Humans live in imagination. We live through stories and interpretations. We plan out what we want the future to hold whether it’s dinner tonight, a good day tomorrow, our dream house, or vacation. We also ruminate about the past and replay scenarios over and over again in our heads. All of this is active use of our imagination.
I had the privilege of sitting down with my friend William to discuss the tool of imagination, with one focus on imagining a path to healing. We need to be able to imagine a new future, one outside of our pain and trauma, and begin to tell a new story, to see things differently. William summed it up nicely with, “we need to imagine a version of ourselves on the other side of the work.”
What does the healed version of you look like? Act like? Feel like?
In this process of healing and growing, it’s important to remember to have fun along the way. We so often make play a reward when play is integral to our wellbeing. Play is a way to manage stress and give the thinking brain a rest. True play is intrinsically tied to imagination. Imagination is tied to problem-solving and creating new ways of being.
Peter Gray Ph.D. gives us five characteristics of play:
Imagine a new future. Tell a new story. See things differently. Open up to new possibilities in life. Begin to look at the world with fresh eyes instead of the boxes that are prelabeled and we have been taught to push things and people (including ourselves) in.
Through a practice of mindfulness, we can begin to develop new pathways in the brain. When we use the tool of imagination to place ourselves in a new vibration, tell ourselves and the wolrd a new story, and to focus on what we are cultivating in our life (rather than what we are pushing away from), we can begin to attract and manifest our best life.
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