If you have a good imagination, it can help and hurt you.
Here the ways that I have learned to deal with my imagination and creativity so that it doesn’t hurt me.
- Recognize that your imagination is highly susceptible to the environment. You are going to absorb things and not be consciously aware of it. For example, when I have dreams I realize after waking up that I absorbed things the day before and that the dream was a way to bring that to my conscious awareness.
- Ask yourself if what you are absorbing belongs to you or the news, media, or even if it is real. Many times those of us with imagination see things as real, and believe in their reality to an alarming extent.
- Its ok to have a little childlike wonder. As a kid I thought an old cartoon called The Smurfs was a documentary. I was always looking around for a smurf, and it took a little bit for me to realize that it wasn’t real. Yes that sounds crazy, but as a young child you don’t have a grasp on reality yet.
- Channel your creativity into something useful. That’s part of the reason why I write here. If I didn’t do this I don’t know what my imagination would do. It is a wonderful tool and I have gained so much because of it, but it can equally cause me anxiety when things are not real and it feels like they are.
- Challenge your emotions and thoughts and ask yourself for proof of what is real. Don’t believe anything just because you want to believe it. I learned to do this in real life so it became a habit, and then when I was in a dream when I challenged myself I realized it wasn’t reality and then I was free to do whatever I wanted in a dream. When you know about reality in this world, it makes the dream world much more fun.
- Accept that creativity comes easy to you, it doesn’t for others. People who aren’t creative seem less alive. Part of being human is to tear things apart with our mind, and then creatively put them back together and enjoy the process. Sadly not all people can do this. Accept that many people are not good at analyzing things, and not good at putting them together. Accept people for where they are, and not where it would be easier for you for them to be.
- Look at imagination is both a strength and a weakness. It can be useful, but it also can be debilitating if we don’t challenge it with facts. Balance is so key here. You have to sometimes pull back and not use imagination at times even thought it is easy and natural to do so. Not every skill or tool is appropriate for every situation. Its ok to be boring, and sometimes you have to be boring and plain to not overwhelm people.
- Try to put yourself in others shoes. If you had no imagination and you have to deal with someone who has imagination they may feel strange and hard to understand. Being imaginative often means that you separate yourself from others, and that when you live in your head you might also forget your heart. Don’t be just imaginative, be kind and loving, or else your fantasies will leave you alone.
- Look at imagination as a tool that sometimes is appropriate and sometimes isn’t. Just like a hammer doesn’t work all the time, no single quality or gift is appropriate for all situations. One of the other ways that imagination manifests itself with me is humor. I can often be funny and too often others are not ready for humor or it may not be appropriate in the situation. This is where you have to be emotionally intelligent and not make your feelings the most important thing.
- Finally see a doctor if you feel that your imagination is too powerful for you to take steps to accept and redirect. I haven’t felt that it has hurt others but sometimes I have imagined things that were not true about me and unnecessarily made myself feel bad. If your imagination is causing you to hurt yourself, its time to reconsider what you are doing.