“So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!”
Peter Pan
Relaxing The Mind To Solve Our Problems
Your imagination can be one of your greatest allies in living a fulfilling life and can be used to help you achieve relaxation whenever you need to. But just like most things in life you need to practice using it.
Many of us get so caught up in our fast-paced 9 to 5 grind that we become stressed out and tensed up. Our imagination is not allowed to flow when we are feeling overwhelmed and overworked. That’s why it’s important to constantly set aside time to just relax and not do anything that is physically and mentally demanding.
We can use this valuable time to practice using our imagination to help us relax, and also develop our creative problem-solving capabilities. With the increased use of our imagination, we can learn to become relaxed very quickly, and from this relaxed state address any problems or questions from a creative standpoint.
Imagination Relaxation Technique
Find a nice quiet place to sit and in the playhouse of your mind envision a physical landscape that is relaxing to you. If an exotic beach calms you, imagine yourself standing at the ocean’s edge, looking out to the endless expanse of baby blue water.
Imagine the full beauty of your paradise with as much detail as you can. Feel the sun beating down on you, hear the waves crashing, and smell the crisp ocean breeze. If this mental scene makes you feel more peaceful, picture it over and over until you feel your stress and negative thoughts melt away. Learn to use your imagination in a positive way to help you achieve peace of mind.
Road Blocks That Keep You From Relaxing
1. Accepting Your Limitations: Understand that you are only human and that you can only accomplish so much in a day. If you are constantly feeling overwhelmed because you have a never-ending to-do list, learn to focus on a few things at a time.
2. Learn to Forgive Yourself: You will never learn to fully relax if you are constantly thinking about things you regret and hold grudges against. In becoming who you really are you will need to learn to let go of false beliefs and conditioning. Letting go of things that previously defined you requires you to forgive.
If you are to truly let go and move on you need to really forgive yourself. If you don’t understand how your ego works you will try and forgive but it will not be real forgiveness if your ego is involved. Your mind is very clever; your ego will try and convince you that you have forgiven. If you keep committing the same mistakes you have not really forgiven. Life is all about learning from experience, there will be struggles, so embrace them, learn from them so you don’t repeat them, forgive, forget, and keep moving.
Creative Problem Solving
Now when you are able to put yourself in a very deep relaxed state, visualize a problem or situation that was frustrating you. Play it out in your mind’s eye without becoming attached to it, see yourself from a third-person view if that helps, and see the scene in its entirety. From this calm and relaxed state can you think of any solutions? Could you have approached the situation a little differently? What things could you have done to get a different result? Play out different scenarios, and commit to trying the best one when a similar situation presents itself in your life, as opposed to reacting with your usual behaviors.
Example: If you are afraid to approach and talk to a stranger at a park, visualize how it would normally pan out for you. Can you see why you feel uncomfortable? Can you see why the other person would feel uncomfortable with you? Now visualize yourself being confident with the way you walk, talk, and feel. See yourself casually walking up to the person, introducing yourself, and having a nice friendly conversation. Play it over and over in your mind until it feels natural.
Now when you are out walking your dog and you see an attractive person who you would like to talk to, what will you do? Will you do what you normally do which is get really nervous and start stuttering, which will make the other person uncomfortable, or will you be calm, relaxed, and confident like you know you can be if you let go of your past conditioning?
As long as you are able to stay calm your actions will come out naturally just like you rehearsed in your mind. Don’t think about it too much just remember how you feel when you are confident and let it show in your attitude. As long as you practice the right attitude with feeling you won’t need to think about it, your mind will be free to respond to the situation and won’t sound unnatural. Use the power of your imagination to shape your attitudes.
Personally, I approach and talk to strangers all the time. I never know what I am going to say at the time, but whatever it ends up being usually leads to a good conversation, because my attitude does all the work for me.
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Thanks for a great article. I really enjoyed reading your approach to the imagination. Yes, playing it out in your minds eye will give you an opportunity to see it in different ways…playing devil’s advocate so to speak.
Thanks for making us think and getting us to use our imaginations even more!
Marieās last blog post..The Difference of A Few
Thanks for contributing to my site Marie š I really appreciate it :)…hope all is well….