What Do You Daydream About?

daydream      noun
day·​dream ˈdā-ˌdrēm

a pleasant visionary usually wishful creation of the imagination

How often do you daydream? How far do your daydreams take you?

I believe we all escape our reality now and then. Whether it’s by thinking of days gone by or stopping at the grocery store on the way home, our thoughts often wander helter skelter away from our current activity and into a pretend world of coulda and shoulda and what if.

There are books and movies about daydreams: song lyrics, names of paintings, and even sites on Google that tell you how to do it.

Why does our mind want to wander around the planet so often?

Facebook likes to pop up memories from “this day” one or 10 years ago, and a lot of my posts were about wishing I were retired or sitting by a lake or in a café in Paris. Seems like I was proficient in daydreams time even back then.

Well, here I am, 70 and retired, and still wasting moments  talking to Claude Monet about his gardens in Giverny or flirting with Antonio Banderas or hosting an elegant garden party for 18. Silly stuff I’d never do in real life.

I mean, what’s the point?

Is this dreaming about changing choices you’ve made? Forgetting painful parts of your life? Is it about pretending and wishing some things were different? Is it fantasizing about some other life style, some other place or moment in time other than the one you’re stuck in?

I think daydreaming is just a part of your genetic make up. A pressure valve that let’s off emotional steam. A chance to relate to people and places that are not part of your world. A chance to work out ‘what if’ from a different perspective.

Those of you who are artists (and I’m sure that’s most of you!) know that daydreaming is healthy for your creativity. The imagination is as solid a part of you as drinking water, and it needs exercise as well to keep it going. It’s an extension of your physical world. 

You  may think that once you’re older or retired you’ll have more time to daydream. To wander through enchanted woods or have a high powered job in Manhattan or be noticed by those whose attention you crave.

Let me tell you. You will be just as busy being retired than you ever could be working. And not just because you finally don’t have to punch a time clock or put up with obnoxious co workers or attend weekly unproductive meetings.

You will be busier because your daydream door is finally open, giving you a chance to read, to research, to experiment with your own and others daydreams. The more you learn, the finer tuned your thoughts will be.

Don’t wait for this day to come — come on in today! The water’s warm, the beach is open, and I’ve got that umbrella table over there where we can have lunch together!