Obstacle-Free Thinking

Are you a teen? Were you? Do you remember daydreaming in high school? My friend Caitriona Reed recommends to her grown-up clients that they spend time actively daydreaming everyday. I used to daydream in algebra class.

Hammock Daydreaming

Now I daydream in other contexts besides sitting still. I do it sometimes on a road trip, sometimes as I write my Morning Pages, sometimes as I take my walk up Sunset Mountain in the evening. The shape of my daydreaming times varies, but it always helps me, as Caitriona says, remember who I am. She says to “focus just enough to be in a positive emotional state, free of anxiety, relaxed, joyful, and then let your imagination just drift where it will.” Remembering who I am this way, I sense a larger picture of myself than the more limited one I usually carry – a self who can do anything and be anything! You know this if you’re a teen. Even if you’re not, you can still practice daydreaming yourself into new dimensions, where obstacle-free-thinking (as another friend, Pat Conway, calls it) lets you try on what might be. Go there! We need each other to go there. We need each other to find creative ways to live large and make our beautiful world work for everyone.