Directive or guided meditation, like mindfulness, see mind wandering as something to be avoided; whereas psychologists think mind wandering may be beneficial, even necessary.

A Norwegian study had some meditators practising directive meditation and others non-directive meditation, while their brains were scanned.

One of the study’s authors, Svend Davanger, said:

“The study indicates that nondirective meditation allows for more room to process memories and emotions than during concentrated meditation.”
“This area of the brain has its highest activity when we rest.
It represents a kind of basic operating system, a resting network that takes over when external tasks do not require our attention.

It is remarkable that a mental task like nondirective meditation results in even higher activity in this network than regular rest.