The Muscles of the Imagination

Imagination will carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere.”  -Carl Sagan

The Imagination
In the worlds of our imagination, anything is possible. Maybe that is why in January, when the days are cloudy and cold, and the spirit begins to droop a bit, gardening catalogs are so popular. We flip through the pages and dream crocuses bursting through the snow. We imagine ourselves raking away the dead of winter, planting banks of petunias, chrysanthemums. And as we do this, something in us lifts and makes the day a brighter one.  Perhaps we go on to order seeds and bedding plants, so that when warm weather comes, what we envisioned in January comes into fruition.

Artist’s Dates
“Your imagination is a preview of life’s coming attractions,” Einstein said. Pascal goes on to say that “imagination decides everything.” So it’s important, that we do what we can to take time to dream, flex the muscles of the imagination. Children are masters of this—playing games of “pretend,” imagining all sorts of wonders. But as adults, we often get out of the habit. We are intent on getting through the problems and challenges of the day. We are focused on our goals. And if this goes on too long without allowing in new dreams, we begin to go a bit stale

Julia Cameron proposes we take “Artist’s Dates”—trips to movies, museums, Asian food markets—anything out of the ordinary that will trigger that exceptional something we all have in our minds. We see a movie and while we are taken in by the primary plotline, something strikes us. Let’s say it’s about a minor character, a character who is in a scene for only a moment—but someone who intrigues us. We start dreaming a backstory for them, maybe developing a new story idea that we can’t wait to begin writing. We visit a fabric store and take in the wonderful hues of purple—and imagine a painting we could paint featuring that array of colors.

Time for Dreaming
Another thing Julia Cameron proposes is that we schedule time for dreaming. “It takes practice to expand our imagination and inhabit a larger life,” she says. And she believes in sitting down with paper and pen to do so. One of the exercises she proposes is to complete the phrase “In the best of all possible worlds, I would__________.” or “If I didn’t have to do it perfectly, I’d __________.

In all of us, there are seeds of ideas that we are not even aware of. That we haven’t allowed to come out into the open. Maybe we have the idea of a beautiful garden,  a dream to run a 5K, or to write a series of short stories. Napoleon Hill said that “what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” So let’s conceive some wonderful things.—Lucy Adkins

Writing Exercise:
Let’s try a Julia Cameron exercise to expand our imaginations.

Get a cup of your beverage of choice, put on some soothing music, and number a page in your notebook from 1 to 10.

After each number, write the phrase “In the best of all possible worlds, I would___________” and complete it with what you would love to do or bring into being. Have a little fun with this, allow yourself to dream whatever crazy thing comes to mind. Enjoy.

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