Brand New You by Simon Middleton

Author:Simon Middleton [Middleton, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Hay House, Inc.
Published: 2012-05-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

USING YOUR IMAGINATION

As children we used our imaginations freely and powerfully. We could conjure up entire worlds of adventure while crawling under the dining room table or in a clump of trees. We could drop to all fours and become animals, or turn kitchen implements or any bound objects into the equipment of soldiers, astronauts or explorers. We were unabashed by the idea of pretending, and that ability to pretend gave us immense power and unbounded freedom.

Somehow, sadly, we seem to lose that sense of freedom as we enter adulthood. Sure, many of us will continue with imagination-based hobbies and fun activities, from online gaming to paintball. And we indulge our imaginations, to varying degrees, when we watch movies, read novels, follow a TV series and so on.

We also, it’s true, continue to daydream, imagining ourselves with better lives – a little (or a lot) wealthier, enjoying exotic holidays or living in a nicer home in a better location. And more and more of us it seems are daydreaming about different ways of spending our days: better jobs, different careers, running our own businesses, retiring early, changing our lives…

Daydreaming is all very well. I’m sure it’s healthy and I’m certain it’s a key part of the process of change. I don’t want to discourage anyone from daydreaming. On the contrary, I encourage you to create opportunities for daydreaming and to use them whenever they arise. You can’t, by definition, control daydreaming but you can certainly give yourself more space for it to happen.

Those opportunities will be highly individual. I have a habit of letting myself doze for a few minutes after waking in the morning – against my actual inclination to leap out of bed and get on with work. The curious thing about what you might call enforced dozing is that, rather than going back to sleep, you seem to enter a semi-dream state, and from that state, countless insights into problems, and fresh solutions to new problems, seem to arise. My guess is that our brains are processing all this stuff of their own volition during the night. When we spring out of bed, without giving ourselves time to ‘daydream’, the ideas and inspirations are dutifully filed away by our obedient brains, which then get on with the demands of the day. If, on the other hand, you give yourself a few minutes of semi-awake dozing, then your brain may take the opportunity to present its overnight findings to you – like an enthusiastic office intern asking for a few minutes of your time to show you some ‘off-the-wall ideas’.

Not all of my brain’s overnight work is usable, of course, but some of my most creative, productive and positive thinking has sprung from these presentation sessions inside my head. They have influenced my writing, my brand advice activity, my other enterprises and my whole outlook on life. I am certain you have had the same experience many times; it’s a part of the human condition. But, sadly,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.