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S vs. N daydreaming

King sns

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No stereotypes, please. "N's daydream their life away" or "S's don't daydream" or such. What are different types daydreams like?

I find that for myself, daydreaming about the past can be kind of depressing... If it's a happy memory, it's all in my head and will never happen again. If it's a sad memory, hopefully I have learned from it but otherwise is useless to me. Daydreaming about something that may happen in the near future is more positive and happy. I don't understand people who daydream about things that are impossible for the foreseeable future. Often times, when I am daydreaming, it means that there is something wrong with the present moment and that I want something else, but the daydream still stays in some kind of realm of current possibility.

I take it other types will feel differently.
 

Patches

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Whenever I sort of "zone out" and retreat into my own mind... Generally I am running through past or future situations. For example, Ill run through something that happened in the past and think about how it could have been different if I had done something else. Or I'll think about something that is about to happen and contemplate what to say, what their responses might be, what I would do/say in the event that each of those responses occurs.
 

Shmooooooooo

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My daydreams are fairly evenly split between my falling in love and running away with someone under the unlikeliest circumstances and having absolute power and using it to bend the world to my inhuman vision.
 

KDude

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I used to have more romantic/sentimental daydreams, but they never served me well (they would tend to inspire me to act on something when I shouldn't have). Reality is more complicated, so I try to control it/change the subject somewhat now.

Global/power dreams like the guy above, but I wouldn't say they were inhumane.. most are kind of reforming or moralistic in nature. I guess it'd begin with some things upsetting me, and my mind will turn them into bigger or global issues.

Situations where I'm getting sort of held back or punked out in real life (but maybe someone else too), and I start daydreaming a little on the possible consequences of letting it continue. It usually helps me find a better way to treat the real situation.

edited
 

Tamske

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I don't understand people who daydream about things that are impossible for the foreseeable future.

What else is daydreaming for? The past? That's remembering, not daydreaming. To me, daydreaming is either about the future or about something totally impossible.

I remember quite vividly a discussion with a friend. She confessed to me she daydreamed often.
"In my daydreams I can be whoever I want. I can be a succesful singer or marry a nice man."
I was disappointed. Singer? Marrying? What's interesting about that? You could be daydreaming about being a time traveler or about teaching the orks of Middle-Earth how to love!

Sometimes my daydreams are indeed of the "realistic" variety. Mostly that's when something is about to happen to me. When the date of my wedding was set and the preparations in full swing, yes, then I did daydream about my wedding.

Both the unrealistic and the realistic ones have an element of adventure in them, an element of conflict. I'd never daydream about the ideal wedding. That would be boring.

The stories I'm writing are essentially my unrealistic daydreams. I pick and choose elements from my daydreams to build a story around them. Conversely, when writing, I try to daydream about the story.

I have always had the impression that you should do something with your excess brainpower. Why stop thinking when you're doing boring manual work? Why worrying about the future or about your looks? Daydreaming isn't productive(*) but it doesn't hurt either and it's fun to do.

(*) Except for writers.
 

skylights

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i like daydreaming about fantasy stuff, crazy idealistic worlds and exciting adventures and epic situations. adding on to / reinterpreting familiar stories is fun, too. i enjoy all the sensory aspects of the daydream that i would not get to experience otherwise - the warmth of the sun, the lush green of a forest, the wind rustling through my hair as my convertible whips around a corner.

i also like diving back into good memories, like ceremonies i really enjoyed or experiences while travelling. i don't revisit sad memories unless i have a specific reason to, and even then, for very short periods of time.

shortnsweet said:
I don't understand people who daydream about things that are impossible for the foreseeable future.
two reasons:
1. because even if it seems impossible in the forseeable future, if i ever want it to happen, i'd better start forseeing it anyway
2. when else am i gonna get to experience it? :laugh: like living in another time period or something, it's just never going to happen. so it's fun to play around with in my head sometimes.
 

KDude

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^I like fantasy worlds too, but I tend to just borrow the work of N's.. I'll read books, play games, watch certain types of movies.. I'm not quite as good at coming up with all of it myself though. Especially the "world" parts. I'm better at creating characters. A lot of my ideas might center around more on personality or something. I like creating comic or rpg characters (in drawing or in games), and I used to go a little to acting workshops. Maybe there's something I find easier about characters, they're anchored on both real and imaginative (or we could this in ourselves too). That appeals to me.
 

wildcat

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No stereotypes, please. "N's daydream their life away" or "S's don't daydream" or such. What are different types daydreams like?

I find that for myself, daydreaming about the past can be kind of depressing... If it's a happy memory, it's all in my head and will never happen again. If it's a sad memory, hopefully I have learned from it but otherwise is useless to me. Daydreaming about something that may happen in the near future is more positive and happy. I don't understand people who daydream about things that are impossible for the foreseeable future. Often times, when I am daydreaming, it means that there is something wrong with the present moment and that I want something else, but the daydream still stays in some kind of realm of current possibility.

