IMAGINATION GENERATES NEW POSSIBILITIES

There are numerous techniques for creating positive images that bring winning results. The degree to which we assume something is possible or impossible is largely controlled by our imagination. As one of the most powerful and creative tools at our disposal, the imagination is continuously active and only we can govern whether our selective imaging is positive or negative.

When we use the imagination negatively by reliving the pains of the past (fears, guilt, and feelings of anger or unworthiness), we automatically limit our circle of possibility. Our imagination not only replays the negative images of the past, but it replays them in a larger and more detailed manner than they actually occurred. Even small failures become monumental disasters. The original damage is magnified, since our subconscious plays its natural role by accepting these elaborate rate images as actual experience. The subconscious proceeds to keep us in a prison of negativity by implementing similar experiences to coincide with this understanding of reality. In essence, we create an unhappy, insecure present by picturing past sadness and perceived failure, and then we try to form our future from a present state of mind that is built upon those negative images of the past. As long as we let our imagination focus on an unworkable past, we are unable to move into a self-sustaining future. Using past negative images while trying to visualize a positive future cancels out our efforts.

You can choose how you are going to use your imagination. It belongs to you, and no one has control over it except for you. You can remember whatever pasts of the past you want, but pre-play the future you desire. By selectively applying your imagination, you can focus on the positive experiences from your past and using these images to form a solid base for the future. Perceiving a positive future not only shows us how to get where we want to go, but actually draws us toward the people, circumstances, places, and conditions to fulfill our image of the future. On the other hand, a negative image of the future also draws us toward the people, places, and events to convince us that what we want is impossible.

Using positive and purposeful pre-play imaging offers a radical departure from focusing on the negativity of the past. Expand the

potential in your life by selectively imaging the best for yourself. Allow your mind to be free. Visualize images for the creation of new possibilities based on these observations, and you will be amazed at the desires that will surface and the creative solutions you will discover to enable effective action. As purposeful, creative beings, positive images provide excitement, direction, and a clear vision for which we will make the best effort. For the highly visual person, this conceptual portion of the possibility process is often deeply satisfying. Certainly, visual validation is a key element in expanding our circle of possibility and defining the potential benefits in enacting change. If you are a person who responds powerfully to the sense of hearing or touch, add these kinds of stimulus to your visualization.

In making choices, people often support the impossibility stance by asserting, “I can’t.” This is usually based on what they have experienced in the past – the images that they hold in their minds. Of course, this typical disclaimer is sustained by what we tend to think of as good reasons (really excuses) as to why achieving, having, or being what we desire is quite impossible.

The truth of the matter is that you can be, do, or have just about anything you choose. However, if you think something is impossible, or if you don’t do a certain thing, it is because you choose to accept it as impossible. It is not because you can’t. Whatever you get into the “I can’t syndrome, it helps to say to yourself, “I can, but right now I choose not to.” At least you are acknowledging that no one or nothing outside of you is controlling the outcome. Any delay in creating what you want is not the result of people, circumstances, or conditions outside of you, but rather you limited circle of possibility. Your circle of possibility can only be expanded through possibility thinking.

Taking Responsibility for Impossible Situations

Probably the most difficult concept to grasp is the idea that we are fully responsible for all that we experience in our lives. By taking responsibility for our lives and our happiness, we rid ourselves of emotional dependency, and therefore we are self-reliant. Often, we know what the consequences of our actions will be, other times we may not, but either way around, we are responsible for our actions. By taking the stance of being fully responsible, we enrich our lives by finding better, more responsible solutions.

Psychologist Albert Ellis states: “The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You don’t blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the President. You realize that you control your own destiny.” When we face our problems we tend to see life and all that happens around us differently. We can become bitter as we blame everyone or everything around us, or we can become more aligned with our purpose and our Greater Self as we heighten our approach to life.