Ever since my son hit 2 years old, he has been doing a lot of pretend play, even without me teaching him. He is our first child, so parenting is basically like an experimentation for us. Most of the time, I don't exactly know what to impart, even with all the parenting articles. However, I try to flow along with his development. His most recent cognitive developments are speaking and of course his IMAGINATION. He has made things to feed us, shooting invisible alphabets in thin air and also pretend playing with his "friends"(his soft toys) and us, taking up the roles like doctor and chef. It is pretty interesting, if you ask me.
Recently, he loves to paint. He has drawn many patches of colours which look nice but hard to be figured out. Anytime my husband was about to teach him, I would stop my husband because I was thinking to let the creativity flow from his current imagination. Well, Robin Williams said this:
You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it. ~Robin Williams
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What happens when we imagine?
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. ~Albert Einstein
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I have never studied much about imagination and I think I myself is pretty bad at it, maybe better when I was young but really not that good now. It is something that is quite far-fetched from me. However, it makes me feel as if my life has become "dead" ever since my imagination has stopped much. Learning from my son all over again, I am re-exploring the realm of imagination. Imagination is not just unreal fantasies or wishes that hopefully will come true. It is a capacity build and wired within us.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of IMAGINATION is listed as below:
1 : the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality
2 a : creative ability
b : ability to confront and deal with a problem
c : the thinking or active mind
3 a : a creation of the mind; especially : an idealized or poetic creation
b : fanciful or empty assumption
When imagination is activated in our brains, scientists were surprised to discover there isn't a particular single area which is responsible for imagination, like certain part of the cortex is responsible for memory and language. It was discovered that imagination is seemingly making the brain acts as a whole and connecting different parts of it. I can imagine how healthy imagination would be, since it makes us use many parts of the brain, sending signals via neurons cross different region, crossing over logic and creativity as well. This also explains that when someone faces brain deterioration or even dream lesser (seeing lesser in the mind), the whole system would just deteriorate soon enough because we have stop exercising the brain.
"We saw differences in activity all over the brain when we compared to control conditions," Shlegel says. "It does seem rather than being a single area responsible for imagining or manipulating, it seems like lots of areas have to work in concert." Source
In his article, Eric Tra described that the brain is a mental workplace for imagination. In a studies done on people to ask them to think about imaginary shapes, 12 "areas of interest" are recorded to show brain activity, powering a network to work on their imagination.
“Creativity is enhanced when you begin to recognize that many of your fantasies may have relevance to some of the kinds of things that you are interested in doing,” according to Jerome Singer, whose work in daydreaming is seminal in the field of psychology. Source
“Perception and imagination are linked because the brain uses the same neural circuits for both functions,” says Gregory Berns, a professor of neuroeconomics and director of the Center for Neuropolicy at Emory University. “Imagination is like running perception in reverse.” Source
Forget about trying to learn if you are more artsy person using the left brain more or a more logical thinking person using the right brain more, because imagination transcends both and it forces them to interact with each other.
Scott Barry Kaufman, a cognitive psychologist proposed that our brain would work under 3 types of networks:
- The Executive Attention Network - used to focus attention on something and works a lot with memory.
- The Default Network - activated when we try to understand and empathize with another person's feelings, thinking of the future and sorting out some alternatives until we get the "this is it!" moment, analyzing every scenario possible.
- The Salience Network - in charged of both external events and our inner consciousness, switching between the two to see which is to be prioritized and how much priority to be given to each, analyzing which is more relevant.
Imagination would make us find shortcuts for the brain, unleashing the intuitive system out of the usual thinking sequence. It would intrigue the person, because it is out of the usual norm.
Importance of Imagination
Imagination draws on our experiences and knowledge of the world around us and combines them with the complete unknown to make something new. It allows us to explore beyond the constraints of our environment and our reality, into a world of dreams, where creativity and invention are at their strongest. Source
Imagine if no one has ever imagine of going to explore the moon. Imagine if no one has ever imagine that humans can one day fly in the sky and building a plane. Imagine if no one has ever imagine that we can have the possibility of the Internet. Hahaha, maybe this would scare us a little bit, especially for our generation who are more and more dependent on the Internet, who cannot live without the all-knowing wise Google. Imagine if no one has ever thought of writing about the Avengers and every great movie we have watched. Imagine if our ancestors have never imagine of many things that contribute to our modern way of living, probably we would still be living as if we are in the Stone Age era.
