Imagination is the capacity to bring to mind something that isn’t simply being perceived in front of you: a scene, possibility, conversation, image or way things could be.
You use it when you anticipate an awkward meeting. You also use it when you invent a recipe, picture a different future or wonder what a friend might enjoy.
Worry doesn’t deserve exclusive use of it.
If you can rehearse a conversation in which everything goes wrong, you may also be able to explore one in which you say what you mean and remain present afterwards.
Not as a guarantee of what will happen. As a way to notice what you want to say, what you expect and what support might help you try.
The I AWAKE books make room for imagination through writing, story, images and guided encounters. You can approach a question from somewhere other than its most familiar explanation.
You don’t need vivid pictures. Words, sensations and a simple sense of a scene can all participate.
Fantasy considers the pleasure and longing in imagined scenarios. Imaginal practice introduces participating in an encounter rather than directing it towards a preferred result.
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on imagination offers a substantial introduction to imagination’s different forms and its relationship with memory, belief and possibility.