Imagination & generativity

Imagination & Generativity concerns our ability to participate in realities that do not exist yet. Humans do not merely respond to the world. We anticipate it, simulate it, redesign it, tell stories about it and create things that can outlive the moment in which they were conceived.

When possibility does not become work, the obstacle may need a more precise name. There Is No Empty Page explores creative block. For a different encounter with imagination, When the Image Answers Back examines Jung’s active imagination and its limits.

The five capacities

Imagination

Imagination is the capacity to generate and explore possibilities that are not currently present.

Creativity

Creativity is the capacity to produce something both novel and meaningful by reorganizing what already exists.

Expression

Expression is the capacity to translate internal experience into a form another person, or our future self, can encounter.

Purpose

Purpose is the capacity to orient action around meaning that extends beyond the immediate moment.

Flow

Flow is the capacity to enter, sustain and leave periods of deeply absorbed engagement when attention, skill, challenge and meaningful activity align.

How these capacities work together

The relationships matter as much as the individual capacities. Follow any connection below to see how these abilities support, regulate or complicate one another.

Person reading an I AWAKE book

Not sure where to begin?