We spend a lot of time thinking about the future or the past, often at the expense of living in the present. As we talked about in the last episode, this kind of cognition is completely natural: it’s built into the brain’s default mode network. And while planning for the future, reviewing the past, and mind wandering are all important and healthy aspects of being human, they can also make us unhappy when they’re constantly taking us away from the present moment. Fortunately, there is a simple, research-backed method of countering the default mode, bringing us back to the present, and providing several other distinct cognitive benefits at the same time: mindfulness meditation.
