“Travelers are fantasists, conjurers, seers – and what they finally discover is that every round object everywhere is a crystal ball: stone, teapot, the marvelous globe of the human eye.”
– Cynthia Ozick
Did you ever get in trouble in grade school for daydreaming? Wasting your time fantasizing, creating stories or wandering off? I spent a lot of time outside the classroom door in timeout for just that!
Well, here’s to the teachers that recognized that daydreaming is actually a powerful tool that helps people adapt better to change, translate imaginative ideas into reality and communicate with others. Aren’t those benefits worth 10 minutes of wandering off every day?
When we daydream we use our limitless minds as our backdrop. The possibilities, characters and rules are what we want them to be. We break free from the handcuffs of reality and create new, more interesting rules. How many times have you visualized a conversation or situation in an effort to be better prepared? That’s daydreaming at its best.
Vivid, purposeful daydreaming allows us to fill in the blanks, develop new and varying scenarios and think very differently.
Today, spend 10 minutes daydreaming. Doesn’t really matter what it’s about – personal, professional, wealth, health, love, sports – you choose.
Those of you tinkering with a new idea or managing innovation, this is a great tool for product development brainstorming. You’ll find that the permission given to you and your team by the crystal ball unearths new possibilities that were hiding in the brain all along.
I recognize that most of us aren’t really sure how to break into spontaneous daydreaming so here is a little game that may help. I call it Ask The Crystal Ball.
Think about something that you want to have happen –a new idea, a conversation, a meeting, a reward. Gaze into the crystal ball and ask it some questions. Then, answers those questions in your daydream as if the crystal ball is giving you the answers. Remember to be as detailed and vivid as possible. Include what you are wearing, the weather, sounds in the background and so on. If you start down a path and decide you want to change the story, go ahead! This is your daydream and the possibilities are endless. Create several stories for the same daydream. Try out a few scenarios and see how they feel.
On a side note, for me, the meaning of the quote above is that many things in our surrounding can give us clues or provide inspiration. There are crystal balls everywhere. Are you looking into all the crystal balls in your life?
Questions to ask yourself:
What if I…….?
If this happened what would I do……?
He he/she did this, I would……?
If it turned out perfectly what would it look like if……………?
Next Tues. @10am MST on Imaginibbles Blog RadioJorge de la Torre, Dean of Culinary Education atJohnson and Wales University comes by to talk about trends, creativity in the kitchen and more. Missed Sara Ortiz from Tuesday’s show? That’s ok, just go to our radio show and listen to any and all past episodes.
Thursday, watch for a new episode of Imaginibbles TV. Imaginibbles TV? Who knows what Tamara will do next!
Dream big. Dream often. Always say “yes and”!
Filed under: Dream - BB #3, For All, For Families and Kids | Tagged: brainstorming, brainstorming exercises, creative brainstorming, creative soul, creativity, crystal ball games, daydreaming, developing creativity, developing imagination, imaginative play, innovation, right brain, right brain tools, unleashing creativity, unleashing imagination, vision boards, visualization
