#ThinkfullyHabit: Dream positively
We all have a natural disposition to daydreaming. In fact, people spend nearly 47% of their waking time thinking about something other than what they’re doing, regardless of their activity.*
For over 60 years, Psychologist Jerome L. Singer has pioneered ground-breaking research into daydreaming. He identifies three different styles. The first is daydreaming as a result of obsessive fantasies or rumination, the second is as a result of poor attentional control which leads to an inability to concentrate on the task in hand and the final one is much more positive; so much so that he calls it ‘positive constructive daydreaming’. In contrast to the first two styles of daydreaming, 'positive constructive daydreaming' is playful, creative and helpfully it has been found to be normal, universal and advantageous. On top of this, it's also possible to do 'positive constructive daydreaming' deliberately**.
“Let your mind wander on a leash; it will lead you to the jewels of self-awareness and illuminate missing information hidden in your brain.*** ”
WHY?
What’s become clearer in cognitive research is that the mind can wander by choice a well as by accident. Much of it will be spontaneous, but some of it can be planned. Mind wandering by choice can happen when people choose to disengage from tasks and intentionally follow their internal stream of thought to get to some benefit, even if the benefit is not immediate.
Positive constructive daydreaming has been identified as beneficial in four ways:
- Helping to future plan as a result of self-reflection and thinking over possible scenarios.
- Incubating creative ideas to help with problem solving.
- Being able to 'cycle' or 'rotate' attention through different information streams.
- Improved learning through taking short breaks from the task in hand.
Here’s the few steps to give it a try:
- Decide to daydream. Set a time aside.
- Intentionally disconnect. Turn your attention inwards and away from the external world. Don’t worry if you can’t switch off, just keep concerned with turning your attention inwards.
- Select a low-key activity. Do something (rather than nothing at all) e.g. gardening, casually flicking through the papers, tinkering on the piano or doodling - anything as long as it is light-hearted or casual and doesn’t require too much attention or energy from you.
- Remain playful. Don’t agonise. Resist any critical inner voice that may hamper your efforts.
- Keep going. Continue with your low-key activity, keep your attention inwards and see where your thinking takes you.
It takes a bit of practice to cultivate. Jerome Singer and his colleagues Rebecca McMilan and Scott Barry Kaufman are the first to acknowledge that choosing to disengage from external tasks, turning attention inwards and following an internal stream of thought with full awareness requires some skill, but they also say, “the more a person does it, the easier it is likely to become.”
Now that sounds positive.
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