Why imagination is important: The Importance Of Imagination

The Importance Of Imagination

The ability to imagine things pervades our entire existence. It influences everything we do, think about and create. It leads to elaborate theories, dreams and inventions in any profession from the realms of academia to engineering and the arts. Ultimately, imagination influences everything we do regardless of our profession.

Imagination is the key to innovation. So think for a moment and reflect on how you could use your imagination more effectively and deliberately.

How would your life be personally and professionally improved if you were to activate your brain in ways you have not done before? Imagine if you could bring this higher intelligence into your daily conscious awareness? How much more satisfying and enriched your life would be? Just imagine.

There is nothing childish or shameful about making imagination a vital part of your leadership competencies. The more you use your imagination, the stronger your ‘imagination muscle’ will become. You will be pleasantly surprised as you use this ability and tap into this rich source of infinite possibilities.

Yesterday’s knowledge alone will not suffice. Imagination is essential for anyone, especially for leaders, who not only have to lead people into the future but have to foresee the challenges not yet known that await mankind.

Imagination: A Leader’s Best Friend

One secret ingredient that nearly all successful people share is how to use imagination in their favour. Both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs used their imagination, envisaging how personal computers could change the world, the way we work, how we could educate our children and how we would entertain ourselves. They were certainly right!

How to Enhance Your Imagination

1. Start with the end in mind:

As a leader, you firstly need to know your goal and have a vision of what you want to achieve. As previously mentioned, this is the same path you need to take when you build a house.

It is important to have a clear vision of what the end result looks like, unless you are happy to just throw materials together and see what happens. It is vital to apply creative imagination as described earlier, especially the upside-down principle.

While it might sound rather obvious to begin with the end in mind, you would be surprised how many people don’t have a clear vision of what they would like to achieve, let alone how to get there. Instead, they are held back from what they want to achieve by focusing on the obstacles that get in the way. You need to have a strong, clear vision and most importantly, know why your vision is so important to you.

2. Apply the creative and empathic imagination:

Creative imagination together with empathic imagination is a very powerful combination. If you look back at some of the great leaders of the past, most of them had a purpose; something bigger than what they wanted to achieve for themselves.

Great leaders often have a passion that addresses the plight of people other than what they want for themselves. Even if they have experienced hardship, they are able to imagine what it would be like for people in worse conditions. Just think of people like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa – they were very much driven by their empathic imagination.

3. Engage the imagination of others:

It is much easier to discourage than to encourage people’s imagination, especially if it is not part of the work culture. Sometimes it might take some courage to go against a restrictive way of thinking. As someone said to me recently, “I’d rather have my idea shot down than not say anything and a lesser idea be put forward.”

The Edward de Bono’s Six Hat Thinking Methodology has been effective and popular in encouraging people in the workplace to activate their imagination. The Red hat represents intuition, feelings and hunches and the Green hat represents creative ideas and possibilities.

As a leader of a team, it may be a good idea to read or become trained in the Six Hat Thinking process. In the business world where reason, reality, facts and pragmatism prevail, I have seen people looking worried and even embarrassed when asked to use their imagination – as if imagining things was something only children or creative people can do.

The belief that imagination is somehow inferior to logical reasoning often kills, stifles or smothers potential great ideas. Not only can this belief hinder great ideas but it also shows a lack of understanding about the important role that imagination plays in human life.

Related Articles:

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• Mastering Innovation
• Imagination – The Key To Unlocking Our Future Leaders Success And Happiness
• Your Imagination Is A Powerful Tool – Are You Using It Effectively?
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Why Imagination is important and how to use it?

Imagination

There are many things in life that we miss as we climb up the age ladder. Many among us wish to have remained children perpetually so we can escape experiencing the discomforts life forces on us. We humans love to enjoy every moment of our life in the way we want to. As adults, we experience life more as a bed of thorns than one filled with colourful soft petalled flowers. It surprises us how children experience life as a bed of roses all through their childhood. One of the main reasons why children are able to enjoy life at its best all the time is the way they see it. Children mostly live in an imaginary world that is filled with fantasies. They interact with characters which are usually overloaded with physical cuteness and protective mental attributes. For them, life means attractive colours, friendly characters and enjoyable moments. Their fertile imagination takes them to lands that are beyond human comprehension. Their boundless ability to imagine things makes life a happy phenomenon for them.

What exactly is imagination?

Imagination is basically the ability of human beings to explore ideas and concepts that are not present in their current life. Imagination can also be those things that human minds yearn to have in their possession. Imagination can many a times be running away to an unexplored land that is filled with everything that one longs to experience. Human minds have always been yearning for things that they desired for but could not get hold of. It is of two types, Synthetic and Creative. Synthetic Imagination is utilized by mixing life experiences and concepts that the individual has experienced. Creative Imagination is having a child like thinking and the ability to see something that doesn’t really exist at the moment.

As children we did not know the difference between being logical and illogical. This gave us mind boggling extent of freedom which we leveraged to our advantage. As adults, we tend to think logically to prove our intelligence or to remain one in the crowd so we do not get left out. This pressure chains our thinking levels imposing a huge control over our imagining abilities. We miss to understand that while logic makes us travel from one point to another in a sequential manner, imagination has no bounds. Imagination takes us anywhere in & around the globe , making the whole universe a canvas waiting to be painted in mesmerizing colours.

Why imagination is important?

