The Power of Your Imagination
Filed under: Anxiety Disorders, Panic Attack Help, Personal
A long time ago I heard someone quoting Albert Einstein, and the quote stayed with me. I just happened to hear the quote again today, and it inspired me to write this post.
So, here’s the quote: “Imagination is more important than intelligence.”
Not that exciting, I hear you say!
But stay with me. This lead me to some of the ideas that are most responsible for me finally winning my battle with panic and anxiety a couple of years ago, and I’m hoping it can help you in just the same way.
When Einstein said that imagination is more important than intelligence he meant that nothing is possible, no matter how much intelligence and determination you have, if you haven’t first imagined the outcome that you want to achieve.
That really struck a chord with me.
When we just go after something, like a goal for example, and we haven’t used the power of our imagination to vividly imagine that outcome first, we’re short-changing ourselves. We’re decreasing the chances of being successful in getting the thing we’re going after.
The reason I called this post “The Power of Your Imagination” is because I don’t think most of us appreciate just how powerful our imaginations are, or how much our imaginations can help us to achieve.
Here are a couple of things to think about:
We take these abilities for granted, but they’re incredible, and with their help we can achieve almost anything. To demonstrate this, here’s another thought for you to consider:
And despite that, so many of us go after our goals blindly, not really knowing where we want to end up, and not really knowing if we’ll even like it there when we get there. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have this incredible ability of imagination. We can picture future versions of ourselves and use those images as inspiration and as a compass to lead us there.
If you’re anything like I used to be, stop robbing yourself of this ability. Start using it. Too often I see “experts” advising people with anxiety to live in the moment so they don’t become “overwhelmed” with unpleasant thoughts from the past or unknown events in the future.
I couldn’t disagree with this any more strongly.
None of us should live in the past, whether it was terrible or wonderful. But imagining a better future for yourself is one of the most beneficial things you can start doing right now, today.
Decide on where you want to be - your dream life. Your dreams can be big or small. It doesn’t matter. It just matters that it’s what you want. And when you get it clear what you want, start imagining it. And make your imaginations vivid, like you already have what you want, like you’re already there.
The moment you start doing this your subconscious will begin looking for ways to get you there. You’ll start asking yourself different questions. Positive, results-getting questions.
Letting my imagination loose was one of the best things I ever did in all my efforts to stop my panic and anxiety-related problems. You can probably tell how passionate I am about this idea. And I hope some of my enthusiasm rubs off on you and you give this a try.
Here’s a final thought on this, and this one idea was as big a breakthrough as I made in all my time battling my anxiety:
- Nothing happens that hasn’t been imagined first
Everything that becomes real started with a thought, an imagination. If you aren’t imagining a better future for yourself, one that’s happy and peaceful and calm and anxiety-free, it can’t come true.
All you have to do to fix that is to start imagining the future you dream of. It’s the first and most important step in that future coming true.
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Be My Friend
