How to Daydream

By Lisa Payne

Step 1: 

Start a gratitude journal. Your journal can have "Gratitude Journal" written on the front, it can be a spiral notebook or it can even be the notes page on your phone. The form of the journal doesn't matter. What matters is that you designate five to ten minutes a day to jotting down the days joys and anything that makes you feel thankful and at home. Set a timer on your phone or your watch so you don't forget!

Step 2:

Meditate. Say what? Ideally right after your gratitude entry, you'd also take a moment to reset. Find a quiet place where you won't be bothered. No noise. Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Try to leave all of your mind-chatter out of the room. If you find that your mind goes elsewhere, gently bring it back. If you're having trouble meditating, try downloading the apps HeadSpace and Mindfulness Daily to guide you through. 

Step 3:

Brainstorm. Remember when you were in grade school and shown how to brainstorm with circles on a paper? One big circle with a central idea and then you drew lines out from the center to other circulating ideas inside of smaller circles. This is one way to gather ideas as to what subconsciously brings you happiness-by digging deep.

 Another idea is to freewrite. You DO NOT have to be a writer to freewrite! All you need to do is get a notebook or a single sheet of paper, and write down exactly what's in your head no matter what comes up. Looking down on it, it probably will look like a jumbled mess. No punctuation or grammar necessary! Woo hoo!

But what this does-especially after writing in your gratitude journal and meditating, is to seek out your subconscious internal motivators when your brain is calm and not cluttered by stress and noise. Here you will discover your core truths that will provide the groundwork for your dream plan.  

For more info on freewriting, click below:

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