Imagination A Gift From God

Chapter 1; Active Imagination

What is an active imagination?

There is probably – most likely an enormous number of examples of what many people believe to be or think an active imagination is. The obvious answer has to be, which stands out and makes most sense is, being wild and spontaneous in our thinking. How does one get to a viewpoint such as this? When you think of the words ACTIVE IMAGINATION, we start to imagine ourselves wanting to think differently to others, or as many like to say, thinking outside the box. Now after quoting that we can still find ourselves asking the same question again of what really is an active imagination? That is the big question, and at times we can struggle with finding a solution, I have often asked myself that question repeatedly.

Like a stuck record playing the same old track, that question just keeps going round and round. When this process happens we can begin to think back of certain memories from our past; of our childhood as this is where we can slowly discover the answers. When we are children we have a great way of thinking actively and having wild thoughts. This is true because as children we have thoughts and dreams of becoming superheroes, fairy tale characters, action hero's and so much more. There is no limit to our thinking when we are children, as it has no boundaries when we think like this. Our imaginations as children should always be in a constant state of overdrive is what I like to say, as mine surely was as a young boy. Having that ability to picture things that weren't really there, then creating events so we can see those stories unfold – this gives us hopes and dreams of what we wanted to imagine. This has to be that process of active imagination. I believe using our imagination is a gift from God, as this story continues I hope that you shall see why I believe in this gift. As we start getting older, why do we lose that ability to dream like children, letting our hopes and dreams become distorted and damage our ability to see beyond hope? When I was a child, I was constantly being complained about within school for being a daydreamer. The reason was because I was never any good at paying attention in class, as I was constantly falling behind in my work. Most professionals try to convince parents that this can lead to a big downfall in children's lives – falling behind and then never being able to keep up.

I make this statement only because many educational sectors can put labels on children, with statements like; these children are UNDERACHIEVERS.

That seriously damages children's way of thinking in the long run, as it starts to make them feel that they are worthless and not as good as everyone else. It can also make children feel like they're unintelligent, and that they're just a failure at everything they do. I was one of those children who was made to feel like this, who was affected by words like that by professionals. But what is the real truth? The truth was that I may have struggled to focus my attention, I may have been slow in retaining information, I may have been slow and stuttered when it came to reading, I may have struggled to form sentences in my writing. All those things are true but out of all those negative words one thing was for sure, I had something that the other children didn't have, I had a wild imagination. I would dream of outrageous things, mainly about becoming a Superhero. Like in the cartoons I watched as a young boy. My main cartoon was He-man. “I HAD THE POWER.”

Most of my childhood was spent climbing trees, the bigger the trees the better. I was fortunate enough to have a large tree within our backyard, where most of my adventures took place. I would try to climb to the very top of the tree; all because I believed once I reached the top I would be able to see the whole world. All I saw was the town we lived in at that time. Truly though, I thought that this was the whole world I was admiring. Every time I reached up, grabbing those high branches I never wanted to come back down, it was so beautiful being in the tree seeing THE WORLD as I called it.
I was in my element admiring other people's backyards, seeing all those different flowers that had been planted in their gardens. Sounds like a great fairytale moment doesn't it, unfortunately this joy didn't last for very long. A number of minutes will pass, when we tend to stop noticing the joy of creation and begin to focus on the fear of our surroundings. Forgetting how high up I was led to the fear of falling to set in instantly, as I noticed that the ground was quite a long way down. Now in the movies there is a scene where you hear the  quote; I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS.
This is mentioned usually when someone is needing to cross that very long bridge which is unstable and dangerous to cross. As we watch the movie, we all know that a fall from this height will result in sudden death as the dramatic music plays in the background to set the scene. That is when the brave actor in the scene uses that great quote; WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T LOOK DOWN.