Daydream Your Way to the Life You Want

One of the simplest, most enjoyable and most effective ways to improve your outlook and rise above the depressing headlines is to daydream — visualize a better life. Spend a few minutes every day imagining your ideal life. Make it as real as you can. If you want to get fancy, I recommend you DreamBoard. DreamBoarding is the process of creating a visual scrapbook of your ideal life. Our mind thinks and remembers in pictures. We remember faces but forget names. When we read a story, we create a visual image of the characters and the situation.

The great communicators use language to create mental images. A picture can communicate much more quickly and efficiently than a word or a thought. Does the picture improve your mood more than the thoughts alone? The added benefit of creating a collage of pictures is that they can remind you of your ideal life every time you glance at your DreamBoard. As you imagine your perfect future, jot down what it looks like. Then cut out a picture or two from a magazine that represents this life. Take your time finding pictures that get your juices flowing.

If one of your goals is to own a new Porsche, buy a car magazine or visit your local dealership and pick up a brochure. It should include things you want to accomplish and ideas about the person you want to be. While it is easier to find pictures representing tangible things you want to own, you can also locate pictures representing what you want to accomplish and who you want to be.

If you want to earn a Ph. If you want to learn how to play the piano, cut out a picture of a piano or of someone playing the piano. If you want to work fewer hours, take a picture of your office with a clock at 3: You can find a picture for almost anything. For example, one of the things I want to accomplish is to go on an African Safari. The best times for breakthrough moments are during the hypnagogic and hypnopompic states — the time we fall asleep and the time we wake up.

Salvador Dali the surrealist painter would put his elbow on the table and rest his chin on his upturned palm. As soon as his muscles would relax, the spoon would clatter on the table and wake him up. Thomas Edison would do a similar thing- he would nap in his chair with a handful of marbles. And these thoughts can come to us at any time. For example, the idea for this blog post came to me during a recent long car drive when I zoned out and my default network was roaring.

The concept of positive constructive daydreaming, is different than aimless daydreaming because it is intentional. A wandering mind can be corralled into a narrow channel. Thinking about a problem and then resting, allows the executive network to quiet down and engages the default network. The two work together to enhance creativity. The wandering mind brings together memories, emotions, and random bits of stored knowledge. This sometimes allows us to visualize a new perspective on a problem, or link two previously disjointed thoughts together to form an original idea.

But how does the brain get to that state? Switching from a highly cognitive task to a low cognitive task quiets the executive network. Taking a walk or folding laundry, for example, gives your brain a goal. Brain muscle memory kicks in and now, the default network is disinhibited and is allowed to ramp up. The EN is tasked with a no brainer job, keeping it quiet and letting the DN come out to play. For me, this happens during a long drive.

My brain just has to keep the vehicle on the road and to not hit anything. The EN is occupied just enough, but not too much, allowing my mind to wander. For others, it may be cooking, or meditation, or taking long walks. So what does daydreaming and mind wandering and networks have to do with work and personal finance?

Every million dollar business, every gadget, and every innovation was birthed from a flash of inspiration. Those great ideas for blog posts sometimes hit us on the head when we least expect it. Anyone in a career that demands creativity knows it. Artists, authors, architects, designers, engineers, developers — they all must be constantly creating. And being creative all the time is a difficult thing to do. How can we achieve inspiration? Or, better put, since inspiration is unpredictable , how can we position ourselves to be inspired, and to seize upon it when it strikes?

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Make time for positive constructive daydreaming. Schedule it in if you have to. Take the time for solitude. Some of us fear being alone.

7 Things Your Daydreams Say About Your Personality - PowerOfPositivity

Overcome that fear and embrace being alone with your thoughts. Then do something that allows your mind to wander. It may be taking a walk, meditating, folding laundry, cooking, or driving. That means putting away the cell phone. Try to see things from a different perspective. Be curious and wonder about things.

One mental exercise I read about was to picture what would happen if gravity was turned off for several hours each day. Seek out new experiences. Nothing sparks creativity like doing something novel. Habits and comfort kill creativity. Fear is a major inhibitor of breakthroughs and comes in four main forms; the imposter syndrome, the perfectionist, the inner critic, and the maximizer.

Using Your Daydreams to Make Your Dream Life a Reality

These fears can be overcome with the practice of gratitude, self-forgiveness, and self-compassion. The activity that brings out my default network is driving. Not just any driving. The time duration is too short, the traffic jams are stressful, and I usually have a podcast playing in the background. No, it has to be a long drive on a straight road with relatively little traffic.

No music, no podcasts, and either no passengers, or sleeping passengers. But when it does, the results can be astounding.

I can feel my thoughts pulsating, dancing, and humming. Random bits of information and memory piece together and join in ways I could never forcibly imagine on my own.

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When I come across an idea, I will either record it by voice memo on my phone or jot it down on Google Keep for future reference. Daydreaming can lead to inspiration and creative breakthroughs. Everyone has the capacity for it and I would encourage anyone to try. You never know where a bright idea might lead you. In my case, the product of inspiration is the blog post you are reading now. The next time your employer or significant other catches you spacing out, just tell them you are on the verge of a major breakthrough. Follow me on Twitter and subscribe to my email list so you never miss a post.

This is a deep post, man. And my default network sucks. I am always in executive mode. What you are describing sounds a lot like mindfulness meditation. I am literally about to go to sleep to some. I used to think it was just made up hippy garbage… But truth is that it is actually really helpful. Kids demand a lot of attention. It has to be driving. Not very eco-friendly though.

My career change came from an epiphany…on a long car ride. A light turned on and there was my idea as if it had been there all along. I often find myself working things out during this time. In fact I had a light bulb moment about a career change and am in the process of making it happen now after more thinking and creating during an otherwise wasteful time gap.

I felt bad because I felt unproductive. Hearing how some of the brightest minds use the default network makes me feel so much better! Now if I can just invent the next light bulb…. I just knew that my mind was working differently on long drives.