THE IMPORTANCE OF IMAGINATION IN HEALING

Chances are, you have been damaged.

The significance of this damage cannot go understated, and the source of this damage is very hard to detect because it is so common and insidious.

It happens at school. It happens at home. It happens nearly everywhere.

It is really not your fault though, what happens is that from a very early age, you have had your most valuable resource eroded, minimized, and disregarded: your imagination.

Imagination is not valued in our society. It is ‘something for children’ or child’s play. No adult worth her salt would waste her time developing an imagination, would she?

Yet this thinking is a sham, and it keeps you from your power.

Kids are barely able to be kids these days, and us adults are the problem. For some reason we adults have lost touch with the majesty of what it means to exercise the imagination. Not only that, we train it out of our kids as quickly as possible, so they can stop wasting their time. Right?

So wrong.

Imagination is simply not valued in the western world

Imagination is simply not valued in the western world and things that develop imagination are downgraded to peripheral hobbies and ‘electives’ that are to be considered only after what has value in our society has been completed, such as math, science, history.

After all, if it can’t be measured, it doesn’t have value, correct? Poppycock!

We have a neighbour boy that our son, who is six, really enjoys playing with, but rarely gets the chance.

You see, his friend, who is all of seven, usually can’t play because he has homework, or sports, or some other organized activity.

It is as if this boy needs to be turned into adult without delay, so he can be of value to the world as soon as possible, which really means to conform.

The funny thing is, if you look at the folks that are really crushing it these days, like Richard Branson or the Dalai Lama, they have some things similar with each other… they didn’t succumb to losing their imagination. They go against the (artificiallly created) “flow” of society, imagine a new possibility, and then act on that imagined vision.

Successful healing is no different.

Imagination is vital to you successfully overcoming what is not working in your life.

It is not enough to try to logic yourself out of your current situation, because, when you learn more about how your mind works, you will find out that the part of your mind that you avoid when using logic (your imagination) will actually be filling in the gaps of your memory with stuff you swear happened, but likely didn’t.

It is almost as if the imagination will leak into your mind and impact your logic, but without your consent.

In other words, your imagination does not go away if you don’t use it, it will fill gaps in your memory and thinking. And what it fills in the gaps you will swear is the truth, and you will develop logic to support that claim.

I often refer to a study that originated at New York University, which I will only briefly explain again today as I’ve mentioned it before.

The study followed 3000 participants directly after the 9/11 tragedy, where they interviewed these people 1 week, 1 year, and 3 years after the event, asking them the same questions about how they remembered the events that transpired.

By year three, the average accuracy of the 3000 individuals, from all walks and classes of life, was only 58%.

But the kicker is that, even though participants remembered just more than half of what acutally happened, their conviction in their story skyrocketed, and they unwittingly invented a new reality.

Meaning, they were more adamant about their inaccurate position, over time, than they were when all the events were fresh.

Invent a new reality

Reclaiming your imagination is key, or eventually it will claim you, but not in a healthy way.

Without imagination, it is difficult to mine out the irregular belief patterns within you.\

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

Exercising your imagination with purpose can create the shift you are looking for.

When we are doing the Discovery Process during sessions, we are tapping into, and harnassing, that power.

But…

There is a difference between exercising your imagination and day dreaming.

TAKE OUT A PIECE OF PAPER AND A PEN AND COMPLETE THIS SHORT EXERCISE:

1) Draw a line down the middle of the page, making two columns.

2) Discovery Prompt: At the top of the left column write, “The reason why it is wise to exercise my imagination is because…”

3) Silently listen to your mind’s voice and see what comes up.

4) In the right hand column, write down the end part of the sentence, in list form, with whatever comes to mind after the discovery prompt.

5) Invest a good 20 minutes doing this. When you get stuck, repeat step 2 but write the prompt in the left hand column below the level of the last line you wrote in the right hand column. Continue to write your discoveries in the right hand column, below where you left off the first time around.

Use your imagination, be okay with whatever bubbles up and write it down in the right hand column.

If you find yourself judging your responses, don’t worry about it.

Those responses aren’t actually yours; they didn’t actually originate with you. You learned them somewhere, and that gives you information about what needs to be resolved in your unconscious mind.

From there you can imagine yourself a new reality, but that takes time, effort, commitment and support.