blog about it

Listening to a child tell a fanciful story is like listening to a daydream.

Do you ever think about thinking? About daydreaming? What does it do for you really?

We All have Choices

Either you need a topic, or you need a way to begin writing about the topic you’re given. You stare at the blank screen, and stare becuase the pressure is on to finish. So really starting is not where you want to be for long. You have to choose.

Daily we have to pick from a wealth of opportunities and ideas; divine moments is what Erwin Raphael McManus calls them. Kirk Byron Jones discusses how we have been imbued with free will for a reason; throughout our lives we have choices to make. It’s not a new idea that we get to choose, it’s newly gaining acceptance.

It’s not just the brilliant, the genius or the well studied and not just writers. We all have choices available to us. The question, then, is how do we choose.

Thinking Things Through

Daydreaming: Returnin to What We Were Called From

You can find a wealth of writing on the subject of writing. How to get started, how to keep going, how to choose, how to stop for a while. We rarely name daydreaming. It’s important to use your imagination and it’s refreshing and revealing and empowering. It always seemed to me that daydreaming was the activity of the frivolous and the elitists. The rest of us were relegated to being grounded in the real world. Maybe if you called it a different name like visualization, then daydreaming would seem a bit more useful.

So, why does daydreaming help anything?

I consider daydreaming the free pursuit of ideas. Free, because when I’m daydreaming, I am free of the left-brain constraints that are part of concrete planning. Daydreaming comes before this. I think it works because sometimes the constraint of having to write or even to verbalize can shrink the potential breadth and girth of an idea. At any rate, it’s important and it’s creative. Dr. Jones says that indeed the choices we make are based on our ability to think creatively, to dare to choose.

What you’re doing when you’re daydreaming is virtually trying something out. Many of us already understand the usefulness of daydreaming. Others are learning of it and studying it. Scientists are now compiling quantifiable data to illustrate the import of daydreaming. Oh, what chastisements this might have spared me when I was a kid.

Proof: The Science Behind Daydreaming

Jonah Lehrer wrote an interesting article last month about the importance of daydreaming. Two othings stick with me:

• The idea of it being our primary mode of processing
• The importance of being deliberate in daydreaming

Can you imagine what it would be like if we began to respect the daydreaming hours? What would it be like for teachers to say “What are you thinking?” to the child staring out the window, instead of “Child! Pay attention!”

Next time you notice someone daydreaming, don’t be so quick to dismiss their activity as useless. Who knows what next great work will come about from any of us. Daydream on purpose. Next time you catch yourself wandering off, don’t stop it. Instead take control and guide it. You may come up with something you want to share. Let me know.

Resources:

Article

• Daydream Achieving, by Jonah Lehrer

Books

• Holy Play: The Joyful Adventure of Unleashing Your Divine Purpose, by Kirk Byron Jones
• Seizing Your Divine Moment: Dare to Live a Life of Adventure, by Erwin Raphael McManus

Posts

• writing life: 7 strategies to keep going
• 24 Things to do When Stuck for a Topic to Blog About