best bud.

But what if you’re driving on a race track? Suddenly, you’re in hyperfocus on the road.

His argument was, that it’s the same for reading. And frankly, for some books, I kinda agree.

Speed reading is a great tool to have when you’re an avid reader. And if you’re wondering why you read too slow, I listed the most common reasons in another article.

Related post: Can You Really Learn To Read Faster? (Based on Experience)

How To Stop Your Mind From Wandering

Now that we’ve looked at some of the reasons why your mind wanders while you’re reading, let’s look at some strategies you can use to stop it.

Find More Engaging Material

If you find that your mind wanders often, one of the best things you can do is to find more engaging material.

You can also try looking for material that’s more interesting to you. This could mean reading a book that’s more exciting or finding articles online that are better written.

Try Listening To Music

In the book Limitless , Jim Kwik shared a very simple tip to focus better—listening to music.

Studies have shown that listening to music with a beat of 50-80 bpm can help you focus.

Baroque music seems to be better at stimulating your brain to focus compared to other types of music.

But, if you can’t stand the sound of classics, stick to music without any lyrics on them to prevent your mind from singing along.

Take Breaks

You can also try taking breaks every 20 minutes or so. This will give your mind a chance to rest and reset.

There’s a method I use called the Promodoro and it has changed the way I read dramatically.

Basically, Promodoro is alternate bouts of 25 work (in this case, reading) and 5 mins rest.

I found that I am able to read the book faster and retain more information by reading that way.

During the rest, do absolutely nothing or just do something that relaxes you.

Don’t scroll through your Facebook or Instagram feed.

In my experience, the content from these platforms often leads me to mental wandering, and distraction. And in some cases, I’d even skip my next bout of 25 mins work just to continue scrolling.

Find A Quiet Place

Find a quiet place where you can focus on your reading. This could be in a library, in your bedroom, or even in a park.

The key is to find a place where you won’t be interrupted and where there aren’t a lot of distractions.

Eliminate Distractions

Eliminate as many distractions as possible. This means putting away your phone, turning off the TV, and closing any tabs that you’re not using.

The goal is to create an environment where you can focus solely on your reading.

Practice Meditation

If you find that your mind wanders often, it could be because you have a short attention span. One way to increase your attention span is to practice meditation.

Meditation has been shown to increase focus and concentration. It also helps to train your mind to be more present.

Start by meditating for 5 minutes a day and then gradually increase the amount of time you meditate each day.

How Can You Tell When Your Mind Has Wandered Off?

There are a few telltale signs that your mind has wandered off when reading.

First, you may find that you’re losing track of what you’re reading. You might have to reread the same section multiple times or have trouble following the plot.

Secondly, you may start daydreaming or thinking about other things. This can be a sign that you’re not engaged with the material.

Finally, you may feel restless or antsy. If you can’t sit still while you’re reading, it’s likely because your mind is wandering.

If you notice any of these signs, it’s a good idea to take a break and refocus your attention.

Is There A Way To Completely Stop Your Mind From Wandering While You Read?

Unfortunately, there’s no way to completely prevent your mind from wandering while you read. However, the strategies I discussed above can help you minimize the amount of time your mind spends wandering.

The key is to find what works for you and to be patient. It takes time and practice to train your mind to focus. But, if you stick with it, you’ll eventually get there.

If you find your mind wandering while you’re reading, don’t worry. It’s completely normal. However, there are a few things you can do to minimize the amount of time your mind spends wandering.

Try finding more engaging material, listening to music, taking breaks, practicing meditation, or eliminating distractions. Find what works for you and stick with it. With time and practice, you’ll be able to train your mind to focus.

Nicho Mauricio is the main author of improvementbuddy.com, a website dedicated to giving self-improvement advice. As an avid learner, Nicho shares what he learns about self-improvement one blog post at a time.

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Ball pits and bodacious pigs: my week in search of happiness and wonder

I don’t want to be cynical or pessimistic, but it’s difficult in such gloomy times. Can I find a way to tap into my playful side?

