People who consistently engage in more daydreaming score significantly higher on measures of creativity.  (To evaluate daydreaming, the subjects were given a slow section of War and Peace and then timed how long it took them to start thinking about something else.)  “What these tests measure is someone’s ability to find hidden relationships that can help them solve a problem.  That kind of thinking is the essence of creativity.  And it turns out that people who daydream a lot are much better at it.”

Imagine
Jonah Lehrer
Page 99

If you are the parent of a child who you believe spends too much time in his own head, too much time playing make believe, fear not.  Your child may be a font of creativity.  According to Jonah Lehrer, this could be a very good thing.  You should NEVER dissuade your children from imagination.  For without imagination, the world would cease to exist.  We need the imagineers to move us forward.

Where would we be if it weren’t Alexander Graham Bell?
Where would we be if it weren’t for Jonas Salk?
Where would we be if it weren’t for the Wright Brothers?

It should be quite obvious that imagination and creativity go hand in hand.  The next time you want to squash your child’s imagination whether he be four years old or seventeen years old, stop and think:
What harm can it do to prevent my child from continuing to follow his dream?
What harm can it do to let my child make believe?

In his make believe world, he may just be creating the next great scientific leap forward.  Do you REALLY want to prevent the next Einstein from coming forward, the next Stephen Hawking?

Jonah Lehrer’s book that I’m quoting here is very reminiscent of another book that my friend Kate Wilker who writes a blog called Cozy Seaside Homestead recommended by Daniel Pink called:
A Whole New Mind:
Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future

In that book, Pink writes about many of the same things that Jonah Lehrer discusses  That without the Right Brainers and imagineers, our world as we know it would surely cease to exist as we know it.  Pink goes a step further to suggest that the Right Brainers that imagineers are going to play a bigger role in the future than they did in the past.  Being a Right Brainer myself, this gives me great joy to see.  Do you know if you’re a Right Brainer?
Take this Right Brain/Left Brain Test and find out.

If you feel like commenting, I’d love to know your results after you’ve taken the test.

Be Happy!  Be Well!  Be Positive!
Blessings to you.
—
Chris