Category: Imagination

You are sitting on a bench at your local playground. It’s sunny (despite Michigan’s temperamental weather). Your gaze begins to wander and settles on children climbing. They are climbing everywhere. It’s amazing, actually, how many things children can climb on. You further notice how they run, walk, slide down slides, play tag, squeal with delight on swings. Toddlers trundle off in a big, new-to-them world. They seem to take up space with ease; it’s their world, we’re just living in it. They are so sure that they belong wherever they go. Do you have this scene? For me, this imagined space invites lots of emotions: joy, wonder, delight, curiosity, and sadness. Yes, sadness. Because I, as an adult, have a harder time feeling so present and excited and happy and confident of belonging. I have more awareness and more to my story as to why these emotions make sense for me.

What is play, and why does it make sense for all humans of ...

A sense of direction, purpose, and identity. Most would agree that these are factors contributing to a fulfilling life. At some point most of us have also experienced the anxiety or depression that accompanies a loss of these.

As we attend to the daily concerns of life, we experience the satisfaction and positive emotions that come with caring for family, making progress toward work, financial and health goals etc. At the same time, the immediacy of these concerns can sometimes take almost all of our focus, distracting us from parts of ourselves that may have been buried under the daily routine.

To bring balance, it’s important that we check in with ourselves from time to time to ensure that we are moving forward with internal integration, an awareness of who we are and where we want to go. 

A simple exercise for doing this involves making two lists. 

For list one, make a list of the to ...

When was the last time you experienced true wonder? When was the last time you were awestruck? Why is it that when we become adults, our imagination seems to disappear and our capability for awe and wonder seems nowhere to be found?

Your capability for wonder and that overwhelming feeling of being awestruck is not gone, my friend. Instead, as we get older we learn to misuse our imagination. I was always described as a very imaginative child. If you’ve ever read Anne of Green Gables, then you know the kind of child I was. Always thinking “there’s scope for the imagination here” and getting caught up in daydreams. However, as I became older and as I encountered the stress of life, I turned my imagination into the worst form of it. You see, worry is the misuse of our imagination. (Harris, 2020)

Do you experience a large amount of worry in your life? Well first, congratulations! You still have your ...