Is it true that 95% of our daily thoughts are garbage?

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95% of what we think is garbage: myth or reality? Science tells us that everything that goes through our minds is not necessarily bad or useless. The truth is that there are two things we frequently do: wander and remember the past.

We’ve all read or heard it before: 95% of our daily thoughts are garbage. Is this true? If this statement were true, it would be little more than a shock to our self-esteem. What’s more, what good would so many years of evolution have done for us? If the result of all that sophisticated phylogeny has resulted in a brain that only produces useless cognitions, then the Homo sapiens would have failed as a species.

Therefore—and to improve our dignity a little— We must clarify that not everything that passes through our minds is waste material. In reality, human beings have a factory of ideas and thoughts that always works at maximum performance. We are thinking entities without rest and in fact, according to science, we have about 6,200 thoughts a day.

Not everything our busy brain produces is adverse or harmful. Nor useless. The truth is that if there is something we frequently do, it is remember, wander and imagine.

We are not forced to reason like Leonardo Da Vinci would do in order to breathe easy and tell ourselves that all the thoughts we produce are innovative and powerful. It is enough to shape a mental universe that mediates our well-being and not unhappiness or anguish.

Many of us are not aware of our thinking patterns. Most of the time we ramble and this is not necessarily useless or negative in 100% of cases.

95% of our daily thoughts are garbage: true or false?

Being told that 95% of our daily thoughts are garbage puts us on alert, no doubt. Taking for granted that everything we think about for almost all of our time is of no use would leave us in a very bad place. However, we complete our work days, we connect with others, we make plans, we dream, we make decisions…

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Of course, there are times when certain thought patterns fuel the fire of anxiety.. There are also people who, due to their personal experiences, have a type of mental approach in which past traumas and sufferings are retraced. In these cases, rather than producing useless thoughts, what is done is to shape adverse cognitive flows.

On the other hand, there is an aspect of great interest in this regard. Research carried out by the Department of Psychology at Queen’s University (Kingston) indicates that few things are more complicated than knowing what happens in our “black box” of cognition. Each person is unique and the thinking style is directly related to our personality.

Thus, people who demonstrate neuroticism as a trait will demonstrate a more worried and hypersensitive thinking pattern. However, not everything has to be waste material. Let us therefore see what type of cognitive processes are the ones that most often occur in our mental universe.

Eternally nostalgic, we spend the day remembering things

Why do we suddenly remember certain situations without knowing why? It costs the brain very little to relate some things to others, to link stimuli from the present with experiences from the past.

Sometimes, nostalgia invades us, it is true, but The truth is that if there is something we frequently do, it is evoke things from the recent or distant past. The point is that remembering also has its uses: it allows us to make better decisions in the present.

Flow State: The Operating State of Mind

If we accepted the idea that 95% of our daily thoughts are garbage, we would have to assume that we are clearly unproductive people. However, we spend many hours performing tasks and functions.

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It was the psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi who defined a mental process in which we occupy part of our time. We refer to the so-called flow state, those situations in which the brain is focused on an activity that concentrates all its attention.

For example, when we work, read a book or indulge in our favorite hobby, the mind is involved in the present moment, where it pours all its interest, creativity and effort.

The butterfly mind: wandering and daydreaming

Rambling, daydreaming, letting our mind drift from one idea to another, from one image to another… Losing ourselves in the contemplative universes of introspection also has its benefits.

After all, focusing your attention on something 24 hours a day is completely impossible for the brain (it consumes too much energy). So processes like imagining and fantasizing also have their benefit. With them, we reduce stress, connect with ourselves and allow the brain to rest and the mind to encourage creativity.

It is impossible to make our mind productive 24 hours a day. The cognitive effort would be immense. Letting the mind wander and fantasize from time to time also mediates our well-being—and intellectual potential.

95% of our daily thoughts are garbage: the problem of self-talk

The claim that 95% of our daily thoughts are garbage may have a basis in truth, but only in certain cases. There is something we must be clear about. Thought patterns depend on each person’s personality, personal history, and the circumstances around them.

In certain cases, internal dialogue can act as a well-being crusher: annihilating spirits, devouring hopes and extinguishing self-esteem. Indeed, There are times when we are our worst enemies and in those cases, thoughts, rather than being “garbage,” are “radioactive material.”

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Therefore, and to conclude. Not everything that the human mind creates and designs is harmful; not in all cases and not 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

What we think is often related to how we feel and, indeed, there are times when life is more complicated than expected. The positive thing about these cases is that we can and must change that mental and emotional flow so that it mediates our well-being.