Daily, at lunchtime and daily, I try to go out for a walk. Finding motivation to do so is more difficult cold rainy day than on a bright summer day but, whatever the weather, I never regret it after a few minutes outside. When I first started, I was listening to audiobooks or podcasts. Then one day, I forgot to listen and let my mind wander along with my feet.
When I wander, I wonder. I wonder at the nature around me, I wonder at the people crossing my path. I feel anchored in the present moment, feeling the state of mindfulness so praised these days. But sometimes, I wonder at the ideas roaming free inside my head and I embrace daydreaming. I float away from the present, I forget the past, I dismiss the future, and I escape reality. This daydreaming acts as a creative meditation, when thoughts and ideas unexpectedly connect and create a spark. Daydreaming allows thoughts to flow spontaneously with no specific aim, beyond our immediate surroundings and at any given time.
‘But you are an Optimiseur!’, you might say. Well, even as an optimiseur who loves efficiency, I value this time of wandering and wondering as essential. Constant efficiency-thinking can be counter-productive. We take holidays because our body and mind need a break from work, but we also need to take some time off from the tasks that fill our private lives and mind. Time management is only good if it includes time for yourselves, a time when you give your mind a licence to wander. No matter how many hours you spend working on something, the quality will suffer if you are not at your best mentally and physically. Hitting pause and emptying your mind of all the burdens of the day is necessary, may it be thanks to meditation, mindfulness, or mind wandering. Which also means that this break is not a time when you worry or plan! So keep the daydreaming constructive and positive, and practice in the right time and place, so that you can enjoy it.
One of my favourite attributes about daydreaming is how beneficial it is for creativity. The simplest idea can resonate and connects with a thousand, causing this mind travel to launch a new personal adventure. The Fog Chronicles was born on a 30mns walk, after which I wrote 30 pages full of ideas. I never expected to write a series, especially in science fiction, and yet I dedicated 4 years of writing to it … All because of a daydream on my way to work one cold morning. It also fueled the idea of combining photography and plastic for my “photing” artworks – I had never done photographic artwork before.
Daydreaming combines randomness, exploration and connections in a self-generated free consciousness flow. It helps to synthesise disparate ideas into new larger ones. However, Daydreaming has always had bad press, mostly labelled as a lazy and unproductive habit. This is beginning to change. Science has even proven that it is beneficial for the brain: in this relaxed state of mind, the brain is highly stimulated and many of its areas/lobes are active. In fact, psychological research is now hinting that daydreaming is a strong indicator of an active and well-equipped brain, and of a higher working memory.
According to the latest researches, when practiced in the right circumstances and aimed towards constructive and positive thoughts, some of the benefits of daydreaming include:
– enhanced memory: daydreaming practices your ability to retain and recall information in face of distractions, and helps consolidates memories;
– empathy: it is full of different scenarios, including putting yourself in the place of others;
– increased creativity and problem-solving ability: mind wandering opens unexpected doors for realising our own potential and thinking outside the box;
– incubation: free-flowing thinking is a way to connect to our unconscious;
– focus: when you are daydreaming, you are still watching out for whatever is happening, but you learn to filter out distraction. You learn to focus on what occupies your mind whatever is happening around you;
– psychological health: it increases happiness, positive emotions, and high quality of life.
So yes, I am in favour of a constructive and positive daydreaming occasionally. For me, it is at lunch time on work days. And for you?
Go on, let your imagination free!
Thank you for reading,
Yours, Virginie