W e live in interesting times, but interesting times are not good times. The world, like the weather, is permanently unsettled. The government of the UK has retreated to its panic room, and the electorate of the US appears to have gone insane. While real wars are waged abroad, we fight culture wars of such resounding stupidity that it’s embarrassing to hold an opinion. However cynical we may be about the future, every day brings new information that obliges us to revise our forecasts downwards.

Persistent cynicism may be wholly appropriate in such a climate, but it’s not good for you – being cynical is associated with a range of disastrous health outcomes. If we are to leave cynicism behind, we must re-acquaint ourselves with wonder. But how can we do this? Is it possible to find joy again? To learn to see the world as children do? That, at least, is my aim for the immediate future: to seek out childlike things and have some childlike fun, while my capacity for joy still exists.

The petting zoo

Leaving Hatton Cross tube station – one stop before Heathrow airport – I am confronted by a deeply unpromising landscape: beyond the six lanes of the A30, featureless industrial buildings associated with airport logistics stretch into the distance. A plane roars overhead, an expanse of undercarriage just visible through the low cloud. Behind a billboard, a horse nibbles on a bale of hay.

From here, a 10-minute walk down a bleak stretch of pavement is all it takes to reach the unlikely tranquility of Hounslow Urban Farm. The planes still take off and land every few minutes, but the geese and the goats pay no attention. There are all kinds of animals on the four-and-a-half-acre site, and I am here to pet all of them.

The farm moved out here about 12 years ago from Syon Park. Founder Tony Purdy says that in the old days, they used to adopt a lot of exotic animals confiscated from smugglers at the airport, but the farm doesn’t have the facilities to accommodate crocodiles, lemurs and honey bears.

I imagined starting out by stroking a chicken, or maybe being nice to a rabbit, but farm manager Katie Tomkins has other ideas – the first animal I am introduced to is a 12cm cockroach. “They can survive 10 times the amount of radiation a human can, and go nine days without a head,” says Tomkins, placing the insect on my jumper, so it sits there like a brooch. As an experience, wearing a very large cockroach is probably less unsettling than wearing 200 small ones.

I am draped in snakes, stick insects and a bearded dragon called Flo. Then it’s time to move outside to feed apples to pigs. “Watch your feet,” says Tomkins. Alfie the pig weighs 500kg, so if he steps on your shoe, you’ll know it. He also really likes apples, and has me backed up against the stall pretty quickly. If I were truly looking at the world through the eyes of a child, I might well start crying at this point. Alfie’s partner, Emma (only 300kg), accepts the apples with a certain polite delicacy. With Alfie, it’s more like dropping them into a wood chipper. You don’t want your fingers anywhere near his mouth. When I run out of apples, Alfie appears to have some thoughts about trampling me, before changing his mind and wandering off.

The farm fields are thick with mud from all the recent rain, but the sun is just breaking through as I squelch my way past lines of tiny schoolchildren. On my way to feed the sheep I stop to stroke a curious alpaca leaning over his fence. He feels expensive.

Tomkins knows the name of every animal on the farm – they run to greet her wherever she goes – but I can’t tell Timmy the sheep from his friend Barnaby, possibly because I’m surrounded by a whole flock, all sticking their heads in my feed bucket before I am halfway to the trough. I’m being gently mobbed, and it’s very pleasing.

I end my visit inside one of the farm buildings, with Ozzie the owl flying across the room to my gloved hand, which clutches a tempting glob of eviscerated chick. Luckily, Ozzie is amazingly good at this – my flinching doesn’t put him off.

Overall, it’s a truly uplifting way to spend a morning. On the walk to the farm all I could think was: this would be a very good place to leave a body in a rolled-up rug. On the way home I thought only of gambolling sheep, hungry pigs and a cockroach living nine days without a head.

