Imagination & choice

If you can't imagine an option, you won't choose it.

Those times where you feel like you've got two choices and they both suck? What if there are more options, but you're not seeing them yet? Or perhaps you are seeing them but they feel out of reach or unrealistic or the cost doesn't seem worth it.

Today's invitation is to get a bit wilder than you usually would with your imagination.

Here are a few ways to expand the amount of paths you might like to take.

Imagine choices that other people might make. Real people and fictional people.

It's kind of like that question - what would Jesus do? And maybe consider that, but also consider: what would the wicked witch do? What would Jafar from Aladdin do? What would Aladdin do? Or Princess Jasmine? What would Captain Hook do? What would the old lady who lives down the road with seven cats do? What about the man you see around sometimes who always wears a bow tie and has leather elbow patches on his tweed coat - what would he do? What would Persephone do? Or Lady Gaga?

You get the idea - try on the viewpoints of others, and see if any of these creative imaginings spark new choices that you could make. Perhaps your version of that new choice would be a little different, but by putting yourself in someone else's shoes, you're opening up other options that are hard to see when you're wearing your own shoes.

Albert Einstein said, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”

So put yourself in a different mind with the power of your imagination.

Either a different mind entirely, or a different state of your own mind. If you're feeling tired and defeated, it'll be harder to see options that require optimism and hope. How do you get into a different state of mind?

Thinking your way into one is rarely effective.

Moving your body usually is. Dance, go for a walk, do some yoga, sleep on it, and have a nap.

Make some art.

When you engage in something creative for twenty minutes or more, that's when you hit the sweet spot and drop into a creative flow state. Problems tend to look very different from that state. In our fortnightly art group, people might arrive feeling tired or stressed or carrying whatever they've brought from their day. We ask them at the end how they're feeling and the words are always something like peaceful, calm, relaxed, open, spacious…

So if you want to try making some art as a way of changing your state of mind, come along! Click here for the details of our next Art Group.

Start exercising your imagination like your life depends on it, because your very best, most satisfying life that really feels like YOU probably does ;)