Daydreaming

Have you been in a meeting while someone was making a speech and realized suddenly that your mind was a million miles away? You probably felt sorry and made up your mind to pay attention and never have daydreaming again. Most of us, from earliest school days, have been told that daydreaming is a waste of time.

"On the contrary," says L. Giambra, an expert in psychology, "daydreaming is quite necessary. Without it, the mind couldn't get done all the thinking it has to do during a normal day ... You can't possibly do all your thinking with a conscious mind. Instead, your unconscious mind is working out problems all the time. Daydreaming then may be one way that the unconscious and conscious states of mind have silent dialogues."

Early experts in psychology paid no attention to the importance of daydreams or even considered them harmful. At one time daydreaming was thought to be a cause of some mental illnesses. They did not have a better understanding of daydreams until the late 1980's. Eric Klinger, a professor of psychology, is the writer of the book Daydreaming. Klinger says, "We know how that daydreaming is one of the main ways that we organize our lives, learn from our experiences, and plan for our futures ... Daydreams really are a window on the things we fear and the things we long for in life."

Daydreams are usually very simple and direct, quite unlike sleep dreams, which may be hard to understand. It's easier to gain a deep understanding of your life by paying close attention to your daydreams than by trying to examine your sleep dreams carefully. Daydreams help you recognize the difficult situations in your life and find out a possible way of handling them.

Daydreams cannot be predicted; they move off in unexpected directions which may be creative and full of useful ideas. For many famous artists and scientists, daydreams were and are a main source of creative energy. So the next time you catch yourself daydreaming, don't stop. Just pay attention to your dream. It may be more important than you think.