Thoughts on Daydreaming
Some thoughts on daydreaming, attention, and not trying very hard
I’ve always daydreamed.
Looking out a window.
Letting my eyes rest somewhere in the distance.
Not thinking about anything in particular.
Not trying to stop thinking either.
Just… pausing.
For most of my life, I never called this anything.
It was just something I did.
Later on, I was introduced to meditation.
The formal kind.
Eyes closed.
Sit still.
Focus on the breath.
Clear the mind.
I never liked it.
Not because it was hard.
But because it felt unnatural to me.
Too inward.
Too sealed off.
Too much effort directed at doing it right.
What I noticed instead was this:
When my eyes were open,
when I was grounded in a room,
when light was coming in through a window,
my mind settled on its own.
No instructions required.
Thoughts came up.
Then passed.
Sometimes they connected to each other.
Sometimes they didn’t.
There was no striving.
No outcome.
No finish line.
It was easy.
Just a gentle widening of attention.
Recently, I started playing with a question.
What if this is meditation?
Not officially.
Not doctrinally.
Just practically.
Same behavior.
New label.
I didn’t change the activity.
I didn’t add a timer.
I didn’t adopt a posture.
I didn’t set an intention.
I just noticed that what I already do looks an awful lot like what people describe when they talk about meditation — minus the closed eyes.
So I’m experimenting.
When I catch myself staring out a window,
instead of feeling distracted,
I quietly note: open-eye meditation.
Nothing more than that.
No claims about benefits.
No promises of clarity or calm.
No declarations about what others should do.
I’m just observing what happens when I treat daydreaming with a little more respect.
So far, here’s what I’ve noticed.
It doesn’t feel like zoning out.
It feels like letting things line up.
It doesn’t feel passive.
It feels integrative.
And it doesn’t feel new.
It feels like something I’ve always done — now simply noticed.
That’s it for now.
I’m not trying to redefine meditation.
I’m not trying to convince anyone.
I’m not even sure the label will stick.
I’m just reporting on a small experiment.
Same window.
Same daydream.
Different name.
I’ll keep watching.
Aaron Rose is a software engineer and technology writer at tech-reader.blog and aaronrose.blog.


Comments
Post a Comment