Imagination is a very important aspect of life. We have distanced ourselves from this wonderful phenomenon blaming it on the rigors life forces on us. Every decision, every idea, every seed of opportunity begins with a thought in your mind. You and only you have the choice of recognizing and re-imagining it to let the opportunity or idea work in your favour. Without the faculty of imagination, we human beings are nothing more than work horses. Let us have a look at some of the reasons we attribute for having distanced ourselves from imagining in our day to day lives and ways to unchain ourselves from the same.

• Imagination is the door for our colourful future

All of us have a future. Irrespective of whether we are a pessimist or an optimist, all of us have a future. The main difference lies in the fact whether we are going to continue the present life as it is or change the same with our imagination. Pessimistic people get so immersed in their current life that the lack of imagination about their future forces them to continue living their current life in the future also. They continue to pay off their debts month on month, facing the same issues and troubles again and again every passing day. On the contrary, Optimistic people pull them out of the clutches of the present turmoil. They decide to live a better life and start working towards the same. This gets fuelled by their fertile imagination which makes them live the life they actually want to live.

• Being passionate is not being irresponsible

We humans have grown up witnessing our earlier generations live a life filled with concerns and problems. Our life experiences teach us the importance of being responsible. Our survival instincts are always on the alert mode. We strive hard to survive the challenges life continuously throws at us. Such a life steals the desire to be passionate about things, making survival our priority over the same. Due to the fear of failing in life we fail to imagine in life. Remember, being passionate about something and dedicating time to imagine about the success you could have is not a pointer to being irresponsible. Your passionate imagination can act as a source of fire for your better future making you more responsible in developing worthy habits and work ethic.

• Experience the magic

Allow a young child to sit in the bath tub and observe him staying away from his sight. You will be stunned to notice that he is sailing in a deep blue sea winning the many sea monsters that attack him. He will save his princess and enjoy the gentle sea breeze with her. Give him a dismantled cardboard box and you will see him launch a rocket in to the far away dark space. The scientist in him will make all the adjustments in an imaginary manner so the rocket reaches its target successfully. The imaginary joy that the child enjoys in these activities has no equivalence. This is what you have been missing as an adult. The child’s imagination changes his life moments into magical ones. He seems to have mastered the art of creating and enjoying this magic in all his activities. Is it mandatory to lose the child in you just because you have grown up? Is it not possible to bring back your childhood and enjoy the lighter side of life while still being responsible for your current life? Think and experience the magic.

• Imagination helps us to think out of the box

When is the last time we have done anything different in our life? We have been running the race every passing day to earn the much lauded money. We have been lamenting over the lack of money as we get near to most month-ends. We have continued to pay dues towards our responsibilities with the time wrapping up each chapter of our lives, repeating the experience every single day. Understand that growth is possible only when we evolve mentally. We who paid our bills manually till sometime back do the same through the Internet and Smart Phone Applications. The reason for this advancement is the creativity of ‘that someone’ who has imagined life from a futuristic angle. His imagination paved way to think about applications that would simplify the lives of millions of people around the globe. Thinking out of the box is a basic requisite to be creative in life. Being creative in life fosters boundless imagination which acts as the basic force to change our future towards positivity.

• Escape from the illusionary reality

Not all of us really enjoy the life we are currently living since life sucks many a times. Sexual harassments, crimes, violence, poverty, politics, child abuse and many such things disallow us to see life as a boon. However optimistic we are by nature, we tend to look at life as a negative space filled with vices. In the process, we just withdraw into our shell burying our creativity deep underneath inside us. This is how we lose our touch with imagination and tend to run a race that has no real value-adding goal to reach. Believe me, Imagination is an excellent tool that can help you escape from the gruesome reality. Elope with imagination escaping from the sickening reality whenever you can.

How to imagine anything?

Imagining in reality is a natural process. When the mind is allowed to relax, it tends to indulge in thoughts that are pleasant and soothing in nature. Imagining can be done in a conscious manner too. Let us have a look at some ways imagining can be done with complete attentiveness.

1. Daydream – Day dreaming is one of the best ways to enjoy all that you desire for. Day Dreaming is highly effective when it does not get disturbed with the modern electronic devices like mobile phones and computers. Dream about anything you want to in the time you have scheduled for this activity. Fixing a time for day dreaming is one of the easiest ways to get closer to your exciting future.
2. Choose new avenues – Pull yourself out of your monotonous routine and plug yourself in new activities. The new activity can even be joining cookery or painting classes. This exposure will give wings to your thought, paving way to a fertile and unfathomable imagination.
3. Observe the world around you – Imagination does not require a person to physically travel into the wilderness. Human mind by itself has the ability to travel through the Milky Way if given the appropriate opportunity. Just observe the happenings around you. The behaviour of people around you, the wind in your hair, the sound of your doorbell, the smell of that morning coffee, all these experiences will feed your imagination to the maximum extent possible opening a new world in front of your eyes.
4. Get involved in Art forms – Art forms are great sources for kindling your imagination and bringing out the best of your creativity. Get in to learning or creating some sort of art. Right from dancing to painting, the focussed manner in which you perform the same will take you deeper in to the same. This will make you travel to a new world which will unfold many magical things in your life.
5. Distance yourself from modern gadgets – Modern technological gadgets are the worst enemies of creativity and imagination. They occupy so much of human mind and its valuable time that life stagnates for a long period in the same state of affairs. Keep yourself away from electronic goodies like Mobile Phone, Tablets and Laptops whenever you can. Try to find 2 hours daily where you don’t touch any digital products. Being with yourself, friends & family can provide the much needed relaxation to think creatively and enliven your imagination.

