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Mind Wandering and Inner Experience: Don’t Miss Out on the Positive Effects of Daydreaming for Goal Attainment

The latest psychological research reveals surprising results

Published in
3 min readAug 9, 2022

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For years I have been confused about the merits of daydreaming (now called mind wandering by psychologists). I love keeping a journal to record the contents of these ruminations.

However, I have often thought it was just a waste of time, serving no purpose and that I should get on with more executive tasks.

Adaptive Uses to Mind Wandering

Now it turns out, rather than having a negative attitude, it is time to wake up to the merits of daydreams. As recent research revealed, 47% of our waking hours consist of these wayward thoughts.

Hence, psychologists have been hot on the trail of figuring out the adaptive uses of such everyday activity.

We have come a long way since Freud declared, ‘A fantasy is an outgrowth of an unsatisfied wish and is a defense against its direct manifestation.’

Now several researchers have uncovered the following benefits.

· They can promote creativity and problem-solving

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Ph.D. sociology. I help those working on personal development to attain self-respect and self-affirmation.https://medium.com/@sanfmark/membership