Though I have just made you imagined the worst, this is NOT bound to happen. That is because we being humans, cannot suppress the imagining ability we have naturally. If there were no Avengers stories, there would still be something that will come out of our imagination. We simply cannot help it, because it is in our true nature to be creative in our imagination. We humans have created so many things with this ability, be it mythology, inventions or even entertainment.
Artists like Picasso have created many art pieces that can blow our minds. All these are birthed from their imagination realm. If they can see it or "hear" it in their imagination, they are able to produce it, hence we have poetry and drama. Even dancers would tap into their imaginations to present their recital. Many great music that have not been heard before this century have been ringing in our ears these days, like the EDM (Electronic Dance Music).
Imagination is not confined within just creative arts. It also speaks of emotional capacity as well as science. When we can imagine another person's feelings, it is called empathy. When we can imagine of the upcoming weather and how to curb it, it is called precaution and disaster relief.
I am sure someone has exercised his or her imagination that one day a platform like Steemit can be established where we can share information and get paid in cyptocurrency.
Imagination is definitely crucial in learning. It stimulates brain activity as it expands a person's mind into exploring possibilities. It would indirectly strengthens our memory and thinking pathways too. It encourages problem solving with creative skills and it makes us less afraid to face up with challenges. It is a practice to be trained throughout every stage of our lives.
From one of the greatest writers, J. K. Rowling is well known for her imagination and she said:
Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation. In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power to that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared. ~J. K. Rowling
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How can we encourage imagination in parenting and education, even in redeveloping it within ourselves?
Children may find it hard to differentiate between what is real and what is actually from the imagination. They may have a heart to believe everything they SEE (whether in the mind or in real life) is real. Hence, it is easy for them to believe in the existence of unicorns, angels, toothfairies, imaginary friend etc. When we have to break the reality to them, part of the imagination is broken and it may gradually reduce their ability to imagine as well.
Hence, I believe we can do it positively with them.
Lend an ear to listen to their imagination. Do not ridicule their imagination or laugh at them.
Refrain from telling them what to do when it comes to them voicing out their ideas. Encourage and praise them for any ideas, even if it does not sound logical or can be done to us.
Encourage them to express their imagination out by drawing, crafting, making things or even writing. Have them tell their kind of stories. Do not rebuke lies and shun them off immediately because lying takes imagination. Let the imagination flow and talk to them later about the value of honesty.
Let them explore their imagination within a safe measure with us. I heard of the story of my 8-year-old friend who jumped out of the balcony, thinking he really was Superman. Now that is dangerous.
Do dress-ups, role-plays and pretend plays.
Affirm them when someone else pours water over their imagination.
Now, what can we do with adults including ourselves who seem like waning the imagination after we have grown up more and more?
Have a childlike faith once again. Observe how the children do things without much thinking and say things without much reservations.
Give less excuses and use lesser of the reasoning part of our brains. Sometimes, we just need to switch off and let our mind go wild again. No "but"s.
Pretending we are other people so we can be in their shoes.
Put away the fear of being wrong or being judged by others.
Know it is our inborn nature and it can be awakened again any time. Quit saying that "we don't have it anymore".
Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. ~Gloria Steinem
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I still believe we all have it, even myself. So, this is a post for me to remind myself that Steemit will be a platform for me to explore lots of possibilities to reactivate my imagination realm. Wake up once again, the power of imagination!
If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it. ~William Arthur Ward
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Thank you all for taking time to read through my post today about imagination. There is a science to it and it is an essential part of life. With imagination, we may just "live" differently all over again.
The power of imagination makes us infinite. ~John Muir
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Links to References:
- https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/how-imagination-works#page-3
- https://www.newscientist.com/round-up/imagination/
- http://killerinfographics.com/blog/science-of-imagination.html
- https://www.fastcompany.com/3026510/the-neuroscience-of-imagination
- https://www.ideastogo.com/articles-on-innovation/why-you-should-have-a-child-like-imagination-and-the-research-that-proves-it
- http://sciencewows.ie/blog/the-science-of-imagination/
- http://www.human-memory.net/brain_parts.html