How can we use our imagination to construct or transmute our ideas into reality?

Mind is a very powerful tool. Being a strong platform for imagination, human mind acts as a tool to transform our ideas into reality. We can consciously make our imaginations come true by working on certain aspects of our thinking process.

• When you are bogged down by real time issues, you will not be able to focus in day dreaming or constructive imagination. Address your current problems by finding out creative solutions to the same.
• Imagine what you want to achieve as frequently as possible. The more you imagine about a thing, the clearer the picture becomes.
• Learn to imagine what you want to happen in reality. This technique is called Visualization. As you master this technique, you will feel positive towards achieving what you see in your imagination.
• Exhibit consistency in visualizing the same thoughts again and again till they become the reality.
• Ensure that your visualization gets stronger every passing day since even an iota of doubt about the possibility will push you away from your end goal.
• Take into account your positive attributes/work ethic and base your imagination on the same. This will make the present and the future complement each other in a mutually cohesive manner.
• Interact with your subconscious as frequently as possible. Such open interactions will emphasize your priorities to your subconscious which will automatically pull you towards your goal. Practice Transcendental meditation for the same.
• During the process of imagination or visualization, never get bogged down looking at the challenges that obstruct your way. Your faith in your dreams will help you surmount all challenges which might have appeared impossible at one point of time.
• Avoid getting afraid of crossing limits and doing things that you have not ventured out to so far. Remember, travelling that extra mile might require you to cross borders.
• Visualize again and again increasing your focus on the minute things that fill your mental picture. Feel it through all your senses so you know you are already there.
• Unleash the child in you freely without any inhibitions since your mental world is out of all criticisms. This will inject high level of confidence in you to imagine what you really want to achieve without any compromise or withdrawal.

Why imagination plays a vital role in our life?

The concept of imagination plays a crucial role in our day to day life. The reasons given below will substantiate why Imagination is an important aspect in every human being’s life.

• Imagination provides wings to humans who are otherwise chained for many reasons that are social, economical and cultural in nature
• Imagination unleashes the leadership qualities in every human being. These are the qualities that has been buried deep inside us due to the subservient attitude demanded by the society around us.
• Imagination teaches us to start everything keeping the end in the mind
• Imagination fosters creativity making fresh blood flow in our nerves every time we feel the originality in our actions.
• Imagination pulls people out of depression and other such kinds of psychological conditions since it removes the fear factor from people’s minds and changes our view of life.
• Imagination fosters positive attitude in people due to the freedom of expression experienced in the dream world.
• Imagination supports education since children learn to look at things differently right from a very young age.
• Imagination promotes socializing skills. For instance, children who play the role of a teacher realize the responsibility of that particular role. This creates the practice & habits in them to understand the various roles played by people in a typical real life scenario.
• Imagination is capable of eliminating fear since we do everything to win over our virtual enemy in the imaginary world. This tends to have an impact on our subconscious which learns to be in fearless mode during real time events.
• Imagination generates self assurance. By solving the problems in the imaginary world, we get surer about our own capabilities. This develops a sense of satisfaction and self respect within us. When we start respecting ourselves, we are assuring us of all the wonderful things we want to experience in life and the possibility that they all are achievable.

Imagination, thus, is associated with all the vital attributes required to live a successful life. Albert Einstein said “Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world”. When you have a fertile imagination you have the whole world in your hand. Remember, we are what we think about ourselves. Whatever we are capable of imagining, has the probability of becoming a reality one day. As they say, dreamers are those blessed souls who experience the dawn before the whole world realize it . Be a dreamer and allow your imagination to take you into worlds that are out of the purview of the common eyes. Let your imagination fly high in the sky while you remain its shadow on the earth.

God bless!!

Importance of Imagination Development | Miracle Recreation

The Importance of Imagination in Child Development

Imagination is essential to help kids learn many critical lifelong skills. Nearly all kids can use the power of imagination to turn a box or piece of cloth into a fort or superhero cape. They may spend hours playing make-believe, pretending everyday objects are something else. While play may seem like an ordinary part of childhood, it’s crucial for kids’ development. Imaginative play helps kids develop the creativity and problem-solving skills they’ll use as adults. Adults should encourage this type of play as much as possible to give kids an opportunity to grow and learn through imagination.

Read the full article or jump to a specific section:

• What is Imaginative Play?
• Why is Imagination Important in Child Development
• Encouraging Creativity in Children
• Playgrounds for Creative Play

What Is Imaginative Play?

Imaginative play, also called dramatic play, playing pretend or make-believe, refers to kids playing without set rules or structure. This method of play allows kids to practice their social skills by mirroring the way others interact, leading to a better understanding of social norms. Playing pretend is such a vital part of child development because it helps kids build critical decision-making, cognitive and social skills.

Children who pretend to be another person, creature or object or imagine an item is something else are engaging in imaginative play. This could include any activity, such as pretending their dolls are going shopping, racing toy cars around a track, making a pretend meal or building plastic interlocking block cities.

However, children can still engage in imaginative play without specific props or even toys. Sometimes, children can have the most fun with free or repurposed items. Nearly all kids can enjoy turning a sheet and chairs into a blanket fort or creating a house, pirate ship or rocket from a giant cardboard box.

