Clouds pass across the dappled sky and a gentle sun glows through my closed eyes. A breeze ripples over my skin. The sea below is just audible, a gentle shush… shush… made by waves rolling onto sand. It’s 8.30am on a Monday: back in the city, people are racing to work on trains, bikes and on foot. They are stuck in traffic jams, eating toast as they pull on coats, locking doors, checking phones, looking for change and sealing packed lunches in plastic containers. Not me. Today, the only task I have given myself is to daydream. Am I wasting my time?
As a child, I would spend many hours looking out of my bedroom window, the swaying trees in the garden an out of- focus backdrop for my wandering imagination. Where did I go? I don’t rightly remember, but I have a sense that worlds were built, emotions felt, personal dynamics acted out and the deepest themes and inspiration for my life sprang into existence there.
As the years passed, I got busier – like we all do. Gradually, hours of dreaming diminished to minutes, then moments and then not at all. My list of things to do and worry about became longer. Eventually, it became overwhelming. Even if I worked weekends, my many tasks were insurmountable. I would wake at night worrying about all the things I hadn’t had time to complete. I needed a different approach, but found it impossible to come up with an alternative solution. I’d recently read about new research showing the benefits of daydreaming. Not only can it improve empathy, as we imagine ourselves in other people’s situations, and creativity, but it has also been found to enhance memory. A study published in Psychological Science by Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler, from the University of California, found a connection between daydreaming and increased problem-solving abilities. This is because, as psychology professor Scott Barry Kaufman explains in his book, Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined (Ingram, £13.99), daydreaming is a way to access our unconscious mind. Here, at the ‘source of genius’, we find our most creative and inspired ideas. Perhaps revisiting my childhood habit of daydreaming could benefit me now?