Daydreaming, completely underrated.

A few weeks back I did a post with a link to the Susan Cain TEDx talk on The Power of Introverts. There were lots of parts of the talk that had my head nodding but there were four words in particular that stuck in my brain….”the transcendence of solitude“. Now I’ve often thought this, often talked about this, often simply just wished for it, but I’d never quite described it like that.

Listening to those four little words in her 20 minute speech?

She had nailed it.

Not always does solitude and transcendence go hand in hand, actually in my experience it’s not often at all, but then again it’s not particularly often in this stage of my life do I get to be alone. But when it’s there, when it happens…

It’s exquisite.

That’s when ideas flourish, when creativity sparks, and that’s when problems get turned on their head. If our brains are constantly being switched on and running at even a low-level concentrating point (facebook I’m looking at you), you don’t get that. You won’t get that, (or if you do I’d love to hear from you.)

In my view it’s unlikely that scrolling through your FB feed you’ll suddenly exclaim, I’ve got an idea!!! Or be inclined to go create something incredible. While I’m not squashing the merits of FB, I do think we need those blank spaces to be able to get more out of life, to do more we need the “trancendence of solitude”, and that’s especially important for our kids. We need for them to know what to do in those pauses.

To be able to let your mind wander.

To let your subconscious run free.

To let your ideas…

Unshackle.