Because imaginative play is open-ended and unstructured, this type of play is only limited by a child’s imagination. Kids are in control to be whatever they want —  a five-star chef, astronaut, doctor, ballerina, animal or mythical creature. Your kids can create fantasy scenes as a superhero saving the world or mimic parents, teachers and other adults in their lives by acting scenes they regularly experience. However kids choose to play, imaginative play helps them develop critical lifelong skills.

Why Is Imagination Important in Child Development?

Imagination helps boost kids’ social, emotional, creative, physical, linguistic and cognitive development — crucial skills children will take into adulthood. Most importantly, playing pretend is an enjoyable activity. Kids will be having too much fun to notice they’re learning vital life skills.

Social and Emotional Development

When kids play pretend by role-playing as other characters, they develop empathy and understanding for others by practicing what it’s like to be someone else. Pretending also helps kids’ self-esteem, giving them the confidence to be anything they want. When kids play pretend with others, they work on cooperation, negotiation, collaboration and sharing responsibilities. Pretend play is an excellent way for children to test their boundaries, learn to control impulses and experiment with social interaction.

Creative Development

Perhaps one of the most apparent benefits of imaginative play is an enhanced creative ability. Imaginative play gives kids the skills they need later in life for creative problem solving and an appreciation for artistic endeavors. Creativity in children can later aid in discovery and invention. Building creativity can also introduce kids to various types of art and help them visualize characters and situations from books and movies.

Physical Development

Many types of creative play are great opportunities for kids to be active and get exercise. Imaginative play can give lots of practice for both gross and fine motor skills, especially for younger kids.

As kids play, they use gross motor skills like climbing and jumping as they pretend to be animals, superheroes and more. Fine motor skills come into play with pretend money and coins, play food, dressing dolls and playing with small cars or figurines. Pretend play also helps young children learn to self-regulate their movements and behaviors.

Language Development and Communication Skills

Engaging in imaginative play allows children to act out situations they see every day or imagine from fairy tales. They may impersonate parents, other people they see or characters from movies. Kids experiment with language and vocabulary when they pretend to be others, learning how to use words appropriately and communicate with peers. They practice listening skills and discover the meaning behind words, strengthening the connection between written and spoken words.

Thinking and Problem Solving

All sorts of creative problem-solving abilities are applicable during imaginative play. It could be selecting materials to build a fort or creating something new from common household materials. It also involves problems that may arise during playtime, such as two children wanting the same role or something going wrong in their pretend scenario. All of these examples and more are ways that a child can develop the cognitive abilities and skills they’ll use throughout life.

Encouraging Creativity in Children

development is clear, and parents and caregivers should encourage this type of play in children. During imaginative play, let your kids take the lead. While you can offer general suggestions or guidelines if your child needs help with ideas, letting kids be in charge during play will build their leadership, problem-solving and decision-making skills.

Here are some imaginative play ideas and pretend play games you can use to foster creativity and problem-solving in kids of all ages:

1. Create scenarios: Help kids come up with ideas for pretend play by suggesting situations that may interest them. Play house, astronaut, doctor, school, store, restaurant, superhero, veterinarian or whatever you can think of. Have kids role-play a scenario they recently encountered or help relieve anxiety about an upcoming appointment through pretend play.
2. Play with blocks: Kids of all ages can benefit from playing with building blocks. Whether a kid is a toddler or an elementary schooler, blocks encourage creativity, logical thinking and motor skills. Kids will flex their creative muscles by crafting blueprints for complicated designs or building an impromptu structure.
3. Hold an indoor Olympics: Rainy day? Don’t despair! Include some physical activity during imaginative play by holding an indoor Olympics. Compete in various events like tissue-box speed skating or a javelin throw with straws. You can even make cardboard medals to distribute and dress up to host a pretend opening and closing ceremony. This activity is especially fun during the actual Olympics, as kids love to mirror the real world.
4. Transform a cardboard box: A large cardboard box is one of the best free resources for imaginative play. With some scissors, markers and tape, your child can transform a box into nearly anything. Kids can pretend their box is a car, house, rocket ship or anything else they can imagine. They can even flatten out and decorate a box to pretend they’re stranded on a desert island.
5. Have a reading routine: Read every day to encourage your child to imagine characters and situations from storybooks. With daily reading, you’ll promote literacy while enhancing imagination.
6. Encourage art projects: Visit art museums and do art projects at home. Explore all sorts of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, jewelry, collage and textiles. Give kids the freedom to explore colors, textures, media and new ideas.
7. Ask questions: Pose interesting and hypothetical questions to your kids to get them thinking. Ask “what would you do if…” type questions to encourage discussion or spark an idea for creative play.
8. Support creativity with toys: While following instructions is also an important skill to learn, encouraging kids to deviate from instructions can encourage creative ways to use toys. Allowing kids to mix and match parts from different playsets inspires them to make creations from their imaginations.
9. Allow downtime: Remember that you don’t need to schedule or orchestrate every hour of your child’s day. Leave room for lots of unstructured playtime so they can come up with their own ideas. Limit screen time and allow for times of boredom, as this is when kids will use their creative skills to find something to do.
10. Get outside: Spend lots of time in nature. Observe constantly changing weather patterns and seasons. Watch clouds and look for interesting shapes. Let kids play in the sand, dirt and water. Gather twigs, leaves and rocks and build forts, sandcastles and more.

