Key Takeaways
- Daydreaming is natural—and beneficial. Letting your mind wander can spark creativity, reduce stress, and help you imagine hopeful scenarios.
- Not all daydreaming helps. Productive daydreaming is solution-focused and inspiring, while unproductive daydreaming often fuels anxiety or rumination.
- You can train your mind to wander well. Using daydreaming for problem-solving, visualization, and creative thinking can turn it into a powerful mental tool.
One of life’s many pleasures includes getting lost in your thoughts while thinking about an ideal reality—or daydreaming, to put it simply. “Daydreaming can encompass so many experiences, but at the core, when we are daydreaming, we are allowing our minds to travel to other places,” says marriage and family therapist Saba Lurie, LMFT. “This can include thinking about fantasies, fears, things that have already happened or things that may happen in the future.” Allowing yourself to daydream gives you the opportunity to think your most hopeful, whimsical, and magical thoughts: a garden in your mind that only you have access to.
However, daydreaming can also turn into a lack of productivity and easy distraction, especially if you’re not doing it in a way that truly benefits you. To help you understand daydreaming and why we do it, along with how to do it right, we asked a mental health clinician for more information.
Why Do We Daydream?
“Daydreaming is common because our minds are naturally wired to wander, and often aren’t nearly as practiced at staying in the present,” Lurie explains. “Additionally, sometimes daydreaming can serve as a coping technique, especially if we have experienced trauma or are feeling overwhelmed. Daydreaming can seemingly take you out of the present moment and transport you somewhere else, and this can have both benefits and drawbacks.” We daydream when we think about a dream vacation, ideal romance, or the day we finally meet our favorite celebrity. And believe it or not, all of these dreamy thoughts can actually benefit your cognition.
“[Daydreaming] creates space for new ideas to emerge when we’re not forcing our brains to focus on specific tasks,” Lurie says. “It allows us to take a mental break from complex problem-solving so that we can return feeling refreshed and often with new perspectives. Daydreaming enhances creativity by letting our minds make unexpected connections between ideas. It can reduce anxiety by giving us a temporary respite from stressful thoughts. And it allows us to imagine best-case scenarios, which helps us access hope and motivation.” But do you do it so it can actually benefit you? Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered.
How to Daydream the Right Way
“Productive daydreaming tends to be solution-focused or generative,” Lurie says. “This might look like imagining how you’d handle a challenging conversation, visualizing yourself succeeding in a goal you’re working toward, or letting your mind wander through creative possibilities for a project. It’s daydreaming that ultimately serves you in some way, whether that’s problem-solving, stress relief, or inspiration.” It’s important not to allow daydreaming to turn into self-loathing, hopelessness, or any other negative emotion we already experience enough of simply by being human.
“Unproductive daydreaming tends to be repetitive, anxiety-provoking, or escapist in ways that keep you stuck,” Lurie says. “This might include ruminating on past mistakes, catastrophizing about future events, or using fantasy as a way to avoid dealing with present realities. The key difference is whether daydreaming is moving you forward or keeping you trapped in unhelpful thought patterns.” Instead, focus on the fact that your brain is helping you create, come up with new ideas, idealize your future, and consolidate your most treasured memories. All of these factors can actually be enhanced when daydreaming is done properly, and once you get the hang of it, your mind will become your new favorite place.
