Daydreaming Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Daydreaming breaks are not just fun; they are necessary.
Our brains cannot maintain focus and productivity nonstop.
Good brain health requires regular periods of relaxation.
Thomas Barwick
When these periods involve letting our mind wander, it helps reduce our anxiety.
By tuning out the noisy outside world, you allow your thoughts to flow freely.
This fostersmental relaxationand exploration by putting us in an alpha wave state.
While in the alpha zone, we are calm and don’t think of anything with forced vigor.
This can help youdistance yourself from worrisome circumstances.
Its another tool in your mental health toolkit to evade stress and anxiety.
You might imagine yourself at your favorite spot where you like to hike in the woods.
Or you might think about that new car youd like to buy.
What color would it be?
What features would it have?
Can you imagine yourself feeling great in the drivers seat?
Daydreaming Helps Us Solve Problems
Daydreams arent merely mini-escapes.
Allowing your thoughts to roam around revitalizes you.
Most of us can benefit from approaching our problems with a fresh perspective.
You’re able to return to them more refreshed.
Besides having a fresh perspective, daydreaming seems to work better than trying to force a solution.
By just hammering away at something steadfastly, you may be overlooking all sorts of information.
In other words, daydreaming can lead you down a sort of magical yellow brick road to insights.
These insights may help yousolve your problems.
Daydream and then daydream even more.
Daydreaming Uses Diverse Parts of the Brain
If youve ever noticed, childrens minds wander constantly.
Its no secret that the young daydream a lot.
Whats happening in your brain while daydreaming is pretty sophisticated.
As your mind wanders, you are using diverse aspects of your brain.
Both the brain’s executive problem-solving data pipe and creativity data pipe are working simultaneously.
Therefore, boredom or idleness serves a great purpose.
It inspires us to daydream, which forges important connections across our brains.
Daydreaming Helps Us Reach Goals
How can meandering thoughts help youreach your goals?
These stray thoughts are indeed unguided, but research reveals they are often motivated by the goals we have.
Athletes and performers sometimes use purposeful daydreaming to practice before a game or performance.
This method pre-wires their brains for success.
Its like practicing mentally rather than physically for an outcome you desire.
This kind of structured daydreaming or imagining is popular insports psychology.
It invites you to think through steps youd take,ways to stay motivated, andhow to overcome obstacles.
Daydreaming Expands Our Creativity
Daydreaming is correlated with higher levels of creativity.
So, take a break.
The mind will still incubate on the issue at hand.
Being distracted and allowing your mind to wander is powerfully positive.
Rodriguez adds that daydreaming is exercise for your mind.
She elaborated further, saying, We are rarely taught to allow our minds to wander.
It’s like only tending to one tree in a gigantic forest.
Summary
Daydreaming has gotten a bad rap, yet it affords us many benefits.
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