Our brain is hard-wired to scan the horizon for anything that might be a threat to us – it was always the key to our survival in days gone by. Nowadays the threats aren’t of a big bear coming to eat us but our brain is still hard at work analysing, making us aware of the negative, and looking to see how it can keep us safe.If you’ve ever invented scenarios in your head about how something might play out, then that’s your imagination at play. Unfortunately, as we get older, our imagination tends to become more fear-based and we are good at it.
We rehearse confrontation and what we’d say if the other person was to say XYZ, only to find that the confrontation went much more smoothly and things were resolved without us needing our well-rehearsed speeches.
We rehearse confrontation and what we’d say if the other person was to say XYZ, only to find that the confrontation went much more smoothly and things were resolved without us needing our well-rehearsed speeches.
The very quick run-through that happens when we’re called into a manager’s office. Our fear-based imagination letting us know that actually, it could be for any number of things we’ve done wrong. When, in reality, that’s not the case at all!
When we have fear of rejection and fear of abandonment and our fear-based imagination goes into overdrive, changing reality so that we almost buy into its version of not being good enough.
There are so many examples. However our imagination is creative, it allows us to visualise all that could go wrong, but rarely does.
If our imaginations are so finely formed and so creative and so convincing, couldn’t we change the way we use them. What if, our imagination could become a tool for good. Fear-based imagination is a waste of our imagination?We could tap into that imagination to imagine how ‘right’ things could go. To imagine a positive future for ourselves. To visualise how confident, purposeful and eloquent we’ll be when a situation requires us to be. We could buy into what could go right, rather than what could go wrong. Apparently all great sportspeople visual themselves winning games and races well before their time. Ponder over the fact that when your brain wants you to go low, you can choose to go high.