Daydreaming: The Benefits of a Little Mental Break

Not staring off into space, rather crafting future plans.
Not staring off into space, rather crafting future plans.

Scott Barry Kaufman earned a doctorate in cognitive psychology from Yale University in 2009, preceeded by a masters degree in experimental psychology from Cambridge University in 2005.  This after he spent grades 1-8 in special education. Multiple early childhood ear infections caused him setbacks both education-wise  and socially. Continual bullying by a special education classmate may have further contributed to a lack of progress in early schooling.

Kaufman tells of how he, as a child, retreated to an inner world where he wrote stories, created soap opera plotlines and imagined a future as a successful psychologist.

He also tells how these mental retreats earned him no love from teachers. As you might guess, this inward-turning nature was used as further evidence of his learning disability.

But Kaufman was learning the power of daydreaming. While he was not convincing his teachers and classmates of any particularly strong cognitive abilities, he was basically planning a future that he ultimately achieved, despite somewhat incredible odds. In addition, he was, through daydreaming, reinforcing his dreams.

Today Kaufman is one of a number of psychology experts that are doing research, writing and speaking on the power and benefits of daydreams. Continue reading “Daydreaming: The Benefits of a Little Mental Break”