How to keep Breathing In The World of Imagination
While creativity is hard to pin down precisely, it’s generally considered as the ability to create something new or innovative using our imagination or fancy. As writing is also a work of creation, it too requires the power of imagination. However, imagination is more than just seeing through our eyes. It is going beyond the limits of our eyes or eyesight and seeing through our heart or mind. Thus whereas for seeing we have to keep our eyes open, for fancying or imagining we have to keep our eyes closed. Our ability to ‘visualise’, to see things ‘in the mind’s eye’ is a key part of our ability to imagine. And without imagination life would be as dull as ditchwater and human would be as dull as tombs. In nutshell, imagination is essential to human development and thus world around us.
However, writers like, for instance, scientists and artists are especially and always in the need of new ideas to keep swimming in the water of creativity. If they stop swimming or river (of ideas) dries up, they have the risk of dying like fish dies without water. And although words or vocabulary are important to express thoughts or ideas, share information and knowledge in an effective way, they are just like crutches or raw building blocks and without imagination can’t convey the stunningly deeper beauty of life and the universe in its totality. Similarly, according to a personal development expert, the eye can only see so many colors, but the artist using his or her imagination puts them together in ways that we never imagined and suddenly a blank canvas speaks to our souls.
Some mind power experts describe imagination as “a portal through which you can transcend the imposed limitations of this world.
However, the question that arises in the mind is: From where do the ideas come and how to keep our curiosity and imagination alive? According to Cambridge University animal pathology professor and author of book “The Art of Scientific Investigation” W. I. B. Beveridge, it is our intuition that plays an important role in bringing new ideas to our mind. He offers a brilliant articulation of the combinatorial creativity that underlies what we often call intuition:
“The important thing to realize is that the conjuring up of the idea is not a deliberate, voluntary act. It is something that happens to us rather than something we do.
In ordinary thinking ideas continually ‘occur’ to us in this fashion to bridge over the steps in reasoning and we are so accustomed to the process that we are hardly aware of it. Usually the new ideas and combinations result from the immediately preceding thought calling up associations that have been developed in the mind by past experience and education.”
Thus intuition plays an important role in producing new ideas as it is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. However, intuition is not merely an accidental discovery of some unique idea. As many psychologists propose, our sub-conscious mind consists of 95% of brain power and handles everything our body needs to function properly, from eating and breathing to digesting and making memories and thus most of the knowledge of the past (not just our own life but also that conveyed to us through generations) is also stored in the sub-conscious. And this is the part of our mind that makes decisions without our needing to consciously or actively think about them.
Therefore we can even liken our mind to a huge memory bank. It permanently stores everything that ever happens to us, and its capacity is virtually unlimited.
And our intuition has very close links to this sub-conscious mind. According to “Psychology Today” any sudden knowledge (or idea) comes from this reservoir in our subconscious mind without any planned thought process. The online magazine further reveals that scientists have repeatedly demonstrated how information can register on the brain without conscious awareness and positively influence decision-making and other behavior.
The source of our imagination also lies in what we can call the unconscious mind. it is the imagination that creates the new, the better, the unforeseen. How? Einstein answers this in following quote:
When Einstein says “knowledge,” he’s referring to our conscious, rational minds. It is from our conscious minds that we operate each day. We mainly use our intellect or reason to evaluate our surroundings, to make decisions, and to communicate.
However, as Karl Jung (who, in addition to being a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst also founded analytical psychology, was especially knowledgeable in the symbolism of complex mystical traditions such as Gnosticism, Alchemy, Kabala, and similar traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism) postulated and others have corroborated, this is the unconscious that has a collective or universal element that accesses the memories, images, thoughts, feelings, and experiences of all of humanity throughout time. Thus, it is believed that deep inside each of us, is an untold imaginative treasures, insights, and ideas that are just waiting for us to be discovered. And the difficulty in approaching the unconscious is that it doesn’t communicate to us in words. It expresses itself in the form of images and symbols.
And although there are many imagination improvement techniques and exercises proposed by innumerable number of experts that you can discover online, but the easiest and the simplest way , in my view, is to keep reading. According to World Literary Foundation, reading is one of the best ways to foster imagination. The more we read, the better we can build up and expand our knowledge. We can be open to new ideas and have an understanding of new things. Moreover, some psychologists are of the view that reading is also one of the most relaxing and effective stress-relieving activities you could choose. Just a couple of minutes of reading can have a hugely positive effect on our state of mind, reducing the level of stress, decreasing blood pressure and heart rate, and changing our mood for the better. And a relaxed mind too is believed to be essential for being able to use our imagination and creativity to their maximum potential.Even scientists are said to have managed to come to the conclusion that reading and creativity are connected and that reading improves imagination by closely analyzing our brains while reading.
And one of the most entertaining parts of reading is probably stepping into another world and immersing yourself in that book’s setting. Thus by allowing the mind to wander in the imaginary world, flitting like the insects from idea to idea, we develop our power of imagination.
In addition, there are other ways, such as telling stories, interacting with creative people, daydreaming, being curious and observing nature, seeking adventures, star gazing, and practicing mindfulness etc.
In short, keep reading, let your mind wandering, and keep breathing in the world of imagination.
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References:
i)https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/06/01/the-art-of-scientific-investigation-beveridge-2/
ii) https://www.briantracy.com/blog/personal-success/understanding-your-subconscious-mind/
iii) https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/basics/intuition
iv) https://basmo.app/reading-and-imagination/
v) https://worldliteracyfoundation.org/reading-enhances-imagination/
vi) https://everydaypower.com/why-imagination-is-more-important-than-knowledge/