I take it other types will feel differently.
Exactly.
And well put.

A minor fault. Possibility does not current.
 

wolfy

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I don't daydream much, I think about stuff a lot. But I don't daydream.
 

Halla74

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Hmmm, interesting question.

I always think/daydream/extrapolate on things I want to happen, things I want to do.

It's almost like a "vision quest" of sorts, visualizing what I wish to do, and how I wish to do it.

Honestly I think these trips inside my head are part of a self motivation process. It's bizarre, but it is very effective. If I visualize something I wish to happen really badly, over and over agin, At some point that goal becomes legitimized, and I begin planning how to do it. Once my plan is complete then I begin executing it. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, months, or even a year, but once I set my mind to something it's a done deal, it's going to happen, I'm going to do it, end of story.

Getting inside your own head is healthy. It's probably the most "reflective" process I enegage in with any regularity. You don't lie to your self when you are in your own head, there is no need to, you just expose yourself to your dreams and see where they take your mind, and heart and then at some point it will register in your consciousness, and you'll know if you want and need to snatch that dream and promote it into reality... :newwink:
 

King sns

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Hmmm, interesting question.

I always think/daydream/extrapolate on things I want to happen, things I want to do.

It's almost like a "vision quest" of sorts, visualizing what I wish to do, and how I wish to do it.

Honestly I think these trips inside my head are part of a self motivation process. It's bizarre, but it is very effective. If I visualize something I wish to happen really badly, over and over agin, At some point that goal becomes legitimized, and I begin planning how to do it. Once my plan is complete then I begin executing it. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, months, or even a year, but once I set my mind to something it's a done deal, it's going to happen, I'm going to do it, end of story.

Getting inside your own head is healthy. It's probably the most "reflective" process I enegage in with any regularity. You don't lie to your self when you are in your own head, there is no need to, you just expose yourself to your dreams and see where they take your mind, and heart and then at some point it will register in your consciousness, and you'll know if you want and need to snatch that dream and promote it into reality... :newwink:

I relate to this post the most. The fact that I'm dreaming about it to begin with means that it's possible and that a change is needed and that my brain is trying to find a way to make it happen.
 

CuriousFeeling

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I daydream often. It can range from the impossible to the possible. I go from daydreaming about characters in a story I am writing, to what song I am going to write, to moments of poetic justice, to where I will be in 10-20 years, to what it would be like to date a romantic interest, to performing with a band, you name it. I suppose the impossible things can only be possible in daydreaming.
 

lucibelle

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What I daydream about...
Something I often dream about is beginning my life over again, but with memories of my old life, and then messing with people for knowing the future and stuff, and doing all sorts of interesting stuff when still a kid and such :cheese: and if the bigger events from this reality wouldn't take place in that one after all? Then I would know that my puny actions would've changed the world in a big way, which would be interesting by itself! And in this reality, I wouldn't even need to fear death, for obviously I had somehow passed from my past life to this one, so there would be something after death.
Other things I dream about...well, I dream about talking to people about stuff I'd like to talk about but know that I probably never will, imagine their reactions etc. And I dream about some more fantastical things sometimes as well...like being some sorcerer in some fantasy world and such :)
Another kind of dream I like is of having people around me that can play instruments and follow my instructions, and come up with songs on the go and describe the melodies and instrument sounds and they would then manage to play it and then we would record lots of kickass songs...I really like to make up songs in my mind. Other things like that too - like making movies! And choosing the music to them from my music collection, I have so much awesome music that would sound great in a movie, or perhaps build a movie around a great song? Movies I would make - stuff based on my fantasy worlds or such, and movie versions of existing books & such. I could make the most awesome creepiest movie about Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space", and I have such perfect music for it as well! The song "V.I.T.R.I.O.L." by Ain Soph would especially fit the movie! The problem with that movie would of course be the colour that does not exist, but no matter...since you can't really imagine it while reading either :cheese: Another good movie would be based on the Quantum Gravity books by Justina Robson, got great fitting music for it as well...I would also imagine playing a part in the movies myself.
And my favorite pasttime...well, I am rarely actually able to do it because it requires a certain mood and state of mind. A shame. Well, dunno if other people have fantasies like this, but I like to imagine I'm a good-looking male. Who gets tortured/abused. And absolutely everyone in that world is very antagonistic towards him, sometimes some people will appear to care but eventually end up deceiving him anyhow. I've done this all my life. No, it's not sexual. Dunno why I enjoy it so much...:blush:
And then of course I dream about more realistic things too...like what I'll be doing in the future and what might happen.

You don't lie to your self when you are in your own head, there is no need to

I thought all people lie to themselves. I know parts of me often lie about me and then at some point I notice it and start arguing with that part of myself...But then again I'm kind of unhealthy :doh: I'd still believe that all people lie to themselves to some amount though...but I could be wrong. I am not intelligent enough to truly know. (and is 'knowledge' even possible, in the end...)
 
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