Comique by awesome Anne Emond.

A while ago a friend asked me if I’m a daydreamer. “Of course”, I said. “Who isn’t?”

It turned out that she wasn’t. And that started an interesting dialogue. She told me that even if she was looking forward to a vacation, she just could not see it in front of her. She does not have expectations or illusions of how that vacation is going to be.

Me, on the other hand, can dream up pretty much every possible scenario there is. By the time I actually go in that vacation, in my mind I’ve done it a million times. I can feel how warm it’s going to be, I’ve tried on every dress I own and I’ve met a lot of imaginary people.

But I don’t daydream just as an escape from reality. I also use it as a tool to get where I want to go. To keep focus. If I’m tired when I leave work and on the subway to the gym, I put on my dancing playlist on Spotify, close my eyes and visualize my favorite dance choreography. I can feel which muscles I need to use to do that specific move. By the time I get to the gym I’m full of energy. When you learn how your brain works, you also know how to manipulate it. And I do it all the time.

It’s also a tool for me to figure out what I want. In my mind I’ve been everything from a maffia boss (awesome by the way, one of my favorite daydreams when I was a kid) to a rich trophy wife (not really my thing). I try out different lives to see what fits me. And just because I can.

So, if you managed to get this far this rambling post, do you daydream? And if so, about what?