My thoughts run wild; I can’t contain them. Thoughts are the grain and the brain is a mill. But it is a mill that doesn’t stop grinding.

Have you ever tried to stop thinking? I’ve tried and failed miserably. Thoughts are a fascinating thing. All you can do is focus your thoughts on what you choose. But you can never stop thinking. We often think that breathing is the most important function of our bodies. Yet, God gave us some control over the act of breathing; we can hold our breath. As for the mind, it never stops. In fact, when we think of nothing in particular, our brain switches to the default mode network – where thoughts run wild.

During the particularly stormy Southwest Monsoon of 2025 I took a trip to Kandy, a city in upcountry Sri Lanka. I was hoping to escape the weariness of my busy life. So I left for Kandy with train tickets, a reservation at the Kandy Myst, monsoon rains and no plans whatsoever. The rain made certain I stayed in the hotel and for three days, I did very little. It was there that I unlocked the treasure found only in doing nothing.

In the mornings I went to the rooftop of the hotel to capture the sunrise. The gloomy weather stood in my way. Nonetheless, I spent hours watching the clouds – their shapes and colours – and the losing battle the Sun fought to penetrate the clouds. I was doing ‘nothing’, but my mind was spurred unlike ever before. At the coffee shop, my thoughts reasoned about the Japanese culture I saw in the TV series House of Ninjas, how it taught a sense of gratitude that I was lacking in my life. On my train ride back, my thoughts revolved around the value of human connection, prompted by a brief conversation with the Head Chef about his homemade Salted Caramel Ice Cream.

During this seemingly boring trip my thoughts had gained new depth and it only happened as I did nothing. I was asking myself difficult questions, finding deeper meaning in the experiences that filled my existence. As I discovered thinking in the default mode network, I also wondered about why thoughts were so important.

Dear readers, bear with me a moment as I glance back into my time as a human rights lawyer in Sri Lanka. In that life some of us often debated about the freedom of thought. Some argued that the freedom of thought is only manifested through other rights, like the freedom of speech. They believed that to establish that someone violated the freedom of thought it would essentially have to be accompanied by a violation of the freedom of speech – like a writer being silenced.

But then why does the law protect thought? In fact why does the law protect thought more than it does speech?  

Several months have passed since that trip, but this is the first time I am revealing those thoughts that flooded my mind. Until now I had exercised the freedom of thought, without writing down my thoughts. Yet those thoughts prodded me along in the journey of maturity, shaping my life despite having remained hidden all this while. I didn’t have to express my thoughts for them to manifest in my life. So perhaps this is why the law protects thoughts with such vigour and why thoughts are so important – they make us who we are.

Now I frequently give myself time to let my mind wander, allowing the default mode network to operate. There is nothing more stimulating to me than those moments. Sometimes all it takes is waiting for a bus or spending a quiet evening at a cozy café. At other times it’s an adventure in a distant city. As my mind wanders, I write a few words describing my thoughts so as to not forget them. In the days and months that follow I grind them in my mill and refine them, letting them impact my personality, beliefs and principles. And just like that, I’ve made my mill grind more deeply, but I also know why I should keep doing it.