When I was a girl in school, my academic results were poor, but I excelled in daydreaming. In fact, my daydreaming was probably the cause of my poor academic results. The positive effect was not living the reality of the prison of uncomfortable chairs and tables where I was told to feel bad about myself. I remember being punished and told daydreaming was a bad thing. No one ever thought about why I was daydreaming, better yet, to leverage it to increase my learning. This is what I do myself as a teacher of positive psychology and NLP today.
Now that I am in my 40s, science finally proves my teachers wrong. Science stands on the side of my 6-year-old self.
There are real positive effects to daydreaming.
1 Daydreaming Helps Problem Solving
Problem-solving is one of the elements of emotional intelligence.
Daydreaming gives us:
- A fresh perspective, a different way of looking at a given situation, context, or problem.
- It gives us new ideas.
- Having our thoughts stray and taking a brief break actually revitalizes us.
- To briefly stop focusing allows us to obtain the information we were overlooking.
The easier path towards gaining insight.
Exercise: when you experience a problem, walk away from the location where you are, either go for a walk or sit in a relaxing but different space. Stop focusing. And allow yourself to daydream for 15 minutes. Then go back to solving the problem.
2 DayDreaming Helps Us Reach Goals
Though general meandering thoughts do not help us reach goals, as they are not guided, it becomes guided if you use NLP to daydream. In NLP, we imagine what we would see, hear, and feel when we reach a goal. This re-wries and even sets up the brain to reach the goal in itself. This is the best way to motivate yourself and re-wire the brain for success.
Exercise: Imagine the moment you reach a goal, and visualize what you will see, hear and feel the moment you read the goal.
3 Daydreaming us Forces Us to Use and Develop Different Parts of the Brain
The most brilliant computer we have is our brain.
Daydreaming forces use the different parts of the brain:
- Emotional
- Creative
- The logical part of the brain
- Problem-solving network
Exercise: Think of a challenging task you must accomplish and develop as many different solutions, actions, or ways as possible to achieve it. And navigate any obstacles that may occur.
Daydreaming allows us to be more open, flexible, and more creative.
