Why and How You Daydream: Mindset and Creativity

Do you find that you daydream very much or not? Research has shown that daydreaming can actually help improve your creativity. In order for daydreaming to be truly effective though, you need to already be involved in a project.

When you start a new project or set yourself a lofty goal, this starts a process in your mind. One that forms all kinds of ideas. You may have experienced this type of phenomenon before.

Have you ever started something new and then suddenly you come up with all these great ideas. Or you find that you start dreaming about the project and even have to get up and write down your thoughts? This is exactly the process that daydreaming can have on your creativity.

The same principle works in reverse too. When you are going through a rough patch, this disturbs your thoughts, interferes with your sleep and can give you bad dreams.

Research has shown that daydreaming puts your brain to work on a much deeper level. Your brain begins to use the complex problem-solving area, often referred to as the “executive network”. In addition, it pulls on other areas of the brain and together they form a powerful network that can stimulate ideas.

This is the process that provides those Aha moments, and those “why didn’t I think of that” moments. Pretty simple solutions that once presented sound easy, but were difficult to come up with at first.

Daydreaming allows you to release your inner thoughts and puts them to work with no holes barred. During the day you probably have a hundred different thoughts racing around your brain. No wonder you can’t come up with solutions and ideas easily.

Once you are more relaxed your mind opens up and starts working on those inner thoughts. These are the ones that you are passionate about. When you wake up in the morning you have all these wonderful ideas for your new project. You are eager to start working on them and move forward with your project.

If you haven’t done any daydreaming lately, maybe you need to find a project or goal to work on. This will help unleash your creative juices and get those ideas flowing.

You may also want to try to not have too many different projects on the go at once. This way you can concentrate on one project at a time and do a really great job on it.