The seafront

The seafront at Hastings, East Sussex, is not at its best at this time of year – lots of the rides aren’t open, and dark clouds are moving in from offshore. But the arcade is in full swing on a Saturday, and that’s where I’m headed first. When I was young, I loved an amusement arcade, but my mother hated them and refused to take me, even for my birthday. She always gave the same answer: “My mother would never take me to the beach, so when I grew up I married someone who lived near the beach. When you grow up you can marry someone who lives next to the arcade.”

This life plan didn’t work out for me, but no matter, I’m here now and I have one thing my 11-year-old self could only dream of: plenty of money. If I wanted, I could spend the whole weekend in the arcade. Armed with a bucket of 2p coins, I sit down at a machine called the Tower of Terror. It takes me a moment to understand the strategy, which is: there is no strategy. You just roll coins across a moving field hoping they will end up in slots offering different points. Points mean tickets, and tickets mean prizes. I have a small advantage – some of the monsters that are meant to block the path of my coins have fallen off through wear and tear – but the machine still has a bigger one. When my coins are gone, I get more.

I try my hand at a different machine, loosely based on the board game Monopoly. I kill some dinosaurs with a machine gun that squirts water. I compete in a game of Connect 4 using small basketballs. All the while I am being rewarded with tickets, until I end up garlanded with them. After only an hour I have converted £10 into 500 2p coins, 500 coins into 350 tickets and 350 tickets into a £1 bag of sour gummy worms. Satisfied, I head next door to the go-karts.

Any awkwardness I might have felt about being a 60-year-old man approaching the ticket window of a seafront go-kart track is multiplied when I notice that the cashier behind the glass seems to be about nine years old. When I inquire about hiring a car she stands on her chair to reach the waiver forms above her head.

“Name, date of birth, sign in the box,” she says, pushing the paper my way.

“OK, great,” I say.

“Paying cash or card?” she says.

Out on the track, I wedge my frame into a tiny car and sit through a stern lecture about some of my fellow racing drivers being small children. Then we’re off. Over 10 laps I suffer the humiliation of being repeatedly overtaken on the figure-eight course, although there is one little kid in a half-size car who I lapped on at least five occasions, comprehensively ruining his afternoon. To be honest, the experience is a bit too much like driving.

A few metres along the front I stop to see if there’s time for a quick round of mini golf before sunset. “Certainly,” says the man at the window. “Are you aware that we’re the world championship course?”

“No,” I say. “I had no idea.”

But it’s true: Hastings Adventure Golf has hosted the World Crazy Golf Championships for more than 20 years. I have come here accompanied by two of my adult sons because I felt weird – even mildly suspect – doing childlike seafront activities on my own. But I needn’t have worried about the mini golf. The championship leaderboards are dominated by middle-aged men who can find the windmill hole in two strokes, every time.

I am no mini golf pro, but the whipping wind blows in my favour and I have a very good round: 53 over 18 holes, enough to win by a stroke. Perhaps the buzz I’m experiencing at this moment is not altogether childlike. It may also have something to do with all the gummy worms I’ve eaten. Who cares? It feels like fun to me.

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Formerly very much a kid’s thing, colouring is now firmly established as a non-embarrassing therapeutic activity for adults, and it’s clear that my new colouring book – Positively Zen, it’s called – is aimed at this market. It’s filled with complex outlines of plants, fish, insects and waves. It looks like a great deal of work.

It doesn’t take me long to recall – and relive – everything I disliked about colouring as a child. While grownups could usually find positive things to say about my drawing, my colouring was invariably criticised, either for going outside the lines or for pressing too hard. And while the crudest children’s drawing can usually find a place on the fridge, a completed colouring book is fit only for the bin.

I try to forget all this, to stay in the moment, to relax into the mindless preoccupation of the task, but colouring feels a lot more like a dead-end job than a form of therapy. After 20 minutes attempting to reproduce the particular iridescence of the underside of a goldfish using a bit of blue along with the orange, I start to blame my tools: this set of pencils has all the wrong colours. Soon, I’m looking for shortcuts, and going outside the lines again. This, I think, is the polar opposite of fun.

