The Author's Corner: Daydreams

It is an early summer morning on the coast. The fog is thick as it rolls onto land like a wet blanket. For you it is the last days of your holidays before returning home to start a new job. However, now that is the reality you face.

Looking to your right, you can see the rocks on the beach and behind you is the forest with a path back to the parking lot. This is the first holiday that you have taken since finishing university and landing your job as a teacher, even though you get time off throughout the school year, you have spent most of your time before the beginning of the school year getting ready for the start of your career.

As the hours pass, your mind is a million miles away and as the fog slowly lifts to reveal the ocean waters that are calm, you feel the tranquility of the moment as it can not be explained any other way. For you, your life waits for you to enjoy each and every day that is to come.

For what daydreams are, they can be a way to escape the present moments or to gather a moment or two during a busy day. They are viewed in different ways because you are taking your mind off of what you should be focusing on. As a writer, daydreaming is part of the work that I do. It is where I get my ideas for my writing.

If you work in other fields, the daydreaming is frowned on. The problem comes because most career/jobs do not want their employees off in space so to say. For what it is worth, if you are daydreaming at work, I would recommend doing it on your first coffee break as taking that moment will help set up the rest of your day. In doing that your work will become easier and you will stay on task. It also lets you sort out your plans for the day.

In what we gain is perspective in what we want to achieve is the day and follow the path for our career. It also plays an important role in our personal lives as well because in taking the time to daydream we can let go of the past events as we focus on the dream.

Taking five or ten minutes to daydream will help in more ways than you can imagine. It can help relax you to be able to handle those important projects at work, school/university/college and your career. As you breathe in and out, it will calm your mind which will help you think and focus. Something that we all need to learn and one of the big benefits is that when you are done your mind will be ready to tackle the rest of the day.

In all ways a daydream is taking a quick break from reality which will bring you back to where you want to be. By doing it everyday before you go into work will help you in so many ways. As an author, I spend the first five minutes of each day planning it and I put in my time to daydream. It helps me to get working and writing as well gives me a goal that I am going for.

I recommend that you who are reading this essay to picture where you see yourself in ten years every morning before you rush out the door. It will help you in becoming more positive in life. As well it will move you towards those personal things that you want in life.

Since I was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in 2005, I had to figure out what kind of life I wanted to live after the diagnosis. It did not come to me until 2010 when I was last in the hospital because of my illness. It was a cold February day when I was walking down to a coffee shop when my mind cleared and something came up in me that urged me to pick up the pen and start my career as an author. Take control of your life and reach for your goals and dreams you have for yourself.

Stay safe.