View Outdoor Playground Equipment

You can also use imaginative play to target developmental goals at specific ages:

• 0 to 2 years: Babies and toddlers love imitating caretakers and the world around them. By the time a child is 2, they begin to represent real-life scenarios through play. Giving babies various toys with different purposes can help encourage symbolic play. When toddlers start to reflect structure in their play, encourage them by offering creative possibilities for scenarios.
• 3 to 4 years: Kids begin to engage in more complex play scenarios at this stage. They are learning more about differentiating reality from fiction, expressing their feelings and cooperating with others. Provide kids with a range of toys to choose from, including open-ended items like cardboard boxes or fabric to make costumes.
• School-aged: By this point, kids are old enough to take the lead during imaginative play. Encourage kids to work together to put on a theatrical production, act out books or write stories. Multiple kids can also work together to put on an improv production or create a story, building their problem-solving, teamwork and communication skills. Then, have them share their stories or perform their play for peers or parents.

Playgrounds for Creative Play

Playgrounds are ideal environments for imaginative play, encouraging physical activity and creativity. Playground equipment can become a house, a fort, a secret hideaway, a bus or whatever kids imagine it to be. A playground lays the foundation to foster role-playing and creativity, creating a foundation on which children can build. Themed playgrounds help spark creativity even further, setting the scene for kids’ imaginations to flourish. A playground suddenly becomes a castle, fire station, pirate ship or forest.

Contact Miracle® Recreation to discover the perfect playground equipment for your needs. We can help you find a playground that encourages imaginative play while still fitting your space and budget.

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Imagination: what is it, how to develop and why

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It is believed that only creative people need a rich imagination. However, psychologists say that it is necessary for everyone – to solve everyday, not at all creative tasks. Telling you why

1

What is imagination? reality.

In philosophy, imagination is considered as an integral part of the creative process. In the textbook “General Psychology”, Doctor of Psychology Arthur Petrovsky notes that to perform everyday tasks you need no less imagination than for creative ones: for example, in order to make a chair, you must first imagine its purpose, height, shape, size and make parts in accordance with with this image.

In everyday life, the term “imagination” is often used as a synonym for something unreal, non-existent. The expression “Well, you imagine” in colloquial speech is a mild form of the phrase “You are lying”, that is, you deliberately distort reality. Psychologists do not agree with this: according to Vygotsky’s Dictionary, four processes connect imagination and reality.

1. Create completely new looks. They can remain in the imagination, for example, a fabulous dragon with ten heads. Or they can become real – a person creates a 3D figure of this dragon and shoots a cartoon.
2. Creation of complex images based on someone else’s or social experience. You can imagine a fire-breathing dragon from frames from a movie or from descriptions from books.
3. Compilation of images from the elements of reality. Fantasy images can be created from what is familiar to a person from personal experience: if he imagines a pink dragon with a lion’s mane, then only because he remembered some elements of this image from reality, and some from someone else’s or social experience.
4. Creating images from emotions. This process works both ways: images can also evoke emotions. For example, a boy who is into fantasy imagines flying on a dragon and is delighted. Even if these imaginary expectations do not come true, the emotions from them will be real.

2

Types of Imagination

To use the imagination correctly, you need to know what types exist and what they are responsible for. According to a textbook on psychology by Doctor of Psychology Anatoly Maklakov, imagination can be active and passive.

Active Imagination

Active Imagination is the ability of a person to voluntarily conjure up images in order to bring them to life. This type of imagination is used in any creative activity: when a scientist sets himself the goal of inventing a new device, or when a child decides how to draw his mother. If an artist invents a dragon in order to make a model or 3D animation of it later, this is active imagination. Active imagination happens:

• recreating when a person introduces something new through words or pictures. Most often, such imagination is used in education: a musician mentally recreates a melody from notes, an engineer – a design from diagrams;
• creative when a person independently creates new images without relying on descriptions and diagrams – writes a novel, composes an aria, paints a picture.

Carl Jung used active imagination in analytic therapy as a method of revealing the unconscious: the patient sets a starting point (for example, a fragment of a dream) and allows the imagination to develop it into whole plots. The unconscious acquires meaning, is embodied in a material form – a drawing, a dance, a game – and a person begins to better understand himself and other people.

Passive imagination

Passive imagination refers to dreams and images that arise in a person’s head, but do not materialize. If the active imagination sets goals, then the passive one plunges into another reality: a person dreams of going to another time, or getting to know the hero of the film. If an office worker plunges into a dream world of fire-breathing dragons in order to survive a boring meeting at work, this is passive imagination.

Passive imagination happens:

• unintentional when images arise in a person’s head spontaneously, without his desire. Such imagination works when the activity of consciousness is weakened, when it is disturbed, or in sleep;
• deliberate when a person dreams consciously, but does not plan to realize these dreams.

The predominance of passive imagination in a person’s life can lead to separation from reality and inhibition of mental and social development. In extreme cases, a syndrome of pathological fantasy may develop. People with this disorder live in a fictional reality of the same type, perceive the events taking place there as more important and lose interest in reality.

3

The role of imagination in life

Not only children and artists need imagination. It is necessary for thinking, memory, efficient work and much more. We answer the most popular questions about the role of imagination in human life.

Why imagination matters

According to a study by the American Academy of Neurology Medical Journal, middle-aged and older people who engage in creative activities have a 73% lower risk of memory and thinking problems, mild cognitive impairment that leads to dementia.

