Day Dreaming Pays

Do you day dream? Did you get in trouble in school for day dreaming? Well do I have good news for you. Day dreaming is one of the tools necessary for a creative life. There are two accomplished artists I am familiar with, the writer Sue Monk Kidd and choreographer Twyla Tharp, who both suggest (and I am paraphrasing here) that day dreaming is essential to creativity and a creative life.

A couple of years ago I attended a workshop in South Carolina and Sue Monk Kidd was one of the speakers. She talked about going out on the dock in the morning and sitting quietly to let her mind wander. This is something she does before going into her office at home to write.

Twyla Tharp, in her book, "The Creative Habit", suggests that we develop a habit of "mental mindless wandering" and that daydreaming "is the exact opposite of meditation." She suggests that "you are trying to tease them [thoughts] forward until you can latch onto them."

This was such good news for me. I am a day dreamer by nature and many times when I would sit at my desk to write, the blank page staring back at me, I would immediately drift off into la-la land. Then I felt guilty thinking "geez I should be using every moment I set aside to be actively writing."

My daydreaming has produced the germ of the idea for a children's book and the idea for the plush toy named "Billy Bear" to go with it. That bear with its wire-rimmed glasses sits on the window sill above my writing desk as a totem to my creativity. He also serves as a reminder that daydreaming is serious creative work.