Have you ever driven to work and arrived without a conscious memory of your commute? Do you tend to let your mind wander while sitting in a meeting? If so, don’t chide yourself for being a day dreamer. New science is proving how day dreaming keeps your mind sharp and actually helps you turn your goals and dreams into reality. The Georgia Institute of Technology recently published a study showing that people who day dream are smarter than their more focused peers. Scientists have also shown that the brain processes a day dream the same way it does a memory. This means that when you day dream, your subconscious is storing this as memory, a fact. Once you get an idea or a belief into your subconscious, you can bring your goals from the dream state into real time.
Our subconscious mind is a tricky thing though. We have no control over what gets stored there. It’s designed to protect us which means we tend to store things in our subconscious that are charged with strong emotions. The highs and lows of our life get stored here. Memories that are rooted in strong emotions such as fear or joy get stored in the unconscious. Metaphysics has taught us that we can change the inner programing of our subconscious through repetitive affirmations. While this does work, it takes a lot of time. The problem has always been getting your subconscious on board in a timely manner. Many of us have tried to “retrain our brain” only to be stopped by old tapes rearing their ugly head in the form of limiting beliefs and self-sabotage. How many times have you started the new year with great resolutions and then stopped a month or two later when you hit a road block or two? Our subconscious mind loves to tell us what we can’t do by playing and replaying old tapes, old memories, of our past “failures.” If we can replace these old memories with positive future memories in the form of day dreams, we can remove these subconscious blocks.
The subconscious is where we tend to store our limitating beliefs and negative messages we received as a child. “You can’t make a living as an artist” or “You’re not smart enough for that degree” and all that nonsense. The main ways we’ve learned to reach the subconscious have been through accessing the theta and alpha state. This can be done through deep, serious and consistent meditation. But now science is showing us that it can also be accessed through the simple act of day dreaming.
When the brain is allowed to freely day dream, it activates an area of the brain called the Default Mode Network or DMN. We aren’t even aware consciously of this happening. We can’t control when the DMN is activated but we can control the thoughts and day dreams we have to program our DMN with positive images and goals we’re working on. Science writer Josie Glausiusz says, “Daydreams are an inner world where we can rehearse the future.”
The DMN is where we get our sense of self. How else can we become a co-creator with the Universe if we don’t first understand ourselves as the source? Psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema defined daydreaming as “imagining situations in the future that are positive in tone.”
Most people spend about 30 percent of their day lost in thought. However, most of this mind musing is spent on pointless thoughts, worries and anxieties. But when daydreaming is a focused action, it allows us a direct connection to our subconscious which is where true change and creation occur.
Science also has proven that day dreaming allows us to find solutions to problems and creative insights that otherwise wouldn’t be available to us. Neurologist Marcus Raichle says, “When we daydream, we are at the center of the Universe.”
Al Smith of Wakingtimes.com explains, “Your subconscious mind is in continuous contact with the subconscious minds of everyone else. Your individual mind while in the daydream state is your personal control console for this collective subconscious.:”
The collective subconscious does not speak in words. It doesn’t recognize English, Swahili, or French. The subconscious speaks through emotions and pictures. The subconscious also cannot distinguish between reality and fantasy nor does it differentiate between past, present and future. Everything is real and everything is now. When you day dream, you are programming your subconscious to create the reality you’re envisioning in the day dream. When you day dream with the emotions you’ll feel when these goals are coming true, then you’re really firing up the power of the subconscious.
What you imagine most frequently is what you create. We are manifesting all the time. The only problem is that many of us are so caught up with worries and fears that this is what we manifest rather than the positive life we’re striving for. You must learn to harness this power with positive images and emotions or your life will continue to be a continued roller coaster of positive and negative experiences.
We’ve all heard the expression “Thoughts are things.” But science has proven this. Thoughts can be measured electromagnetically. The protein bases of DNA look like syntax in language which has led scientists to speculate that our words could truly influence our DNA.
Keep your daydream simple. Your goal is to project an image into the Universe. The more details you give it, the more weighted down the dream is on its flight to the collective unconscious. Al Smith suggests you “make your visual order easy for the quantum field to fulfill. Make your day dream orders short and memorable so they’re easy to replicate. And then repeat them as often as you can until they are manifested.”
There’s an old saying “Thoughts are the ancestor of action.” As we head into the new year, spend some time monitoring your thoughts. Think about what you want to invite into your life. Envision yourself manifesting your goals at work, with your finances, your health, relationships and your personal wishes. Feed these thoughts with the positive emotions of joy, anticipation and excitement. Day dream your way into a beautiful, abundant and happy life!