Imagination is necessary for important mental processes:

• Thinking is the process of solving a problem from determining conditions to obtaining a result. It is imagination that allows thinking to imagine possible outcomes of situations, draw conclusions and make decisions.
• Memory is the ability to preserve and reproduce past experience, any information about the external world and the internal state of the body. To create images, the imagination relies on memory and uses memories or their elements. But there is also a reverse process: imagination fills in the gaps in memory, and negative memories are completely “corrected” – this is how false memories appear. At the same time, memory does not require high neural activity, because the brain processes already familiar information. And for imagination, new neural connections are needed.

Does Imagination Help You Succeed at Work

Harvard Business Review experts believe that it is imagination that helps you deal with crises. According to a study by the Bruce Henderson Institute, 14% of companies have been able to survive economic downturns and compete by investing in new growth points in business – to see these points, you need to be imaginative and imagine which development paths can be successful.

Is it true that children have a better imagination

In children, the imagination really works more actively: for adults, the world is familiar, and the child is just beginning to get used to it. Imagination is necessary for him to observe, create and comprehend new images.

At TEDxTucson, Dr. George Land spoke about NASA’s long-term study of creativity: 1,600 preschoolers aged 4-5 were challenged to solve a problem in a new way. According to the results of the test, 98% of the children scored at the level of “creative geniuses”. Five years later, only 30% of the same group remained at the same level, after another five years – 12%. When the test was conducted on more than 1 million adults around the age of 31, it turned out that only 2% had the same level of creative genius.

Candidate of Psychological Sciences Alexander Veraksa notes that the lack of imagination in a child is a sign of pathological processes, often a syndrome of early childhood autism: without imagination, a game is impossible with which a child tries on “adult” duties — cooking, driving a car, raising kids .

How to understand that a person has no imagination

There are no people without imagination: whether a person wants it or not, his brain creates images. However, some cannot mentally reproduce sounds and visualize. Scientists call this feature aphantasy. According to a study by cognitive and behavioral neuroscientist Adam Zeman, people with aphantasy dream but cannot create waking visual images and often suffer from memory impairment.

There are people with the opposite phenomenon – hyperfantasy: they only need to hear the word “dragon” to imagine the shape of its tail, the texture of its scales, and the color of the flame from its mouth. Most people have an average imagination, but there are ways to improve it.

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How to develop imagination: six ways

Find new hobbies

According to a study by the University of California at San Francisco, engaging in creative hobbies outside of work hours increases employee productivity. The surest way to spark your imagination is to try your hand at something in which you have no experience. Learning new things requires the brain to think (and neurons connect) differently. This opens up new perspectives and sets the stage for creativity.

Dream

According to a report by the creative agency We Are Social, the average Internet user aged 16 to 64 spends 6 hours 43 minutes every day on the Web – that’s 100 days a year, more than a quarter of his life. The constant absorption of information leaves no time to dream. People who daydream during the day are more likely to make creative decisions and experience bursts of inspiration, according to a study by the Behavioral Scientist. Try to daydream rather than scroll through your social media feed while waiting in line at the store, riding the bus, or eating on a park bench.

Take a walk

Walking immerses you in a creative, inspired state. A 2014 Stanford University study found that walking increased creativity on average by 60%. Try to go for a walk without a phone and off the beaten track.

Surround yourself with creative people

According to a study by the scientific journal Child Development, children from creative families grow up to be more creative. This life hack works with adults too: a creative environment inspires you to think outside the box.

Play

According to a study by the psychological journal Journal of Play, play in childhood influences the development of creativity in the future. Allow yourself to let go of the rational aspects of adulthood and accept a different reality: let the box become a rocket, and the phone become a space blaster. Invite friends or family to join you, or better yet, ask the kids to take you into their game and learn from the masters.

If at first the task seems difficult, it is worth trying to give free rein to the imagination in meditation, establish contact with the inner child, start keeping a diary and remember your childhood fantasies.

Surround yourself with blue

A study by the University of British Columbia at Vancouver found that blue improves performance in creative tasks because it is associated with openness and peace. Add blue pieces to your interior or simply create an environment that inspires.

Updated on 09/21/2021

Text

Maria Makarova

why it is important for a child and how to develop it – Teacher’s newspaper

Most of the great people – chemists, scientists, architects, artists, writers were incredible dreamers. They had images in their thoughts that they brought to life, because fantasy is inextricably linked with thinking. And children can dream and invent incredible things, without boundaries and barriers, unlike adults. And growing up, apply the skills in the future profession.

Photo: pixabay. com

An expert in the field of child development told the Uchitelskaya Gazeta online publication why working on the imagination is very important for the full development of the child, and gave some advice to parents. Read about the most interesting of them.

Imagination is a mental process, a person’s ability to present new images based on experience. The child learns the world, the rules of behavior in society, interaction with other people through fantasy and play. Not a single thing in the world would have been invented if people had no imagination. This is an important skill that is useful in any profession and will help the child to successfully self-actualize.

Of course, as in any business, the balance and active desire of the child himself to fantasize is important here. It is important not to overdo it and not to impose something to do, but to get interested in the game. Child development expert Elena Lebedinskaya told how parents can work efficiently in this direction.

– The process of imagination is inextricably linked with thinking and memory. By developing the imagination, we activate the brain, so it is important to stimulate the child to this process, especially since children love to invent. Imagination is not an innate ability, it develops when a child plays, engages in creativity, listens to works of art, communicates with people. Therefore, of course, the development of the imagination is extremely important, especially in modern realities, when we are surrounded by gadgets. The development of imagination is facilitated by educational didactic games, which are divided into several types.

