What are the possibilities of M A Day Dreaming being a useful tool?

[Marih Alyn-Claire]

I am of course no expert in MA DD (or much else for that matter). I don't have the condition myself. As a child I engaged in lots of daydreaming as a means to escape a extremely stressful home environment and to avert the repetitiveness and boredom of public education.

Today I deal with the effects of brain injury on a daily basis. The non-profit I serve works with people with brain injuries, cognitive and intellectual challenges: things like short term memory loss, difficulty holding attention, slowness, visual, balance, organization and problems with learning.

Our goal is to find "work a-rounds" to the various types of challenges we face. I must say that when I met Cordelia in the laundry area of our building one afternoon, I was fascinated by her story and wanted to learn more.

I believe that nature has a purpose for everything including various wild cards in this case "Wild Minds" and perhaps our challenges is to discover what the condition is trying to tell us. It might be leading us down a new path which you all might be the actual explorer pioneers. Who knows?


Obviously you are being pulled inward for some reason. I don't believe this is a fluke nor necessarily an abnormality. As Cordelia spoke about in her video: It's not good nor bad".

There are many variations in nature and from post brain injury survivors have shared with us how their lives are altered and the challenge is to discover "what now?" "How do I take this situation and crate value from it?


It is interesting how the brain is ordered in a certain way that most people on our planet share in common, then
variations such as this one come along and make us ask new questions. What if everyone's brain was ordered with a command such as held button: "daydream only" mode? What would our society be like in 100 years?

My personal journey having my brain function severely altered and not being able to read even one sentence nor find my way down a hall without getting lost: I turned the situation into a project of discovery and adventure. After the professionals had given up and determined there was nothing that could be done to change my situation, I found my way out of a frightening wilderness and isolation. As a result---"wild minds" is a subject of both intrigue and possibilities.

Marih

[Mel BabyDollieDeath D]

Wow, I really enjoyed reading this so thanks for posting it Marih! =) And I'd also like to say that I love the two comments left by John and Ellen. I'd like to address everything mentioned so sorry if I ramble on a bit =P

I have always been a creative individual with the aspirations of being a writer but I didn't actually start having MD symptoms until I was about 11 or 12. At that point in my life I was being bullied so daydreaming was my means of escaping all of the stresses of being a kid. No one bullied me in the comfort of my own mind.

I also truly believe that nature has a purpose for everything and have learned over the years how spiritual I have become. I've even been interested in Paganism for quite some time which I'm still immensely fond of.  Without my MD, there is no possible way I would be a writer - I depend on it for creative stability. All of my movie ideas are first projected through my mind, then I try as best I can to bring them to life on paper. Cordellia couldn't have put it any better with "It's not good nor bad" That couldn't be more true.

 

"Also I have heard of people writing fantasy novels by putting the world in there head to paper.

It's really amazing how we might have so much potential and yet its so hard to use it. We hide in the safety of our minds where there is no fear of real-world failure. We become content with, or even prefer, achieving our goals in fantasy land instead of reality.

Its as much of a blessing as a curse.

So to answer your question, it can be a phenomenal tool for doing anything that we can muster the courage to actually do. But there's the catch."

You took the thoughts right out of my head and I posted them before I could! =P Beautifully said and I must say, I'm living proof of that statement and I still can't believe that I'm not alone. I couldn't be happier to be a member of Wild Minds Network. 

"I would say one of the best ways I use daydreaming as a tool is through sort-of role playing.  I don't have great people skills, and I am kind of a slow thinker in conversation, but if I am anticipating an important conversation, I often start daydreaming about it.  That means that by the time I get to the real-life conversation, I have already had the conversation several times in my head, so I know kind of how it is going to go and what of sort of things I might say.  That is a useful side of daydreaming that I think everyone can use, maladaptive daydreamers or not."

I can definitely relate to this. I do it all the time. I think the fact that I'm in hibernation mode from the world all of the time and have been for so long that it can be difficult to communicate with the outside world. In my head, my people skills are extraordinary. If I could choose to be a vegetable as to initiate full dedication to living inside my head, I would. It's a far better place then the here and now. I would be happy. Fulfilled. I'd never be so lonely ever again. 

[Ellen]

Hi Marih, welcome to Wild Mind, nice to meet you.

I would say one of the best ways I use daydreaming as a tool is through sort-of role playing.  I don't have great people skills, and I am kind of a slow thinker in conversation, but if I am anticipating an important conversation, I often start daydreaming about it.  That means that by the time I get to the real-life conversation, I have already had the conversation several times in my head, so I know kind of how it is going to go and what of sort of things I might say.  That is a useful side of daydreaming that I think everyone can use, maladaptive daydreamers or not.