“Am I meant to colour in this whole background?” I shout. “I’ll be here all afternoon!”

“What are you doing?” my wife says, leaning into the room.

“Colouring,” I say. “And wasting my time.”

“I used to love colouring,” my wife says.

“It’s all yours,” I say, handing her the book. Soon she is happily filling in a field of wild flowers.

“I don’t understand how you have the patience to do that,” I say.

“I find it very soothing,” she says.

The Balloon Museum

Old Billingsgate market on the Thames in central London currently houses an experience – the Balloon Museum’s Emotion Air show – that is said to inspire childlike wonder in children and adults. It’s an installation featuring the inflatable works of 20 artists from across the globe, all exploring the relationship between art and emotion.

These works made of air, form, colour and light (and sound, though it must compete with a constant background hum of compressors) are by turns disarming and disorientating. Some are clearly designed to leave you standing there with your mouth slightly agape, either in wonder or bafflement.

“It’s a project that welcomes all ages,” says Giulia Francescangeli, the museum’s customer care coordinator. “And it’s a place where adults can become children again.”

Good, I think. That’s why I’m here.

There are lots of parents squeezing buggies through forests of balloons, and lots of kids pushing around giant balloons and bouncing off inflatable walls. But do they get many unaccompanied adults coming along looking for joy? “Yeah, by themselves,” says Francescangeli. “And that’s fine. They have so much fun here. I think it’s great for everyone.”

The big draw of the Balloon Museum – the bit everyone talks about – is the ball pit. It’s the size of a swimming pool, filled to the brim with bright yellow balls and very much open to all. The Balloon Museum currently has exhibitions running all over the world, with different inflatable works and different themes in each city. “But the ball pit is always present,” says Francescangeli. “It’s the heart of the project.”

It’s been a long time since I got into a ball pit, and even then it was only to rescue a child who had slipped beneath the surface. Going in on my own seems weird, but once I’m waist deep and out in the middle, I start to see other adults dotted around the pit: lying up to their necks in yellow balls, looking at their phones, all of them seemingly caught up in pure bliss.

Soon, I join them – alone, weightless, buoyed up by balls. After a minute, a sound and light show begins, with abstract projections rolling across a bubbled ceiling. I don’t allow my mouth to hang open in wonder – you don’t know where these balls have been – but after a few minutes my breath slows and my eyes have become as wide as saucers.

Of all the different rooms at the Balloon Museum, the ball pit is the only one where people have to be moved on during busy periods. You’re only meant to stay for one cycle of the light show – about 15 minutes. But when the show ends I’m tempted to sink quietly into the balls and wait for the start of the next one. It seems like such an easy place to lose your cares, your pessimism, your cynicism and so many other things.

“We find a lot of shoes,” says Francescangeli.

• Health & wellbeing
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Synonyms of wandering

• as in rambling
• as in nomadic
• as in roaming
• as in trespassing
• More from M-W
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Thesaurus Definition of wandering

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• digressionary
• digressional

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• straightforward
• undeviating
• peripatetic
• galavanting
• on the move
• gallivanting
• perambulatory

Thesaurus Definition of wandering  (Entry 2 of 2)

• knocking (about)
• gadding (about)
• kicking around
• vagabonding
• milling (about or around)
• trespassing
• transgressing
• breaking the law
• falling from grace
• backsliding

Thesaurus Entries Near wandering

wandering (into)

Cite this Entry

“Wandering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/wandering. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.

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A Bronx Teacher Asked. Tommy Orange Answered.

When the author received an impassioned email, he dropped everything to visit the students who inspired it.

• Share full article

By Elisabeth Egan

Elisabeth Egan is still in touch with her high school English teachers.

Tommy Orange sat at the front of a classroom in the Bronx, listening as a group of high school students discussed his novel “There There.”

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

Open this article in the New York Times Audio app on iOS.

A boy wearing blue glasses raised his hand. “All the characters have some form of disconnection, even trauma,” Michael Almanzar, 19, said. “That’s the world we live in. That’s all around us. It’s not like it’s in some faraway land. That’s literally your next-door neighbor.”

