What happens when we create space for ourselves to learn and grow? Who do we become? What self-imposed barriers break down? What is realized? Reconciled? Reorganized and re-imagined?
Here is a stirring quote by Susan C. Young on re-imagination:
Re-imagination is the birthplace for vision and change. Your imagination is one of the most valuable talents you have and deserves your full attention. Imagining how you want to live your life is one thing, but connecting your imagination to a visual representation will give you exactly the traction you need to make it a reality.
I am fascinated with this subject because I believe that people can be fully self-actualized in their lifetime. Self-actualization is something that we must aspire to, to have an impact in the world. However, we will first need a vision for our lives, and if the life we have is not where we want them to be, then we must be brave enough to re-imagine them.
The problem is we have too little imagination and schedules that leave no room for the process. We pack our days and nights with things to do and do not have the capacity for designing a future of our liking.
I am having these conversations with my mother, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She clings to an unproductive version of her faith and habits that put her future in jeopardy.
There is a better way to live.
Joel Pearson of the University of New South Wales and one of the authors of a novel study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science, stated “if we stop for a moment and think about it, our ability to imagine the world around us in the absence of stimulation from that world is perhaps even more amazing.” Pearson goes on to say, mental imagery “allows us to, in a sense, run through a dress rehearsal in our mind’s eye.”
In the absence of stimulation – or noise – I see a world transformed, a cure for cancer, people with the capacity to explore and seek out difference with an appreciation for what is before them. I imagine a world in which we don’t dismiss our negative appetites but perform a deep inventory to understand and reconcile what lies within with who we want to become.
I imagine a world that is not afraid to live in the truth of their story, unashamed, and unhindered.
The world I speak of will require a reprioritization of time and attention — intentional living in the direction of our highest dreams.