Imagination: How to Use the Power of the Mind for Better Mental Health

By Ben Oakley

The power to change your life already exists within you!

Imagination is the most powerful tool a human being can develop and nurture. As such, imagination has a big impact on our mental health, life, and future.

Dip into this book whenever your emotions or thoughts are getting the better of you and discover how using your imagination can help better your mental health. With quick and easy techniques, self-care ideas, inspiring words and quotes, this new release from Twelvetrees Wellbeing contains all the pick-me-ups and information you need.

What you'll find inside:
The power of imagination.
Imagination techniques for mental health.
Training your imagination.
Imagination as a gateway to the soul.

In addition to sections on:
The varieties of imaginative experience.
Therapeutic imagery.
Alternative emotions.
Mental grounding.
Imaginary spaces.
Mindfulness and meditation.
Openly exploring the mind.
The possibilities of imagination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Twelvetrees Camden
• Release date: Jun 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223450191

Book preview

The Power of Imagination

What is imagination?

For some, imagination can be considered the power of the mind. For others, it is the most powerful tool a human being can develop and nurture. As such, imagination has a big impact on our mental health, life, and future.

At its base level, imagination is the ability to form mental pictures of people or things or to have new ideas.

Imagination is the creative faculty of the mind.

For centuries, imagination has remained at the beating heart of philosophy and science. Although this book is mostly about how to use imagination for a better mental health, it’s vital to know exactly what it is and what it does.

The term imagination comes from the Latin verb imaginari meaning to picture oneself.

The Latin origin of the term suggests that imagination is very much an internal process in the mind. Because if you picture yourself, you do so in the privacy of your mind.

Sometimes, you might imagine yourself to look a certain way to others, but when you look in the mirror, the imagined you and the real you could be very different.

The different interpretations of how you see yourself or present yourself to others can be responsible for mental health issues down the line, and we’ll look at why shortly.

Imagination is the process by which an image is presented to us. The soul never thinks without a mental image.

Aristotle

Aristotle, like many ancient philosophers, suggests that imagination is a faculty in humans and other animals. It produces, stores, and recalls the images used in a variety of cognitive activities, including those which motivate and guide action.

In the modern world, that perception of imagination hasn’t really changed. But in recent years, the link between imagination and mental health has been spoken about more and more.

And there’s very good reason for it, imagination can have a positive AND negative effect on mental health. In some ways, using imagination can help protect you based on previous experiences, but in other ways, it can be detrimental to your wellbeing.

This book looks at how to use imagination for mental health, including techniques to help use it for your own betterment, both in your personal and work life.

Imagining without images

Can you think of any instances where you can imagine something without using images in your mind? There are not many but it is possible, depending on your aptitude for using imagination.

You could perhaps answer a question without using your imagination. For example, if your friend asked you; ‘if someone asked you to define imagination, what would you say?’

In that instance, you won’t likely conjure any images in your mind to answer it, unless you imagine yourself answering the question before answering it in reality. In this instance, using images in your mind is not essential.

But if the question was changed to; ‘if an ancient Greek philosopher with four arms asked you to define imagination, what would you say?’ Your imagination faculty would respond differently.

You would perhaps attempt to visualise a four-armed Greek philosopher based on what you imagine a four-armed Greek philosopher to look like. You would do this before answering the question.

Imagination is the reviving or creating of images in the mind's eye. It is the ability to create and rehearse possible situations, to combine knowledge in unusual ways, or to invent thought experiments.

Simon Blackburn

Imagination is best viewed as a metaphorical bridge between our conscious and unconscious thoughts, that involves