The class broke into a round of finger snaps , as if we were at an old-school poetry slam on the Lower East Side and not in an English class at Millennium Art Academy, on the corner of Lafayette and Pugsley Avenues.

Orange took it all in with a mixture of gratitude and humility — the semicircle of earnest, engaged teenagers; the bulletin board decorated with words describing “There There” (“hope,” “struggle,” “mourning,” “discovery”); the shelf of well-thumbed copies wearing dust jackets in various stages of disintegration.

His eyebrows shot up when a student wearing a sweatshirt that said “I Am My Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams” compared the book to “ The Road ,” by Cormac McCarthy . When three consecutive students spoke about how they related to Orange’s work because of their own mental health struggles, he was on the verge of tears.

“That’s what drew me to reading in the first place,” Orange said, “The feeling of not being as alone as you thought you were.”

It’s not often that an author walks into a room full of readers, let alone teenagers, who talk about characters born in his imagination as if they’re living, breathing human beings. And it’s equally rare for students to spend time with an author whose fictional world feels like a refuge. Of all the classroom visits he’s made since “There There” came out in 2018, the one at Millennium Art Academy earlier this month was, Orange said later, “the most intense connection I’ve ever experienced.”

The catalyst for the visit was Rick Ouimet, an energetic, pony-tailed English teacher who has worked in the fortresslike building for 25 years. Ouimet is the kind of teacher students remember, whether it’s for his contributions to their literary vocabulary — synecdoche, bildungsroman, chiasmus — or for his battered flip phone.

He first learned about “There There” from a colleague whose son recommended it during the pandemic. “I knew from the first paragraph that this was a book our kids were going to connect to,” he said.

The novel follows 12 characters from Native communities in the lead-up to a powwow at a stadium in Oakland, Calif., where tragedy strikes. “Orange leads you across the drawbridge, and then the span starts going up,” a critic with The New York Times, Dwight Garner, wrote when it came out. The novel was one of The Times’s 10 Best Books of 2018 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. According to Orange’s publisher, over one million copies have been sold.

Ouimet’s hunch proved true: “Students love the book so much, they don’t realize they’re reading it for English class. That’s the rare find, the gift of gifts.”

Some relevant statistics: Attendance rates at Millennium Art are below the city average. Eighty-seven percent of students are from low-income households, which is above the city average.

In the three years since Orange’s novel became a mainstay of the Millennium Art curriculum, pass rates for students taking the Advanced Placement literature exam have more than doubled. Last year, 21 out of 26 students earned college credit, surpassing state and global averages. The majority of them, said Ouimet, wrote about “There There.”

When three students in the school’s art-bedecked hallway were randomly asked to name a favorite character from “There There,” they all answered without hesitation. It was as if Tony, Jacquie and Opal were people they might bump into at ShopRite.

Briana Reyes, 17, said, “I connected so much with the characters, especially having family members with alcohol and drug abuse.”

Last month, Ouimet learned that Orange, who lives in Oakland, was going to be in New York promoting his second novel, “ Wandering Stars .” An idea started to percolate. Ouimet had never invited an author to his classroom before; such visits can be pricey and, as he pointed out, Shakespeare and Zora Neale Hurston aren’t available.

Ouimet composed a message in his head for over a week, he said, and on Monday, March 4, just after midnight, he fired it off to the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau.

“The email felt like a raw rough draft, but I didn’t agonize,” he said. “It was my midlife college essay.”

The 827-word missive was written in the go-for-broke style Ouimet encourages in his students’ work, full of personality, texture and detail, without the corporate-speak that infiltrates so much Important Professional Correspondence.

Ouimet wrote: “In our 12th-grade English classroom, in our diverse corner of the South Bronx, in an under-resourced but vibrant urban neighborhood not unlike the Fruitvale, you’re our rock star. Our more than rock star. You’re our MF Doom, our Eminem, our Earl Sweatshirt, our Tribe Called Red, our Beethoven, our Bobby Big Medicine, our email to Manny, our ethnically ambiguous woman in the next stall, our camera pointing into a tunnel of darkness.”

