Imagination and Health

Imagination and Health A number of years ago, I awoke from a dream with the following thought in my head: I seem to be a figment of my own Imagination. I was so struck by this that I wrote it down. Also years ago, I had the pleasure of teaching students in my grade school alma mater in an after school creative writing class. One of the first things I told them was that, when it comes to creative writing, the first and final authority on how stories, poems, etc., ought to be told is the writer him or herself. Similarly, I told them, when it comes to our lives and how it ought to be lived, there is only one expert – ourselves. With that encouragement, all 12 students in my class soon developed more confidence in themselves and their creative output soared from week to week, affording me one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. In our class, we also discussed Imagination, which I redefined as I Make A Nation, since, when we imagine stories in poems, that is a fair approximation of what we do – literally making up the worlds, characters, themes and plots that we create. At the same time, I encouraged my students to take full responsibility for their creative efforts so that what they wrote rang true for them. Responsibility, I told them, to me means “respond ability” or “ability to respond,” which is just another way of saying freedom. When we take responsibility, we don’t make excuses. If something doesn’t “ring true,” we admit it and then work to the best of our best ability to rectify things. To writers, this process is known as editing and revision (re vision). I no longer lead that class, yet the lessons my students and I explored continue to serve me. Over the past few years, I’ve been exploring how they apply to health and illness. In doing so, I’ve also returned to the first idea I shared above: I seem to be a figment of my own Imagination. The more I explore that idea, the more I am realizing how true it is. As far as I’m concerned, it literally means that the many roles I play in life are roles that either I or someone else has literally made up for me. This is something I’ve long known. What’s new and exciting for me these days is my realization that the roles can be changed any time I wish to do so. Meaning that my life, just as anything else I “write,” can be edited and revised, which further means that there are no true limitations as to how my life story unfolds. The key, of course, lies in my taking responsibility for it. As I’ve been examining the various roles I play, I am asking myself if they are roles I want to continue in because I truly enjoy them. Those that are I then give further attention to by imagining how I might make those roles even more enjoyable for myself. As I do so, I then imagine that those changes already exist. And then I let them occur organically without worrying about the hows and whys that might be involved in making what I’ve imagined reality. Whenever I manage to do this as eloquently as I’m describing it here, the positive changes I decide I want tend to have a way of showing up pretty rapidly. For example, a few months ago, I decided that I wanted to create more free time for myself so that I can start to spend time exploring various things that my previous writing schedule didn’t allow for. As soon as I made that decision, I then imagined an ideal set of circumstances that would allow for that to happen. Soon thereafter I received an email a that resulted in the exact circumstances I imagined. Before going further, let me make one thing clear. This process of Imagination that I am discussing here has little to do with the namby-pamby New Age mumbo jumbo that was touted in the film and movie, The Secret. It requires time and effort and a fair deal of work to honestly and effectively re-imagine and recreate our lives. In other words, it takes a lot of responsibility. Yet, in our society, there is a pervasive tendency to want a quick fix solution for our problems (a pill, an herb, a book) and/or a demand that someone else fix them for us (family, spouses, partners, doctors, gurus, government officials, etc). Such a tendency has nothing to do with responsibility, as far as I’m concerned. Having said that, let’s explore how Imagination is related to health. As we consider this question, one thing that becomes clear is that, as a nation, we seem to be putting an increasing amount of attention not on health, but disease. Which, I think, accounts for how widespread chronic illness is in our country. (We get what we focus on.) We also spend a lot of time talking about various causes of disease and what can be done to prevent them or at least minimize our exposure to them. There is nothing wrong with that. After all, part of taking responsibility for one’s health involves knowing what risks to be aware of and then making lifestyle choices accordingly. Yet, if eating healthily, leading a healthy lifestyle, and minimizing our bodies’ toxic burden and so forth were all that were necessary to be and stay healthy, how do we account for the fact that some people who do all of those things die young or succumb to chronic degenerative diseases, while others who smoke, drink and eat whatever they feel like eating can live to a ripe old age with no health problems to speak of? A clue to answering this question might be found in a comment made by a man in Japan some years ago. At the time he was thought to be the oldest person in the world. Well past 100 years of age, he was still going strong when he was interviewed. The interviewer noted that he was a chain smoker and that he drank lots of sake throughout the day. Asked what he considered to be the secret to his longevity, the man shrugged, then smiled and said, “I only do things that make me happy.” When we follow the lead of our Imagination and actually take action to make what we imagine real, happiness, I find, inevitably results. As what we imagine becomes reality, satisfaction follows. Moreover, the creative process that results in “editing reality” brings with it a feeling of excitement that further fuels our creativity and increases our confidence that we can continue to adventurously create our lives from ever increasing levels of boldness. Even so, how many of us actually live our lives this way on a regular basis? I certainly don’t, although now that I have tasted how delicious doing so is I am doing so more and more. This lack of living from our Imagination, I believe, is precisely why so many of us become sick. In fact, I have long been convinced that illness of any sort is actually a gift we give to ourselves in order to reevaluate our lives so that we can better recognize what needs our attention and changing. This view is supported by people I’ve interviewed who recovered from cancer despite being told by their doctors that there was nothing more that could be done for them. Each long-term cancer survivor I’ve interviewed has told me that getting cancer was “the best thing that ever happened” to them precisely because of how it forced them to reconsider the lives they were living. In every case, these same people discovered things about their lives that no longer served them and then took action to stop engaging in them. In some cases, that meant leaving careers and/or relationships and then committing themselves to living their dreams in whatever time they had left to them. Many of these people, upon doing so, experienced spontaneous remissions and are now living far different lives than those they had before they were diagnosed with cancer. And all of them claim to be far happier and more fulfilled. The way that all of this ties into health and Imagination has, I think, mostly to do with a willingness on our part to first truly imagine what it is we want for ourselves, and then to be willing to do whatever is necessary on our part to make it happen. This means foregoing excuses and putting an end to relying on others and/or external circumstances for our fulfillment. For our happiness, like our health, is first and foremost our responsibility. Moreover, if, as my dream implied, we really are figments of our own Imagination, why not imagine that best version of ourselves that we can possibly be. This includes being as healthy as you want to be. So, if you are currently experiencing less than optimal health, here is an experiment I invite you to try: Imagine that there exists a version of yourself who is a radiant picture of health. Really bring your senses into this and allow yourself to fully explore what a radiantly healthy you would be like. How does this radiant you life his or her life? What choices does s/he make and what activities does s/he partake in? Imagine all of this on a daily basis for at least five to ten minutes at a time, and as you do so really feel what it is like to be that radiantly healthy you. And then assume that you are that person. And then watch yourself start to become that version of yourself. In the field of mind/body medicine, there are many documented cases of people who have cured themselves of illness, including cancer, using versions of this technique, which is known by various names, such as creative visualization and guided imagery. I prefer calling it Make Believe because that sounds like more fun. Will your health improve if you engage in this exercise? You won’t know unless you try it. I encourage you to do so.