“Stop hovering in the clouds!” – sometimes parents of children scold. Or it happens at work, at home, we say to ourselves, to our acquaintances: “If you are dreaming, you better get down to business.” Daydreaming and thoughtfulness really distract a person from real life. But are they really that useless?
What are dreams
Dreams are a product of the imagination. Dreams are removed from real activity in the present, directed towards the future, reflecting the desires of a person. Dreaming means consciously creating images of the future. Someone dreams are close to reality, and someone dreams of something fantastic.
In childhood and adolescence, all people often dream. But the older we get, the more day-to-day routines and responsibilities crowd out dreams. What is the conquest of Everest or a parachute jump? There is no time, no effort, no money for this. Yes, and it is dangerous, and there are much more pressing questions.
But dreams are not born just like that. This is a reflection of our subconscious, our essence. People, especially adults, dream of what they need for a harmonious life and development. To those images that come in dreams and dreams, you need to listen. And people become dreamers for a reason. Daydreaming is a significant personality trait.
Daydreaming as a character trait
Daydreaming can be viewed as a form of escape from reality, a compensatory mechanism. But this is also an indicator of a person’s indecision, uncertainty. Let’s consider both cases in more detail:
- Excessive daydreaming as a character trait is formed in childhood. This is the response of the child’s psyche to unfavorable conditions of development: violence and rudeness, loneliness, unmet needs, need, hunger, etc. Remember the tale about Carlson. The kid was tormented by loneliness and invented a friend who lives on the roof. The world of fantasies and dreams is ideal, which is why some people choose it instead of reality.
- Daydreaming, in which dreams remain dreams, never turn into goals, says one thing: a person is indecisive, overflowing with fears and self-doubt. Or puts forward high expectations and demands. Such people often do not know what they want, do not understand themselves and other people.
Constant daydreaming, a life of fantasies and dreams hinders the development of personality, makes a person unviable. This is dangerous and harmful, just like being overly rational. Sometimes you need to dream, but it’s even better to turn dreams into reality.
Dreams as visualizations
Visualization is a detailed representation of something very desirable. In fact, this is dreaming. We imagine pictures, feel tastes and touches, let ideas pass through ourselves and keep the emotions generated by dreams for a long time. Dreaming as visualization is a powerful psychotherapy tool.
Psychology has long been known about the benefits of visualization and self-hypnosis. This method allows you to change a person’s thinking, improve the quality of life. It turns out that dreaming is good, but it is important to do it right:
- Prioritize. As in real life, in your dreams you shouldn’t tackle a lot of things at once. It takes almost as much energy to visualize as actually completing tasks. Therefore, it is not recommended to dream about many things at the same time – the risk of exhaustion is high. Maximum – 5 wishes. These should be the most cherished and realistic desires. You must be able to execute them, or you must be able to get hold of, develop all the necessary tools and resources.
- Specificity and accuracy of wording. Provide details of your desire, use numbers, place names, etc. For example, you want to lose weight. The goal of “losing weight” is too abstract. Add to this the weight you want to lose and the period over which you want to lose it. Better yet, replace the word “lose weight” with “become slim.” And add that I want to achieve this in a healthy way. After all, you can become thin in different ways, for example, against a background of stress. Only in this case you run the risk of becoming exactly thin and exhausted, and not slim and healthy.
- Real-time affirmations and dreams. Affirmation is a mindset for self-hypnosis. For example, “I am slim and healthy.” This is an example of a good affirmation: short, clear, in the present tense. It is important to think about something as if it has already happened.
- Confidence and positivity. People are very skeptical about self-hypnosis, and affirmations do not always work. But they do not work only if the person himself does not believe in them, does not believe in what he is doing and what he wants.
- Search and collection of resources. Assess what you already have to achieve your goal. Write it down. Now determine what you need to get hold of, think about how to do it. Think about your qualities, knowledge, skills, abilities, connections, etc.
- Turn a dream into a goal. Yes, just daydreaming really has little chance of being realized. You need to make an effort to this. If you repeat the weight loss affirmations, but lie on the couch and eat buns, then you are unlikely to gain a slim and toned body. But if you draw up a nutrition and training plan, you stick to it, then the result will not force itself. And affirmations in this case will betray confidence, will have an additional positive and motivating influence.
Dreams, like the word, are endowed with tremendous power. They affect our subconscious, and through it, and consciousness. Have you heard the phrase “be afraid of your desires”? Probably no. But it works. With dreams, we lay down a subconscious development program, and therefore we need to be attentive to the formulations and hidden meanings of what we dream about.
What prevents you from dreaming?
It’s not just adulthood that robs the ability to dream. Some people lose this skill during childhood. What does dream us dream:
- authoritarian style of upbringing in the family (an abundance of demands and obligations);
- hyperopia;
- conservatism and practicality;
- personality traits (anxiety, hypochondria, pedantry);
- low level of education and narrow outlook;
- complexes;
- overwork, exhaustion.
If you are haunted by the ghosts of the past, or if you have barriers inside, then defeat them. Allow yourself to grow and develop.
If your goal seems difficult to accomplish, break it down into small tasks. Take one small step every day on the path to your dream, and soon you will achieve it. For example, you can devote half an hour daily to playing sports to keep yourself in good shape. Or study a foreign language for an hour in order to master it perfectly.
Think of any interview with a successful person. To the question “how did you manage to achieve this?” successful people, as a rule, answer: “Since childhood, I dreamed about this and constantly walked towards my goal.”