Orange, he added, was a hero to these kids: “You’ve changed lives.” There was Tahqari Koonce, 17, who drew a parallel between the Oakland Coliseum and the Roman Colosseum; and Natalia Melendez, also 17, who noted that a white gun symbolized oppression of Native tribes. And then there was Dalvyn Urena, 18, who “said he’d never read an entire book until ‘There There,’” and was now comparing it to a Shakespearean sonnet.

He ended with: “Well, it was worth a shot. Thanks for taking the time to read this — if it ever finds its way to you. In appreciation (and awe), Rick Ouimet.”

“I took a chance,” Ouimet said. And why not? “My students take a chance every time they open a new book. There’s groaning, and they open the page. To see what they gave this book? The love was palpable.”

Within hours, the message reached Orange, who was in the midst of a 24-city tour with multiple interviews and events each day. He asked Jordan Rodman, senior director of publicity at Knopf, to do whatever she could to squeeze Ouimet’s class into the mix. There would be no fee attached. Knopf donated 30 copies of “There There” and 30 copies of “Wandering Stars.”

In a big, bustling school full of squeaky soles, walkie-talkies and young people, moments of silence can be hard to come by. But when Orange cracked open his new novel, you could hear a pin drop.

“It’s important to voice things, to sound them out, like the way we learn to spell by slowly saying words,” Orange read.

He went on: “It’s just as important for you to hear yourself speak your stories as it is for others to hear you speak them.”

The students followed along in their own copies, heads bent, necks looking vulnerable and strong at the same time. Their intentness proved that, like the spiders described in “There There,” books contain “miles of story, miles of potential home and trap.” On this nondescript gray Thursday, Orange’s work offered both.

After the 13-minute reading came the questions, fast and furious, delivered with refreshing bluntness: “What even inspired you to write these two books?” and “Did Octavio die?” and, perhaps most pressing, “Why did ‘There There’ end that way?” Not since “ The Sopranos ” has an ambiguous denouement caused more consternation.

“We were like whaaaat ?” a student said, holding the last word in a high note.

“It was a tragic story,” Orange said. “Some people hate it, and I’m sorry.”

He admitted that he hadn’t been a reader in high school: “Nobody handed me a book and said, This book is for you. I also had a lot going on at home.” He talked about how he staves off writer’s block (by changing points of view), how he reads his drafts aloud to hear how they sound. Orange shared his Cheyenne name — Birds Singing in the Morning — and introduced a childhood friend who is traveling with him on tour.

Through it all, Ouimet stood quietly at the side of the room. He shot gentle stink eye at a gaggle of chatty girls. He used a long wooden pole to open a window. Mostly, he just beamed like a proud parent at a wedding where everyone is dancing.

The truth is, “There There” didn’t cast a spell only on his students: It also had a profound effect on Ouimet himself. When he started teaching the book, he’d just given up coaching soccer and softball after 22 years.

“I was afraid: If I don’t have coaching, am I still going to be an effective teacher? ‘There There’ was this kind of renaissance. I don’t want to get too sappy,” he said, “but it was a career-saver in some way.”

Eventually the bell sounded. The students pushed back from their desks and lined up to have their books signed by Orange, who took a moment to chat with each one.

Over the din, to anyone who was still listening, Ouimet called: “If you love a book, talk about it! If you love a story, let other people know!”

Audio produced by Tally Abecassis .

Elisabeth Egan is a writer and editor at the Times Book Review. She has worked in the world of publishing for 30 years. More about Elisabeth Egan

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Dragon's Dogma 2: Wandering Roots Quest Walkthrough

Return to Sacred Arbor to help evacuate the elves during the true ending of Dragon's Dogma 2.

Quick Links

How to start wandering roots, how to finish wandering roots, what rewards do you get for completing wandering roots.

