Don't Quit Your Daydream

Advice You Won't Hear from Other Yoga Teachers

"I have been so busy these last few months that I never had time to get excited about this trip until I actually got here," my friend said to me. "And that's not like me at all."

Now, as someone who teaches yoga, you'd think I would have commended my friend for being so present with the tasks and events at hand.

Or as someone who's experienced and written about how disappointing things can be when we hype them up beforehand, you might assume I'd have thought this was a good thing.

But you'd be wrong.

Because as someone who also understands human psychology, I know that what makes us humans different from any other primates with which we share 95% of our behavior is our ability to daydream.

To not only anticipate what might happen next based upon prior experiences, past conditioning, and previous learning (AKA probability) but from a place of pure, never-experienced-before potential.

And I understand that it is that anticipation ability coupled with the chain reaction of hormones released in our little 3-pound skull sponges that brings us pleasure—sometimes as much or even more than the actual experience of the thing itself.

Somewhere along the line of apes one of our humanoid predecessors got a vision of something they'd never seen before followed by a hit of dopamine and serotonin. Then they went out and made that vision a reality and got a second hit of self-induced high. Because those genes were beneficial for survival, they got passed down.

And here you are today, reading a letter that got sent across the airwaves and is appearing on a device that's been optimized to captivate your attention by triggering the release of dopamine in a way that is so artificial it's almost like cocaine (but that's a topic for another conversation).

But the kind of dopamine we can self-administer from daydreaming? It's not only healthy but, I'd argue, also essential for your well-being.

Sure, your golden retriever Lucky is as happy as a dog can be on a head-out-the-car-window summer day, just livin' in the moment.

But she's never experienced the joy of fantasizing about a first kiss with her crush. Or imagined beforehand what it might feel like to hold a newborn baby of her own for the first time. Or written a poem that made her tingle in her toes at its beauty.

So, yes, put your phone down while you eat your dinner tonight and truly taste it. Stop taking pictures of the sunset with your camera and actually notice with your own eyes all 17 shades of pink. Be there when your kid graduates college and lock every facet of their smile in your memory. Notice the flecks of gold in your lover's eye in the sunlight.

But also, let your mind drift as you drink your morning coffee. Or before you fall asleep at night. Not to things you have to do or think you should do, but to things you might do, things that might be fun, that might bring you a second wave of happiness.

Of course, they might not—and you'll never know until you actually get there—but they can bring your joy right now, just in the imagining.

And that, my friend, is your birthright as a human being.

Make time for some daydreamin', won't ya? If you're too busy for it, you're too busy for your own happiness. 

With clouds reflecting in my eyes and daydreams in my heart, Chazz

daydreamer. rebel yoga teacher. amateur primatologist. professional (human) coach.