We Need More Daydreams - Bravester

What happens when we replace boredom with constant distraction and stimulation?

The answer is the mess of today’s culture of increased anxiety; an official loneliness epidemic; the polarization of our echo chambers; and an economy has been created to keep us living separated and distracted. Think DoorDash, Instacart, and livestream church.

I’m bravely calling for more boredom and more time to daydream.

In the space between anxiety and boredom is where creativity flourishes.

We have the anxiety. Let’s add the boredom—again.

Our exhausted souls could use a little creativity.

Some of us older folks grew up with boredom then we got our smartphones. Some of you younger folks haven’t known boredom because you got your smartphones. Though I still hear my grandchildren complaining about being soooooo bored. I’ll give them boredom!!!

Complaining about being bored is a rite of passage. It is for every generation. But now we have to intentionally plan it in.

Teachers used to correct students to stop daydreaming in class. Now they correct students to put their phones away.

Waiting has become a problem to be solved. How can I multi-task while I wait in the dentist’s office? How many messages can I read on my smartphone at the stoplight? That is all time that can be spent daydreaming.

I live in the Washington DC area. DC is one of those notorious bad traffic areas. It’s bad nearly every day and at random times it is worse. My husband is a constant GPS user. He likes to see what’s going on up ahead when it comes to traffic. But lately he’s been getting angry at the traffic—because he can see ahead of time that it happened thanks to GPS. Traffic always happens here. It is always something to navigate. I have learned to not stress over it but to take it as time given (and to plan well). Now that we are longtime empty nesters, this time in the car is just for the two of us. It is undisturbed talk time. It is time without distractions as both of us now are away from our home offices. Some of our most creative ideas have come from these times. This is not happening when he’s fussing at the GPS though.

Our souls are tired of our smartphones trying to make us superhumans.

More daydreaming please. Allow for more time for your mind to wander, to notice, to overhear. You may think your wandering mind is a distraction. Or is wasting your time. Until you get that thought that leads you to a brave decision.

The benefits of daydreaming are:

Sparking more creativity
Enhancing memory consolidation
Retrieving deeply personal memories (which you have probably forgotten)
Increasing thoughts of gratitude (which can change your whole life perspective)
Encouraging personal planning (rather than being led by the randomness of a crazy busy life)
Supporting goal-driven thinking
Facilitating future planning
Working through all sides of a current problem
Boosting self-awareness (don’t you think our culture needs more of this?!!!)
Increasing reflective compassion
Imagining another person’s perspective
Processing moral reasoning
Encouraging nonlinear thinking that leads to “a-ha!” moments
Lowering stress and providing a calming reset
Shifting your emotional state, especially away from frustration
Reducing social anxiety by rehearsing stressful situations
Reminding you of who you really are
Helping integrate past experiences into your current self (probably more “a-ha!” moments)
Bringing back memories of God’s faithfulness over the years

And maybe in the quiet of a daydream, you can hear God reminding you that you are his child. You are claimed and spoken for. You belong somewhere and to someone. We are people of a place. We are people of a person, not a notion or belief system or philosophy but the person of Jesus Christ. This has placement and is not fluid. You belong.

Daydreaming turns into prayer requests. Everything from that list becomes a prayer request. Maybe you punish yourself because in your times of prayer your mind wanders too much. Stop that self-punishment. That mind wandering is okay and you are having all sorts of things come to your mind that you can now pray about. Write those down! Write down those wandering thoughts and that is your prayer list. It is a good one–which your soul revealed to you.

These are not selfish prayer requests either. Maybe when you began praying, before your mind wandered, that list was selfish prayer requests. But not this list.