Have you ever been labeled as a daydreamer? Has anyone ever said that you have your head in the clouds? The term “daydreamer” has long carried negative connotations to a lack of drive or productivity. However, an article in the New York Times takes a different look at the act of daydreaming and suggests that this activity could provide benefits to your cognitive function and overall mental health if harnessed properly.
While daydreaming still has the potential to be counterproductive if you harp on negative thoughts, daydreaming that is both positive and mindful has the potential to promote enhanced productivity, mood and creativity.
Unclog Your Mind and Reduce Stress
Life throws stressors at us daily. You could be worrying about your children. Or maybe you find yourself consumed with job-related issues, even after you’ve left the office for the day. Being able to manage stress is not only crucial for your mood, but it can also influence your ability to focus.
Daydreaming gives us the opportunity to take a break from the stressors of life and dream about the possibilities. Taking a moment to block out negative thoughts allows us to relax and eventually think about situations with a renewed focus. This state of mental calm and relaxation is sometimes referred to as the alpha wave state. You can think of it as being in the zone; your mind is operating freely instead of being hyper-focused on distractions or negative thoughts. In fact, some research suggests that this type of positive daydreaming can actually increase the alpha wave activity in your brain!
Enhance Your Problem-Solving Skills
By taking a break from thinking about your gravest concerns or problems, you could allow your brain to reset. Returning to those problems with a de-cluttered mind then has the potential to give you a fresh perspective and unlock solutions you might not have come up with while obsessing over those issues.
Another way that positive daydreaming could help you solve problems is by boosting your creativity! The same study that discovered increased alpha brain wave activity in people who were daydreaming found that this state of mind often leads to enhanced creativity. Having a bolstered sense of creativity has the potential to give you more tools to solve problems. Just think of it as bringing in an outside perspective to help you tackle your issues!
Other researchers have found that daydreaming can also have a positive impact on learning and memory. They assert that the act of daydreaming may cause the brain to remodel itself, because it is forced to use the visual cortex and other areas of the brain that often go underused.
Don’t Harp on Negative Thoughts and Return to the Present
This may be the most essential step in daydreaming productively, because daydreaming does have the potential to hold you back if not managed properly. Let’s face it: thinking only positive thoughts is easier said than done. In fact, one study found that roughly 25 percent of women and 67 percent of men would rather self-administer an electric shock than be alone with their own thoughts. Getting hung up on negative thoughts probably won’t help you solve problems or overcome obstacles throughout the day.
In general, getting lost in daydreaming is not helpful either, whether your thoughts are negative or positive. Mental health experts refer to this type of daydreaming as maladaptive daydreaming (MDD). When you spend too much time daydreaming, you run the risk of disrupting your real-life routine and relationships. Getting your head stuck in the clouds for long periods of time can hinder your ability to focus and even sleep.
So how can we pull ourselves out of the distractions and negativity to think clearly again?
Be Mindful
One way to move on from negative or distracting thoughts is to practice mindfulness, which is a form of meditation that anyone can do on their own. The beauty of this technique is that not only is it acceptable for you to become distracted by your busy brain, but acknowledging distracting thoughts is an essential part of the process!
Just start by taking deep, deliberate breaths. You do not have to keep your eyes closed or be in a quiet room but setting up your environment in these ways can help (especially for beginners).
Next, pay attention to your breaths. What do they sound like? What do they feel like?
Eventually, your thoughts will drift elsewhere. This is inevitable. Do not judge yourself! Instead, make a note of where your thoughts wandered. Later, you can go back and dig into why you were having these specific thoughts. Were these thoughts positive or negative? For now, return to your breathing. Rinse. Wash. Repeat.
Mindfulness is not an activity that requires you to spend a lot of time doing it, but this technique can be a great way to pull you back to the present if you are ruminating on negative thoughts or weighed down by MDD. Mindfulness has also been recognized for providing its own benefits to mental health, including enhanced focus and memory, reduced stress and more emotionally-balanced reactions to life’s twists and turns.
Once your mind is clear, you can be free to let yourself drift away into some positive daydreams again!
Support Your Brain Health with Supplements!
You might also find that taking supplements can boost your daydreaming capabilities by supporting healthy mood and cognitive function while also reducing stress! EVEXIAS Health Solutions offers a wealth of professional grade nutraceutical products that have been expertly developed to support the wide range of functions and processes that contribute to whole body health. You can select products from categories such as Brain/Cognition and Stress, Mood, Sleep to make it easier for you to find the product that contains the perfect combination of nutrients and organic chemical compounds to help you get in the right frame of mind for constructive daydreaming! Find an EvexiPEL provider near you to start your daydreaming journey!