Games with objects

There are games that use objects or toys to help build the story. Creative images can be directed to social interaction or individual play. You can come up with the format and plot yourself, for example, play mother-daughters or “flying on a rocket”.

Board-printed games

One of the popular ones is Imaginarium. Childhood ”for children from 5 years old, in which you need to guess and guess illustrations. The game is aimed at the development of associative and creative thinking, fantasy and memory. Another well-known game is “Impromptu” – an improvisation for the development of imagination in primary school age, which consists in telling stories from images on cards.

Word games encourage children to communicate, build stories, think creatively, reason. For example, in the game “Living Objects” you need to imagine yourself in the role of a lost hat or wet mittens, describe their condition, history, thoughts. In the game “It’s Impossible”, participants are asked to invent a story, after which the listeners will say that this is impossible in real life.

In addition, the development of fantasy also requires reading, creativity and the process of observation.

Reading

Books trigger intellectual processes such as memory, imagination, thinking, attention. Listening to a fairy tale, the child imagines the image of a hero, often puts himself in his place and fantasizes what he would do if he were the hero of the plot. You can invite the child to draw his favorite characters, tell his own end to the tale, or dramatize the plot.

Creativity

Any kind of creativity – drawing, modeling, application – contribute to the development of imagination in preschool age. Drawing, doing crafts or modeling, the child imagines the image that should eventually turn out.

Observation

Knowledge of the surrounding world and its phenomena provides a lot of material for creativity. First, with the help of adults, the child learns the world around him, asks questions, establishes causal relationships. As the child grows older, he begins to notice on his own, for example, what a cloud looks like or where a leaf is floating – always listen carefully to the observations of children, share your opinion about certain processes, enter into a dialogue and develop a story.

Movement

Children are very active, movement is a pleasant and necessary way for them to explore the world. There are plenty of options for developing imagination. For example, you can offer to depict an animal through movement: its habits, size, sounds that it makes. Through the “Depict a Phenomenon” exercise, you can teach a child to show how the wind blows, how the trees sway, how it rains.

Imagination development can be practiced face-to-face with parents or in specialized classes in circles and sections, you can also engage in online classes at various children’s centers or individually with teachers.

The expert emphasizes that the variety of activities is very important. “Each child is individual, I would recommend focusing on different areas. It is important to show the child a variety of activities: here is a game of association, and here is the count of sweets, let’s come up with a non-existent animal, let’s try these interesting recipes. And in the future, the child will be interested, which means that he will certainly develop harmoniously and with pleasure” – says Elena Lebedinskaya

Previously, Uchitelskaya Gazeta, an online publication, talked about how to unobtrusively instill in children a love of reading. And about the 100 best books for children that literature experts have collected this year. According to experts, the catalog includes the best novelties of the year for children from the youngest to adolescence.

Why is it important to have imagination? Essay examples ~ Prose (School literature)

Essay example 1

Without imagination it is difficult to imagine our life. The lack of the ability to see the incredible in the surrounding makes human life boring and monotonous. Thanks to the imagination, you can immerse yourself in unprecedented worlds, become what you are not in real life. Today you can save the galaxy from an extraterrestrial invasion, tomorrow you will become the conqueror of a fictional continent.

In the real world, imagination can help solve a number of problems that arise under various circumstances. It is not necessary to become a science fiction writer of your own life, you can use the power of imagination in a different way. The ability to recreate three-dimensional models in your head will help you imagine a future project planned only on paper. Visualization of objects and things is especially useful for creative professions: artists, designers, layout designers. This skill will be useful for a builder, architect, landscape designer. Imagination will help to create a picture of future work in your head, visualizing the final result before it appears.

Unfortunately, with age, many people lose the ability to see the invisible. A person grows up and it becomes more and more difficult for him to delve into the unknown world of his fantasies. He is used to living in reality, making life gray and monotonous. Modern man lacks colors, the brightness of life. After all, paying attention to creative people, we always see something bright and extraordinary. Such people often differ from the rest, take precedence over mediocrity. This happens because life in them is in full swing due to an inexhaustible supply of inspiration. They see this world differently, they try to realize many of their ideas.

People who have managed to carry a child’s worldview through the years are happy people. Their power of imagination helps them cope with the routine, bring something extraordinary into the measured course of life. Remember, in childhood, every child succumbs to his fantasies, lives in a fictional world. They build castles of sand, imagining court retinue and servants; they build fortresses from sheets and pillows, presenting themselves as brave warriors defending the castle. For adults, this is nothing more than a pile of unnecessary rubbish, for a child – the whole world. In the hands of children, even toys come to life: they begin to walk, dance, sing, live their own lives. Each toy has its own role in the child’s imagination, each has its own destiny.

However, adults are also not deprived of the opportunity to imagine. Jules Verne is a famous science fiction writer. He opened many unexplored worlds for readers, made people think about the existence of lost islands. In writing, he was helped by the power of imagination, without which nothing would have happened, stories would not have been so exciting and fascinating.

Imagination should be an integral factor in the life of every person.

