Occupy Daydreams

Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust Was A Neuroscientist and How We Decide wrote about the importance of daydreaming and default, or resting state network, "which seems to underlie some important features of human cognition." 

Instead of being shackled, the daydreaming mind is free to engage in abstract thought and imaginative ramblings. 

Daydreaming challenges the Ritalin-obsessed, post-industrial mindset that insists that people, who think outside the system we created to control the masses, must be subdued at all costs. 

To avoid people thinking for themselves, we invent ways to keep people busy...

When we are busy with the mundane chores of our lives, our prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and the temporoparietal junction are hard at work. 

When we need to think through complex problems, it's again that prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (reward-based) that light up on fMRI scans. 

It's only when we're daydreaming 

that all these areas light up! 

Occupy your daydreams! 

When we daydream, we are able to integrate our creative side with our ability to work and solve problems. Forget the dishes, don't bother making your bed, and by all means, wait until the deadline to submit your work, lighting up your brain with daydreams will not only enhance the way you feel about yourself and the world, but it will supercharge whatever you create! 

Sometimes we have to be hit on the head with an apple to figure out that things fall, and other times, we just need to spend a little time with our heads in the clouds to figure out how to launch that apple right back into space!

Occupy your daydreams!