Thinking in Action or by its Organic System

When I did the quiet time exercise in a retreat in Taiwan in last Mar, we were walking in a mountain freely to enjoy the beauty of nature, no talking, no eye-contact and no information input such as reading a book were advised.  At the beginning, I found lots of thinking snapshots were floating in the mind as is.  I did not try to stop it but just let it flip while I was walking and connecting with the nature.  After about 15 min, there seemed no more busy flow of thoughts, my mind became calm and easy.  There were neither any particular urging needs for thinking nor busy thoughts running as is.  Then, I felt the freedom.  This experience taught me that I do not need to control my thoughts, it does its filing, sweeping and re-structuring if I have a moment of silence (stop inputting).  Does thinking need to be operated in the thinking mode and system or thinking is just an automatic inner activity with its organic wisdom of merging and splitting within our brain. If this is true, will the quieter I am, the deeper thinking I will experience.