Dragon's Dogma 2 's true ending changes the setting to a pre-apocalyptic state, known as the Unmoored World. Once you've triggered the true ending state and altered the cycle forever, your job as The Arisen begins; it's time to save the world.

Dragon's Dogma 2: Civil Unrest Quest Walkthrough

The sky is a frighteningly deep red in this bare world, but one major positive about living in an impending apocalypse is the helpful set of portcrystals that have appeared on the map at every major location you'll need to visit. Use a Ferrystone and head over to Sacred Arbor for the Wandering Roots quest.

Head to Sacred Arbor and explore the central area of town along the walkways to find Doireann standing away from her usual post beside the Arborheart.

You tell Doireann that you must evacuate, but she brings you to Taliesin , as you'll need to convince the leader of this village to evacuate their sacred lands.

You must have completed The Ailing Arborheart quest to return the Arborheart to health and gain Taliesin's trust earlier in your run.

If you do not complete that quest, Taliesin refuses to help you with the evacuation.

Speak to Taliesin and learn of his concern about the Arborheart and his desire to bring it a new home , so his people will accept the evacuation request.

Agree to find a new home for the Arborheart and Taliesin will give you the Arborheart Cutting , starting Wandering Roots .

With the Arborheart Cutting in hand, you should teleport to the Seafloor Shrine , where the marker for this quest is located.

You'll land at the portcrystal on the eastern half of the shrine, but you need to head across to the western side to find the area marked on your map.

Find The Spot At The Seafloor Shrine

Head up the small set of stone stairs and through the doorway to the other side of the shrine.

Go past where Lennart is standing (if you've saved him already) and go over to the small outcropping of land in the center of the gold area .

Examine this area and watch as the Arborheart Cutting takes root in the soil here.

Evacuate Sacred Arbor

Return to Sacred Arbor and tell Taliesin that the Arborheart Cutting has taken root in the Seafloor Shrine Sacred Grounds.

Taliesin will be overjoyed and in slight disbelief, but he tells you that this revelation has convinced him to evacuate Sacred Arbor with his people.

Once you've finished speaking to Taliesin and his family, you'll complete Wandering Roots and receive your reward:

• 30 Wyrmslife Crystals (WLCs)

30 Wyrmslife Crystals is a good chunk, but you can get even more by approaching the pink beam nearby (or any across the Unmoored World) to fight bosses that will yield large WLC rewards.

Dragon's Dogma 2: A Scholarly Pursuit Quest Walkthrough

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‘Wandering Stars’ explodes the nation’s myths about Native Americans

Tommy Orange’s “Wandering Stars,” a follow-up to his novel “There There,” confronts Indigenous trauma and shows the strength of tribal ties. 

• By Joan Gaylord Contributor

April 4, 2024

Tommy Orange’s novels reveal stories that “bring you back better made,” to paraphrase a line from one of the characters in his latest book, “Wandering Stars.” For some readers, the journey may be harrowing, as Orange is unstinting in his depictions of the injustices and violent acts perpetrated against Native Americans. But the novelist also reveals the capacity of tribal identity to sustain and empower families, even amid ongoing struggles. 

“Wandering Stars,” a prequel and a continuation of Orange’s award-winning 2018 debut novel “There There,” tells of the displacement and dislocation of seven generations of a fictional Cheyenne family. Their lives play out against a backdrop of actual historical events.

As an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, Orange brings authority and authenticity to his writing. Those familiar with his earlier book will recognize some of the characters here, as he explores the consequences of a shooting that occurred at a powwow in “There There.” But readers need not have read the first novel to become absolutely engaged with this one.

Part One of “Wandering Stars” begins with Jude Star, a survivor of the 1864 Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado, in which U.S. troops murdered 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho people, mostly women, children, and elders. Star, now an inmate at the Fort Marion prison, is forced to learn English and practice Christianity. The prison is run by former U.S. military officer Richard Henry Pratt, who goes on to found the notorious Carlisle Indian Industrial School. The school, and others like it, sought to strip students of their Native identities, embracing, as Pratt did, the motto “Kill the Indian, save the man.” Years later, Star’s son Charles becomes a student at the school. As he struggles with the brutality and the attempts by others to deny his individuality, Charles befriends a fellow student, Opal Viola Bear Shield. In the chapters that follow, the two have a child of their own. 

