Is daydreaming good for you

When you are stressed and the worst seems to be coming true for you, what will you do? You can call up your friends and pour your heart out. But can you do that always?

If you go and relate your sob stories each time you are down in the dumps, even to your best friends, you will be labeled as an insufferable bore. They may avoid you like plague.

You surely wouldn’t like that to happen. Would you?

The easiest way out - try daydreaming about what you want and hope to happen.

But, the familiar reprimand of childhood “Don’t daydream and waste your time. Get on with your work.” is something which we all have grown up with and keeps ringing in our ears.

Is daydreaming so bad and counter-productive? Is it a form of escapism?

Modern psychologists are of the opinion that it is an outlet to give vent to pent-up emotions and feelings. It helps to de-stress and unwind and prepare one for the next challenge. By being positive one is more likely to make dreams come true.

But when we are really depressed it is very hard to dream about something pleasant and positive.

We are so much swayed by negative emotions that we are more likely to dream of a negative outcome and repetitive negative visualizations can definitely work against us. So, it is very important to practise fantasizing and dreaming about the right things.

Wait there is more… Another hidden benefit of daydreaming. When you are lost in the maze of daydreams, in the background your brain is actually pondering over your other problems and ways of tackling them.

Benefits of day dreaming

According to this article:

Daydreaming might feel like the ultimate waste of time, but it's just the opposite.

Recent research from Dartmouth College suggests that during daydreaming, your brain may actually be processing important issues that aren't relevant at that immediate moment — anything from strategizing about tonight's dinner to wondering about your kid's mysterious bug bite.

So forgive yourself for spacing out during that boring PTA meeting: Though you may not even be aware of it, you've got other things on your mind.

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According to Psychology Today:

A study by Harvard psychologists Daniel Gilbert and Matthew A. Killingsworth mentions that we daydream forty-seven percent of our waking hours.

Whenever we are the least bit bored, our minds naturally wander. What happens in those hours of daydreaming? We explore associations. We make connections. We search for possibilities.

The process of mind-wandering is a critical aspect of creativity, our ability to produce and communicate original ideas.

In a review of the latest science of daydreaming, Scott and colleague Rebecca McMillan noted that mind wandering offers very personal rewards, including creative incubation, self-awareness, future-planning, reflection on the meaning of one’s experiences, and even compassion

However, like all human abilities, it’s important to understand both sides of daydreaming—the positives and negatives.

Read more about it in their book: Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind. Here's the paperback edition from amazon.com and the kindle edition at amazon.in

Pic credits:fotosearch.com

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Comments

Anonymous9:42 PM
Nice post! Daydreaming can bring you to a meditative level and a relaxed state of mind. Shutting down our conscious worries even for a few minutes can be beneficial(hidden benefit).
unknown9:11 AM
The brain’s “executive network” – associated with high-level, complex problem-solving and including the lateral PFC and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex – also becomes activated when we daydream.
Anonymous9:13 AM
“When a person is thinking or fantasizing about his unfulfilled wishes, desires, all that for which he is passionate about, he gets carried away by them and starts day-dreaming,”
Anonymous10:31 AM
“Day-dreaming is completely normal, in fact it is more than normal. It is like trying to think of the happy moments. The person goes back to that time to get more happiness,”
“Generally day-dreaming is normal but if it is beyond certain limit and when it makes the person non-functional, it can be an obstacle on the path of progress,”