In our crazy, busy lives, who has time for daydreaming?
My dad called me a space cadet because I often drifted off at the dinner table, daydreaming and imagining impossible things.
As I grew up, it became more challenging to find places to daydream.
We can’t daydream while driving our cars, even though I know you, like me, have found yourself driving somewhere and not remembering how you got there. Dangerous, right?
But I still love daydreaming. It’s the creative time when what I call Angel Ideas floods my thinking.
Daydreaming doesn’t happen behind the computer or the TV.
I have found small pockets of safe daydreaming heaven, like in the shower and gardening, but my favorite is walking.
While walking, I daydream about designing things, getting new ideas for the house and garden, my business, and what I will write.
I work out plot details on books and ideas for new books.
Walking is a safe time to let ideas flood into your thoughts.
However, it’s best to take daydreaming walks alone and without listening to something on your phone.
How can you hear those Angel Ideas when listening to something else? I bring my phone for emergencies and sometimes to record those ideas so they don’t fly away, but that’s all.
Some of you who walk dogs will tell me it is the same. It’s not.
I see you walking your dogs. You walk at the dog’s choice. She walks you. So do that walk, then return and walk for you.
When I was young, I walked to get away from things at home and school. Because I was making my own clothes, I daydreamed about designing my next outfit. Hey, I was a teenager.
Later, I started running for exercise. Sometimes I could get into the daydream zone, but more often I was trying to run.
But when I returned to walking, it was once again to get away—to get away from the details of life.
Walking is just for you—no one else.
It’s when you can listen to the silence and hear those Angel Ideas.
Every path, every street in the world is your walking meditation path. —Nhat Hanh
Before I step out the door, I spend some quiet time in meditation. In those meditations, I watch the thoughts go by but give them no attention.
During my walking meditations, I welcome those thoughts.
I have conversations with people and work things out with them, and it all happens within me, where it starts anyway.
I let the answers to problems arrive and examine them to see what works or doesn’t.
I build things.
I daydream about what might be called useless ideas, which have no outcome other than that I want to think about them.
Even though there are days I feel the resistance (it’s too hot, it’s too cold, it’s too muggy, it’s too early, it’s too late), I look forward to walking out the door each day, reminding myself that ideas are waiting for me.
And that breaks the hold of the resistance.
By the time I cross the first street, I am grateful that I have given myself the gift of walking, of private time, of a walk into my daydreams.
If I see you walking, I will smile and say, “Good morning.” And I will be grateful that you, too, are listening to Angel Ideas.
Walk into your daydreams.
It will bring you happiness, and your storehouse of creative ideas will ultimately benefit the rest of us.
Imagine impossible things in your daydreams. And one day, a few of them just might come true.
How about a book on imagination? Or a class based on the book!
I’m addicted to walking. It’s my time to gently daydream and contemplate. We can all use more time me to tap into our imagination. 💭. 🤩
I’ve been enjoying my daily walks lately, too! Last week, I took my son outside after he was feeling stuck with his Science homework. He seemed down as we stepped through the door, so we started walking in silence. By our second loop around the block, I noticed his energy pick back up, and before I knew it, we were discussing his homework, with answers flowing freely. Walking is officially my go-to tool for getting unstuck! Thanks for sharing, Beca. :)