to ask if you have an inner life?

[crochetmonkey74]

Really interesting conversation at work this morning - I was saying that I often walk around a bit oblivious whilst in town/ walking somewhere etc as I am thinking of all of my inner life things- things like bits of films I've seen, ideas for stories, lots of 'imagine if' scenarios. Other colleagues were split half and half between being the same and not having a clue what we were talking about - so for fun: have you got an inner life and what is it?

I was only wondering this the other day. I've got a shocking amount of daydreaming going on at the moment.

I lost a lot of it for a bit which I think was perimenopause.

I'm so happy it's back.

A lot of it is utter 'what if' scenarios, book plots, radio play ideas....making up stories about people I see in the street.

I usually have a daydream subject that I look forward to having at night while I'm falling asleep..

Yep, one where I'm rich.

I was shocked when I found this out too. I just assumed everyone had an inner voice.
What is going on in their heads is it just blank?

Everyone has an inner life! It's just consciousness, part of being human. If you didn't have an inner life you wouldn't be able to function.

OP, do you really mean an active imagination? I guess some people have a lot more imaginative inner life than others - I include myself in that.

I do this, I often revisit places in my head as well hahah.

Very much so - some of my birth family seem to have none at all (eat, sleep, defecate, don't question anything). To be honest their life seems easier!

Look up maladaptive daydreaming in regards to the made up other lives people have in their imagination.

It's far more common than you'd think.

I have a whole alternative life running in my head like an interactive movie. It’s quite useful - I can take problems and options and them though the matrix to see how they turn out.

I’m shocked not everyone has this, I’d be bored to death. It’s like people who only read one book at a time - weird.

it’s like permanent lucid dreaming - there’s a great song from Queensryche that sets this out nicely

Silent LuciditY

Hush now, don't you cry
Wipe away the teardrop from your eye
You're lying safe in bed
It was all a bad dream spinning in your head
Your mind tricked you to feel the pain
Of someone close to you leaving the game of life
So here it is, another chance
Wide awake you face the day, your dream is over
Or has it just begun?
There's a place I like to hide
A doorway that I run through in the night
Relax child, you were there
But only didn't realize and you were scared
It's a place where you will learn
To face your fears, retrace the years
And ride the whims of your mind
Commanding in another world
Suddenly you hear and see this magic new dimension
will be watching over you
(I) am gonna help you see it through
(I) will protect you in the night
(I) am smiling next to you, in silent lucidity
I can't do this
Visualize your dream, record it in the present tense
Put it into a permanent form
If you persist in your efforts, you can achieve dream control
How's that then, better?
Dream control, dream control
Help me
If you open your mind for me
You won't rely on open eyes to see
The walls you built within
Come tumbling down, and a new world will begin
Living twice at once, you learn
You're safe from the pain in the dream domain
A soul set free to fly
A round trip journey in your head
Master of illusion, can you realize
Your dream's alive, you can be the guide but
will be watching over you
(I) am gonna help you see it through
(I) will protect you in the night
(I) I'm smiling next to you
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Christopher Degarmo
Silent Lucidity lyrics © Tri-ryche Corp.

I am away with the fairies most of the time to be honest. A large part of my mental capacity goes into resigning unlikely buildings to be homes (eg a petrol station, or recently a WW2 pillbox I've been past walking the dog a few times). There's also all the plans for when I win millions on the lottery (I've never bought a ticket), and of course my amazing alternative careers as a scientist, novelist, etc. I'm not sure how I get anything done in my real life! 😂

Yes, definitely! But I think you will find the audience on an internet forum is a bit skewed.

I think you are romanticising the simple concept of having thoughts.

My inner life is lovely. It does sometimes distract me from the boring stuff I need to do though.

Yes!

Yes. I mostly live inside my head. Have conversations with myself. Analyse situations. Try to work things out. Think a lot about the past and things that have happened. Don’t think anyone would understand if I tried to tell them. Have a happy life with great DH and kids but I mainly enjoy just thinking. Was like it as a kid. Felt misunderstood x

I don’t really have this in the way you have described. My life feels so busy that I’m usually thinking about rushing to the next place I need to be, what we are having for dinner etc. More practical than daydreamy. I also spend a ridiculous amount of time in my own head worrying about —everything— things. I had CBT before and was introduced to the concept of worry time - setting aside a specific time of day in which to think about my worries and to tell myself if I worried at a different time that I would focus on them later. I went back to the therapist and said “if I’m not worrying, I don’t know what to think about”. I’m clearly back there now, as evidenced by what other people fill their minds with!

Yes, and it is much better than my outer life. I'd like to move there one day, but it's probably not going to happen.

Yes, all the time, mostly in my job as it is monotonous and boring. I have to keep reminding myself to be present, l also am aware of how my way of thinking affects my mind set and moods, so if my imaginary scenario becomes negative l have the awareness to think about something else.

No it's more as a pp said, constant daydreaming.

I live in the walking dead a lot of the time. I invent different back stories for myself and bring characters in from different film. Kruger (Elysium) pops in. So I add my own characters with their own stories. It's like writing fan fiction in my head. Then there's planning fantasy holidays, it's time rather than money that stops me. Then there's my lottery win were I can solve a lot of other people's problems. I'm occasionally going into Lost Kingdom/Vikings at the moment. Peaky blinders featured another time. It's reassuring that other people do this. I use it as stress relief. My DP had a heart attack recently and it helped when waiting in A&E etc.

I’d say having thought is far from a simple concept. Have a read of The Philosophy of Freedom

Yes to all of this!!!

Absolutely. My inner life is like a fifth dimension where all the books/movies/computer games/music I liked or felt inspired by are living on the shores of all the places I long to visit. Imagine Jane Eyre fending off vampires with fireball spells while wandering through Grand Canyon with a volcano exploding somewhere in a background, all while watching giant glaciers in the ocean with Hozier howling about the woods as a soundtrack.

I thought I was the only "weirdo" in the world who did this!

What a brilliant thread - thanks, OP!

Yes, definitely. Like you, I think up stories (amateur writer) and think about books, music and films I like.

I also enjoy imagining I'm the director of a film of one of my favourite books and do a sort of ideal cast list in my head. It's a bit like a game - when I've got all the main characters done, it's very satisfying! Sometimes I allow myself to choose actors from any period and at other times I'll be strict and have to pick them all from the same era.

It's also good to play this game with a like-minded friend -it's fun comparing your lists and gives an insight into how differently (or similarly sometimes) we interpret books and characters.

But a lot of the time I'm trying to think up ideas for the ghost/supernatural stories which I write - it's a great challenge to think of something that hasn't been done before, and particularly to find a modern setting - without the obvious spooky Gothic background. I keep a notebook with me in case anything useful comes to mind.

Yes I do this. Sometimes thinking up story ideas that I could develop on paper, sometimes I imagine I am somewhere I like going on holiday to and what I would do each day, sometimes it is mundane things like whats happening that day and what I need to do and what order to do it in etc.

Yes, and it's changed over time. When I was younger my head was full of extravagant future fantasies, nowadays my imaginings are more short term and often they're bits of third-person fiction narratives (I don't have any novel-writing intentions). The upside is that I'm never bored when I have nothing to do, the downside is that I'm often too happy in my own head to bother reaching out to other people.