Lost...

The fog is so thick I can’t see my hand in front of my face. My trekking pole sinks into the spongy tundra. No birds are singing; the silence is deafening.  I’m lost…

...in a daydream.

Pondering...daydreaming...whatever you want to call it, as a writer I need to do more of it. Writing fiction or nonfiction requires a creative, imaginative, daydreamer heart and mind; I also find it relieves stress.

Like most of us as children, I was taught to stifle my daydreams. The logic of my adult head says daydreams are distractions and hindrances to responsibility—an evil guilty pleasure. Yet, according to the Writers Digest article, “25 Ways to Improve Your Writing in 30-minutes-a-day”, I should devote some time each day to daydream, to let my mind wonder.

Right now, I suppress my need to daydream with responsible activities like doing laundry, paying bills, or cleaning the house or divert them with other seemingly wasteful activities like watching TV, surfing the web, or reading a fictional book. Yes, I need to do responsible things, but I also need to devote some time each day to simply daydream.

However, undoing a lifetime of subduing this guilty pleasure will not be easy. It will take time. It will take getting the rest of my life (the responsible side of my brain) to give me permission to daydream a portion of every day.

Changing will require relearning, igniting, and training the creative side of my brain back into action. I need to give my imagination room to breathe and roam. Then, I need to allow the words of the Holy Spirit to grow and flow through my heart and mind to my writing fingers.

Just as health professionals encourage walking 30-minutes a day, I need to include 30-minutes a day devoted to daydreaming. It will benefit my writing as well as relieve stress in my life. The responsibilities of my life need not dominate my thoughts. I need to still the voices of my parents and teachers telling me to “stop daydreaming and get back to work.”

Do you daydream? Do you allow your mind to wonder 10, 20, or 30 minutes each day or do the voices in the back of your head stop you? Maybe on that next 30 minute walk you take you can do a little daydreaming, too.

25 ways to improve your writing in 30 minutes a day