It helps to abstract from reality, to isolate oneself from problems. Sometimes it happens that in order to overcome some difficulties, you need to return to the problem after a while. This is the time to think, to connect the imagination to the question. Then any difficulty will not seem as apocalyptic as it seemed at first. If you creatively approach the solution of the problem, you can get out of a difficult situation enchantingly. Imagination serves as an impetus for many discoveries and accomplishments. In every person there is a germ of imagination, for the awakening of which it is necessary to train the ability to see beauty in the most ordinary.

Sample composition 2

Imagination is one of the most important human senses, it makes us see beautiful pictures in ordinary things, images of animals in thick clouds, scary patterns in the dark, etc. Inspiration makes us look at this world differently. Think big and bear fruits of success. Without the symbiosis of these two almost identical feelings, a person cannot live happily.

Revealing the true meaning of the problem, K.G. Paustovsky tells an instructive story about Cherpunov, a geography teacher who, from elementary school, kept many students intrigue and really developed their imagination (sentences 1-3). The main character, having seen the teacher’s work accumulated over many years, is inspired by the topic of collecting and took up this himself. He tells the story in the first person and tells how, having heard enough beautiful stories about Cherpunov’s apartment: “There were stuffed Hummingbirds, a collection of butterflies …” he is inspired by such art. Therefore, the hero has a small hobby, which he respects and appreciates, and tries very hard for his future “museum”.

Cherpunov notices the hero’s fierce interest in the exhibits and therefore invites him to his house. From such a manifestation of attention, the hero develops more and more imagination and interest in geography. He wants to come again, but because of the illness and the imminent death of the teacher, nothing comes of it. Later, the Hero learns that ordinary tap water and a few beautiful words tied together make a person’s eyes light up, his head to believe, and his hands to act. After all, it was ordinary piped water that always kept many children so interested. Although Cherpunov did not show all his exhibits, he showed an important meaning of human existence.

The author’s position is clear: “… man differs from animals in his ability to imagine.” The author does not show whether the main character continued to collect after Cherpunov’s death or not? But in any case, he lets know: the memory of this person remains in his heart and he will keep thoughts of pleasant memories with him for a long time to come.

I agree with the author’s opinion. The line about the difference between man and animal is very beautifully suited to understanding what is happening. People like Cherpunov make the lives of others more beautiful and brighter. Olympic champions can serve as an example of such people. With their exploits, they reinforce the desire of people to play sports. They just beat it into their heads to get better. There is no limit to the ideal – therefore, looking at the exploits of the Olympic champions, we have a desire to go in for sports, love our work and be devoted to a dream.

Sample essay 3

Imagination is an important part of our lives. From childhood, we fantasize about what captures and inspires us, but is not available at the moment. Probably, people are the only creatures on Earth endowed with such a property.

I think imagination is the ability to construct your own individual reality. Often it is imagination that helps to solve complex everyday problems. This is a very creative process: we sort of put together a new puzzle from the pieces of our experience. Imagination is very individual – it is difficult to find two people who describe their fantasies about the same person or thing in the same way.

Imagination as part of our thinking is underestimated in our society, which is very fixated on the material side of life. People with a developed imagination are often treated with prejudice: they are considered “out of touch with life.”

But many brilliant personalities of the past were dreamers and this did not prevent them from developing science, technology and medicine. Many modern advances first appeared in books by science fiction writers. Suffice it to recall Captain Nemo and Jules Verne’s Nautilus… How a man a hundred years before the appearance of the first submarines could come up with such an accurate description.

A person’s imagination helps to decorate gray everyday life, add colors and emotions. As practice shows, the main thing is a sense of proportion. Developed imagination helps a person to achieve success in art, literature, design. Well, if a person “hangs in the clouds” too much, he begins to experience difficulties in everyday life.

Reading fiction helps a lot in developing our imagination. While reading, a person creates a picture of the read text in his head, developing his convolutions. At this time, we become the director of the film that our brain sees. Often, when we are bored or unable to do something in reality, we begin to create in our imagination. In this way, a person can come up with simply fantastic pictures and images.

The imagination, like any function, needs training. One way to develop the imagination is creativity. It is when we play a musical instrument, draw or dance that our imagination works one hundred percent. Scientists are convinced that a developed imagination helps to develop the capabilities of the brain. During the work of the imagination, new connections are created in the brain, which makes a person smarter.

Nature endowed man with imagination for his own good, the main thing is to use it correctly.

Composition example 4 The ability to imagine is the quality that distinguishes a person from an animal. To imagine means to conjecture, fantasize, invent, invent. Animals cannot imagine. Their perception of the world is based mainly on instincts.

Humans also have instincts, but their work is based on the imagination. For example, the instinct of self-preservation. If in an animal this instinct works in the immediate vicinity of danger, then a person can avoid the same danger altogether. Let’s consider such an example. The fox approached the frozen river and tried to cross it on the ice. The ice was thin and began to break under the animal. And only then the fox will run away from the ice when it crackles under its paws. But his imagination will tell a person that if he steps on fragile ice, he will fail, so a person will more likely cross the river over the bridge.

There are different types of imagination. For example, active. Active imagination is very developed in creative natures. It contributes to the realization of their plans, supports the flight of fantasy.

Passive – inherent in most people, it is especially developed in impressionable natures, when under certain circumstances their imagination itself draws situations that supposedly can happen.

Recreative imagination helps a person perceive speech, reading, etc. It works, for example, when reading books or listening to an audio recording of a play or book. A person simply imagines everything he reads or hears about.

Therefore, imagination is one of the most important properties inherent in a person.