Immerse Your Imagination

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere - Carl Sagan"

Within the makeup of every human being, there is the potential for unimaginable things. One of our talents taken for granted is that of our imagination. As children, it is used in play. As adults, it allows us to escape the humdrum, plan ahead, and find our dreams.

History serves us for one purpose, to do better. We are our harshest critics, yet even our moment of glory shows us how to improve next time. Our memory replays our past mistakes, but sadly we often ignore the lesson and repeat the same mistakes. If our memory serves the past, then our imagination serves the future.

We may formulate a plan with the most basic levels of our imagination. This aspect of prediction is how most of our decisions get made. We consider ourselves to be applying logic, but that is only one end of the scale. Imagine being a purple unicorn or butterfly, and you are halfway along. Take your mind to the far end and imagine being hot or happy.

Athletes utilize both these mental talents in pursuit of their sport. Muscle memory honed to peak performance is trained with repetition and sometimes ritual. Usain Bolt points to the sky before his race, as do many of his counterparts. These seeming acts of superstition unite memory and imagination and help them break the mold.

As we immerse ourselves in our imagination, we may enjoy fantasies or nightmares. Only when we are dreaming, we suspend belief and accept the unbelievable. Our natural cynicism stops us from allowing our imagination to cross the threshold into a reality, but it's precisely what people use to change expectations.

Like all our spiritual muscles, our imagination should be trained and exercised. A strong imagination is an amazing tool with powerful benefits. A weak, feeble imagination finds little color in life, little hope in the future, and no joy in the present. Untrained it can be a ridiculous, moody pet. Expecting the worst or living on a cloud show that we have an undisciplined imagination. A strong, disciplined imagination allows us to face our phobias and turn our fantasy into fact.

If you wish to start to hone your imagination there are no better ways than through meditation, visualization, and practice. There are tools to employ such as crystals, ritual spaces, and much of the paraphernalia associated with the occult. Try different methods until you find the methods you like.

A simple challenge for you to try. Choose one aspect of yourself you would like to change, size, strength, beauty, or intelligence. Now spend one hour being one small measure of that improvement, a size up or down, a bit stronger, a touch more aesthetic or a little smarter. Set a small measure and imagine you are that, for an hour. You may surprise yourself.