During that time, do nothing but daydream constructively. It might be fifteen minutes in the morning or before bed. To make plans? Envisage goals? Help with creating goals? Then set some time each day for daydreaming. Ask yourself what you want to use your imagination for. This is why many therapists seek to help people gain control of and constructively direct their imaginations with such techniques as mindfulness and clinical hypnosis. Imagination is a big part of what it is to be human. So, nighttime dreams, flashbacks, worry, invention, discovery, symbolic religious thought, paranoia, jealousy, hope, and future plans are all processed through the imagination. 'Flashbacks' in people who have been traumatized are processed through the imagination (again, that doesn't mean they don't relate to all too real happenings). Most people don't equate creativity with worrying, but of course a worry is an inner creation. Many of the things people worry about are not in the here and now and are therefore being processed through imagination (this is not to say that their worries don't concern real things). People who worry too much do so because their imagination feels out of control. But, like any tool, it can be overused, misused, or it can start to use us. Imagination is powerful and can take us a long way as long as we use it and don't lose control of it. And, of course, we all dream through the imagination. A great scientist, such as Einstein, will be able to see possibilities within the imagination before scientifically validating them on the 'outside', in real life. It enabled the rise of science and architecture, as well as religion and all thought that enabled us to transcend the here and now. Using the imagination enables us to plan, think symbolically, and wonder about the universe around us. A tool that seemed to have developed in humankind perhaps as recently as 40,000 years ago when art and symbolic thoughts seemed to have become part of what we humans could do (see Godhead: The Brain's Big Bang). ![]() ![]() The imagination is a wonderful tool, of course. Milton Erickson famously said, "A goal without a date is just a dream." Although maybe it's only become 'official' recently if the DSM compilers have gotten their hands on the idea. I'm not sure that this is an only recently recognized condition.
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