The Power of your Imagination
The human imagination is one of my favorite mental faculties that we possess. When you sit down and think about this ability, it truly is remarkable. The ability to simulate images, events, and visions that can feel just as real as actually living it, is something I take advantage of as much as I can. Do you use your imagination often? Sometimes we forget that we have these fascinating abilities and these abilities are what creates some of the most inspiring and meaningful experiences we could ever possibly have during the course of our lives. Our imagination is something that I feel needs to be retaught and then for us to be frequently reminded of throughout our lifetime. The progression of our lives can create circumstances that drown out these special abilities because they are not used frequently enough. Children all have this unbelievable ability, and when you watch them play and envision a world around them that we can’t physically see, we can see how it can be a driving powerful force in how their mind can work.
Everything we have ever created comes from our imagination. Think about it. Besides what is naturally here on this Earth(which also can be thought of as a imagination of something grander than what we know, but that is a whole separate thought and idea), anything that we use in terms of tools, technology, clothing, products, services, was not there before some creative event. It had to be drawn up in the human imagination first. Once it was drawn up in one’s imagination whether deliberately or in-deliberately, it could then be manifest into shared human reality with others who now get to experience what started in the imagination.
We often take this for granted and I think this is a huge deal. It is an idea that can help you live with extreme gratitude. Technology continues to improve and change, year after year. What we are born into today, is a completely different world than 500 years ago. Which was a completely different world than 2000 years prior to that. All of what we use today came from our collective human imagination and consciousness.
I always think of airplanes as a huge example of something we take for granted, when in actuality it is one of the most remarkable ideas and creations that exists, ever. We jump on our computer, use the money we worked for, purchase a ticket, show up to the airport, board a specifically crafted vehicle that took an incredible amount of studying, crafting, and expertise to create, and then a specially trained pilot controls the vehicle to fly in the air safely to another destination in the world. I’m sorry, but this is absolutely astounding to me. It is something that has become normalized so fast, which is great, as there are thousands of flights a day now all over the world. But this did not even exist 100 years ago. The first airports were being built around the 1920’s, and they were just being built to fly a few planes and get the industry started. Let’s think about this. There was a small collection of human beings that used their imagination to realize that we could fly through the sky and go about building this in reality through this image of what an airplane needed to look like within the realms of the physical/natural world around us that would work consistently and safely. Then after this was tested and realized, more humans used their creative and imaginative energy to create versions that could be replicated time and time again, only being improved upon with more study and crafting, is actually ridiculously remarkable to me. And us as citizens, get to use this method of transportation to experience things we would have never been able to see. The invention of television could help give you the image of a new place, but actually being able to get there are witness it in person is a whole different type of experience, and people that get to travel really know the difference. Before that, journeys used to take so much time and human energy and used methods of transportation that took much longer and were much more dangerous. This is just one example of how the human imagination is one of the highest forms of mental faculties available to us for personal and societal use.
I travel as a part of my profession, and it was one of the reasons I chose to be a professional performer. As a young boy, I watched a lot of the Discovery channel and National Geographic, and always had visions and dreams of traveling the world to see these places I saw on tv or in books. I’m pretty good about finding small moments of gratitude and reminders to not get complacent in something so magical to me the now is second nature to how I live. It would be very easy for me to take for granted the fact that I get to travel, because of how things normalize quickly. So every single time I get in the air, and I mean every single time, I always remind myself of how lucky I am to use someone else’s creation and imaginative ability to share my use of my imagination with others.
I think this is all determined by mindset and what you feel is important. By no means is my way of thinking the only way to think or live, it is not, and it is only one aspect of how I think. But if you are looking for some appreciation and curiosity within your mental space, this thought process could be a good starting place. I try to approach it with a mindset that realizes the world is so accessible to us that of course it feels normal, but I never want to feel entitled to what I have the ability to now utilize. I can’t spend all of my time being wowed by others creation because then it would take away from my ability to create on top of it or to create something different. But I would rather stand marveled and in appreciation for what has been created by someone else’s wild and powerful imagination, than to take it for granted because it feels “normal”.
The biggest reason that I do that is because it teaches me something much more valuable. It teaches me that those people were and are no different than me. They are human beings just like me. Whatever they can do, I can do, in my own way. So if I understand that I have the same mental faculties and abilities that they have, then all I need to do is spend time understanding how to use mine in their greatest capacity in however I choose to.
Imagination is something that can be suppressed, or even programmed out of you. I made it a point in my life to never lose this, no matter how challenging life got. No matter how hard my days were where I felt like my imagination was just going to be that, just my imagination. if you weaken your imagination, you slowly lose your ability to dream. Your dreams and visions are what gives you the motivation to push through your current self set limiting boundaries and gives you the ability to go out and live life in ways that move you and other people with experiences that can truly be life altering. Not everyone is the same, and not everyone wants the same things or wants to experience the same feelings or events. But isn’t that what’s great about the imagination, you can create something you want. In the west, I believe our freedom gives us the ability to imagine and express, when we come into this understanding that these powers are inside of us. The ability to become an entrepreneur or an artist is accessible at any moment. It might be able to be your full time job, or maybe you don’t want the stresses of building your own company, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use these abilities in some way that you can see fit in your life.
Now that you are reading this, assess the choices you make everyday. Research imagination. See what you can find and see what sparks your interest. The world is packed with information and inspiration to create in whatever way you want.
So use your imagination. If you have been, continue to let it take you to beautiful and creative destinations. Create the life you can imagine for yourself, don’t settle. And if you haven’t been, take this as a reminder to rediscover some of the images that make you happy and excited, and think of them more often. The more you focus on them and are reminded of them, the closer they become in your reality.
For me, I’d rather live trying to express and attain everything I can imagine in my mind, even if I “never get it”, than die not trying my best to. But here is the secret. You will get somewhere. You will get somewhere when you use your imagination to provide you with the vision of what you want for yourself and your loved ones and the world around. The use of your imagination will create a new mindset, and this new mindset simply shifts your perspective, which will give you access to seeing the world in a light you may have never seen before…that is true internal power.
There are other steps and mental processes that are needed in relation to your imagination and I will follow up with how you can use these other mental faculties to produce amazing results in your life in the next post! Make sure you subscribe to our mailing list here at Subconscious Trends.
“If you can dream it, you can do it” - Walt Disney