• Skip to content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Shop ModernMom
  • Become An Insider

ModernMom

The premiere destination for moms

  • Parenting
    • Pregnancy
    • Baby
    • Kids
    • Tweens and Teens
    • ModernMom Monday Videos
  • Cooking
  • Living Healthy
    • Breast Cancer
    • Health & Fitness
    • Body after Baby
    • Beauty
    • Relationships
    • Love
  • Lifestyle
    • Crafts
    • At Home
    • Education
    • Travel
    • Pets
    • Decorate
    • Money
    • Brooke Burke
  • Celebrate
    • Holidays
      • Easter
      • Valentine’s Day
      • New Year’s
      • Christmas
      • Hanukah
      • Halloween
      • Thanksgiving
    • Birthdays
    • Parties
  • Must Have
  • Contests
  • Entertainment

Start Daydreaming – It’s Good for You

July 28, 2014 by modernprincess Leave a Comment

Quote:  “Everything starts as somebody’s daydream.” – Larry Niven

Remember staring out the window at school, your daydream broken by the teacher calling your name?  What were you thinking about?  You might not have known, but the fact is, you were thinking.  Not in the logical 1- 2- 3 kind of way, but in a deeper way that is an important part of our brain’s functioning, and is crucial to emotional and intellectual health.

According to famed cognitive psychologist Jerome Singer, daydreaming is our default state of mind. In other words, that’s where our mind automatically goes when we don’t need to place full attention on a task. 

How much time do we spend daydreaming?  More than you think.  On average, people spend 1/3 to 1/2 of their waking hours daydreaming.  It happens while you’re in class, meetings, shopping or listening to your boss explain … whatever.

I am happy to say that the old idea of a lazy daydreamer is over.  Science is now showing that people who daydream actually have better working memories, and can stay better focused with distractions.  

Daydreaming helps personalities grow, including creativity, empathy, social skills, the capacity to reason, make choices, understand the complexities of life, try on different possibilities, and make sense of things you don’t understand.

Children are natural dreamers. Their wandering minds are actually hard at work.  Role playing, imagining scenarios of winning, losing, what they might become one day. They are rehearsing life and it’s as important a task as study or sleep.

Life is crammed full these days.  The time for reflection gets smaller and smaller.  Barely a blip in most of our hi-speed, hi-tech lives.  Our kids too.  They are the most overbooked generation in all of history.  There is less time for unstructured free play than ever before.

Many parents equate overbooking with good parenting. Extracurricular activities are wonderful, but not so many that the child doesn’t have downtime for herself.

Not only are our kids overbooked, even in downtime they are busy with cell phones and other distractions. The reality is our children are becoming uncomfortable with silence and time for reflection.

It’s never too late to start scheduling unstructured time for daydreaming, and that goes for you too!

Here are Some Tips

  • Cell-free zone. Downtime is no-tech time. Your children will whine, but they’ll get used to it as long as you follow the rules too. 
  • Look at your calendar and be as realistic about plotting your downtime as you are making time for other important activities.
  • Create more space for daydreaming.  Put a chair by the window.  Leave books out.  Drawing paper.  Scratch pads. 
  • Invite conversation.  Ask big questions like “What is happiness to you?”
    Dream together.  Talking with your child makes your whole family stronger. 
  • Be a role model about your own downtime.  Put that cell phone down and start daydreaming!

Ciao,

Princess Ivana

Comments

comments

Filed Under: Living Healthy

About modernprincess

Ivana is a modern Cinderella married to an Italian prince. She came from modest means and met her Prince Charming while on scholarship at Pepperdine University. Their 2 fabulous kids (ages 2 and 3 years) are the latest additions to a 1000-year lineage that includes kings of Sicily and Spain, and Catherine of Aragon, a pope and a saint. She has a Masters of Education and has worked with kids for over 20 years - from designing learning toys to tutoring homeless children. For Ivana, life is more about attitude than money. Shes wild about kids and motherhood. The Super Mom juggling act between life, love, kids and career inspired her award winning book, A Simple Guide to Pregnancy & Baby's First Year, co-written with her mom, Magdalene Smith, and sister, Marisa Smith. Their blog is a blend of humor, practical advice and lifestyle tips on the essentials--how to live well on any budget. Consider Ivana "Dear Abby" with a tiara and baby sling.

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Tell a friend

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

ModernMom Boutique

ModernMom TV

Featured

Nursing Mothers Granted Tax Break

Great news! Nursing moms are getting a new tax break from … [Read More...] about Nursing Mothers Granted Tax Break

Must Have

winter

Pre-Holiday Must-Haves

"It's beginning to look  a lot like Christmas..." The … [Read More...] about Pre-Holiday Must-Haves

Did you know?

Can Self Rising Flour Substitute for Baking Soda?

Quick Ways to Cook a Round Steak

Quick Ways to Cook a Round Steak

Dizziness in Pregnancy

Causes of Dizziness in Pregnancy

Child Too Big for a Toddler Bed

When Is a Child Too Big for a Toddler Bed?

fade hair color quickly

How to Fade Hair Color Quickly

Cook London Broil in an Electric Pressure Cooker

How to Cook London Broil in an Electric Pressure Cooker

Signs of Gestational Diabetes

Pregnancy & Signs of Gestational Diabetes

Footer

  • About Us
  • Contact ModernMom
  • Advertise With Us
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contributors

Copyright © 2021 Modern Mom. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction of any portion of this website only at the express permission of Mom, Inc.

The information provided on ModernMom is for educational use only. It should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.