These are the ancestors of the characters in “There There,” who had gathered at the powwow. Orange uses the powwow shooting as a powerful pivot in “Wandering Stars,” as subsequent chapters convey how the experience affected this family. Part Two, set in 2018, brings the family’s story into the present and unfolds the experiences of later generations of the Cheyenne tribe, some of whom are dealing with collective trauma, substance abuse, and the dissipation of the tribe. 

As Orange makes clear, the family’s, and tribe’s, source of strength is still their heritage. Contemporary generations come to understand that theirs is a culture that has endured despite all attempts to eradicate it. One of Star’s descendants puts it succinctly: “It was more than survival. The culture sings. The culture dances. The culture keeps telling stories that bring you into them, take you away from your life and bring you back better made.”   

By telling this story from multiple perspectives and across generations, Orange provides an expansive understanding of these historical events and the consequences to people’s lives. 

Tracing the experiences of Star’s family, Orange emphasizes a part of American history that has long been either sanitized or erased. As Lony Red Feather, one of the contemporary characters, observes, “Everyone only thinks we’re from the past, but then we’re here, but they don’t know we’re still here.”  

Orange has not allowed this effort at erasure, whether deliberate or passive, to succeed. His tool is his exquisite writing talent. Yes, it is a brutal story, and Orange is a remarkable storyteller. By writing of flawed characters and revealing human traits with which most anyone can identify, Orange chronicles difficult events in ways that others may hear and take to heart.

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About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

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• good samaritan

Good Samaritan rescues baby boy found wandering alone near southeast Houston freeway

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A woman sprang into action to rescue a toddler she found wandering near a freeway in southeast Houston on Wednesday afternoon.

The video above is from ABC13's 24/7 livestream.

Laurie Pena, a mother of six, was on her way to work when she and her husband spotted a small child on the side of the Gulf Freeway.

Without hesitation, they made a U-turn to investigate.

They found the toddler on the side street that leads into the feeder road, with another concerned couple nearby.

Pena called authorities at about 2:05 p.m., hoping they could help take him home.

Houston police officers picked up the child on Edgebrook.

The toddler told authorities that he lived in a nearby apartment complex, but didn't know which unit. The boy said he had been left at home with his six-year-old brother.

Pena told ABC13 she was relieved she had taken action before something worse happened.

"That part scares me," Pena said. "He could've been picked up by just anybody, and you know, something bad could've happened to him."

The Houston Police Department said the child's father showed up looking for his son.

The child was reportedly found to be in good health, and his home was deemed clean and safe. CPS was contacted for further follow-up.

Related Topics

• FAMILY & PARENTING
• GOOD SAMARITAN
• CHILD RESCUE
• CHILD RESCUED

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Two young children ‘not dressed appropriately for weather’ found wandering at apartment complex in Wisconsin

M ADISON, Wis. (WFRV) – Authorities in Wisconsin are investigating an incident after two young children were found wandering around an apartment complex on Thursday night.

According to the Madison Police Department , officers were sent to the 1100 block of Morraine View Drive in Madison shortly after 7:15 p.m.

Upon arrival, the Madison Police Department located the children who were not dressed appropriately for the weather. The children ultimately were able to locate their apartment, where no adults were home.

When officers entered the apartment, they noticed feces, urine, soiled diapers, and trash spread across the unit’s floor. The children also did not have easy access to food or water.

Child Protective Services responded and took custody of the children. A 26-year-old woman returned back to the apartment several hours later, and she was arrested for child neglect. Additionally, a dog was turned over to the humane society.

The Madison Police Department did not provide any further details.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFRV Local 5 - Green Bay, Appleton.