Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Let yourself go...


When you talk about creativity and imagination, most people think of Van Gogh or Monet.  While I agree they are creative and have imagination, I think of creativity and imagination has a broader reach, so for instance to scientists or theologians. 

What I like best about imagination is that children are better at it than adults.  Some adults allow their imaginations to be reigned in as they get older.  Children are free and don’t know better than to play “pretend”. One of my son's teachers used to tell me "he day-dreams all the time in class".  Hummm...it turns out he is very creative, witty, and hates being bored.  He likes to think.  We need to give children permission to "think" and that might include day-dreaming. 

Albert Einstein wrote, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”  Solving problems requires the use of imagination and creativity. In order to move to the next level, we need to allow ourselves the freedom to imagine. 

On your journey, consider practicing imagination moments as you go about your day.  Give yourself permission to let your mind play.  In school you may have been taught (like my son) that day dreaming was unacceptable. Since then we have discovered that letting your mind imagine is actually very healthy. Give yourself permission to let your imagination go.

Creative Exercise: Live a little – go imagine and then create, or imagine and solve a difficult problem.  You’d be surprised what you can do if you let your mind “go” imagine

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