Don’t be silly, it’s just your imagination…

Don’t be silly, it’s just your imagination.

For many people, imagination is downplayed and discouraged as we grow. We’re expected and encouraged to grow out of flights of fancy, to be realistic, to put our feet on the ground and pull our heads out of the clouds.

But here’s a thing - imagination is one of the most powerful tools we have, for healing, for growth, for joy and delight, for getting what we want, for creating a life we love to live.

Here’s a couple of reasons why:

It’s not just all in our head - imagination changes the world.

What we imagine has an impact on our bodies and our behaviour.

Here’s an experiment - imagine you’re standing in a hallway, with two doors in front of you. You open the door on the left, and enter the room. It’s full of paranoid conspiracy theorists.

Notice how your body feels, imagining what it’s like inside of this room. Do you notice a difference to how you felt, standing out in the hallway?

Now leave the room, and close the door behind you. Imagine you’re opening the door on the right, and entering the second room. It’s full of zen monks, meditating in a state of loving presence.

Notice how your body feels, imagining what it’s like inside of this room. How does this new room feel?

Now let go of your imagining, and take a moment to think about your experience.

It probably wasn’t all in your head - it was in your body, too. And your body is a real thing - so what you imagined had a tangible effect on reality.

You might be familiar with this if you’re someone who tends to worry about things - as you imagine what could happen, the things you worry about, your body does things in response. It might tense, your heart might beat faster, you might feel overwhelmed or stressed, and based on how you’re feeling, you might act in a certain way - you might pick a fight, you might choose to stay home, you might spend the evening with Netflix instead of out at a party.

Imagination is not just all in your head. And I’m not suggesting that you should ‘just imagine something positive’ and all your worries will be magically fixed - it’s a bit more complex than that, and that’s a subject for another day.

My point right now is that imagination is one of the most powerful resources we have, if we learn how to wield it in creative and courageous ways.

If we can’t imagine it, we can’t choose it.

One of the most effective ways to control someone, to keep them in line, is to limit their imagination. Think about it - if we can’t imagine a path we could take, a way out, a different life, something we really want, then we won’t choose it. We’ll feel stuck and helpless, limited.

If we can imagine a way out, a different path, a way things could be different, something we want, then we have options - and when we have options, we feel less limited, less stuck.

Imagination gives us choices.

What we imagine is tied to how we see ourselves.

Our identities are powerful things - who we think we are influences what we’ll imagine. If we see ourselves as someone who is creative, we’ll imagine differently to someone who thinks they’re not creative at all.

If we think we’re a bad parent, we’ll imagine different futures to someone who thinks they’re doing the best they can.

If we’re trying to be good, we’ll imagine things that fit within our idea of good. If we’re rebelling against good, we’ll imagine things quite differently.

“Who do you think you are” is a useful question to ask yourself - who DO I think I am? An artist? A parent? A person doing their best? Someone who’s struggling? Someone who’s hungry for more? Someone who has enough, doesn’t have enough, is broken, is healed, is alive, is depressed?

What if we imagined a different identity for a minute or an hour or an afternoon? What might we be able to imagine then?

Here’s your invitation to start exploring your imagination - permission to put your head back in the clouds, and see what happens when you let yourself imagine…

Imagine you were a different facet of yourself.

Imagine the world was different in some way.

Imagine the situation was different in some way.

Imagine you had a magic carpet, or a talking parrot.

Imagine you had super powers.

Imagine you were in a garden full of beauty.

Imagine you were somewhere you found inspiring and delightful.

Imagine…

And if you’d like to explore imagination as a healing tool with me - that’s a big part of how I work with clients. Get in touch here and we can see if this kind of work might feel fun for you :)