Imagination is the
ability to form mental images, or the ability to spontaneously generate images
within one's own mind. It helps provide meaning to experience and understanding
to knowledge; it is a fundamental facility through which people make sense of the
world,[1][2][3] and it also plays a key role in the learning process.[1][4] A
basic training for imagination is the listening to storytelling
(narrative),[1][5] in which the exactness of the chosen words is the
fundamental factor to 'evoke worlds'.[6]
It is accepted as the innate ability and process to invent partial or complete
personal realms within the mind from elements derived from sense perceptions of
the shared world.[citation needed] The term is technically used in psychology
for the process of reviving in the mind percepts of objects formerly given in
sense perception. Since this use of the term conflicts with that of ordinary
language, some psychologists have preferred to describe this process as
"imaging" or "imagery" or to speak of it as "reproductive"
as opposed to "productive" or "constructive" imagination.
Imagined images are seen with the "mind's eye".
Ok, now I have either managed to cure your insomnia or perhaps awakened a sense
of inquiry in your mind's eye. I can not know that from here, but I
do hope it is the latter. And if in fact you are experiencing the
former then I maintain that sleep is also a good thing…Perhaps to dream etc.
etc. etc.
It has often occurred to me, as I go through the quitting process, that the
role of imagination is not often cited. We tend to talk about will,
resolve, strength and commitment. These are indeed necessary
elements of the human spirit that need to be honed and sharpened if we are to
break the cycle of addiction. But in a way these concepts are of a
singular dimension. They live in the realm of “I will not do this”…”I will do
that.” They represent a view of addiction as a single act that “ I
must not do”. In this case “I will not smoke”.
Mind you I do not object to the use of will, resolve and
commitment. In the early days of my quit they were essential
elements and needed to be deployed at full strength. But sooner or
later, I realized that I do not have unlimited reserves of these precious
survival elements. And it is when I sensed the drying of those
particular wells that I expanded the vision of the addiction cycle to include
more subtle and delicate aspects of the human soul. I began to
realize that the addiction cycle emanated from a deeper longing of the heart.
On the face of it, there was no logical reason for me to continually subject my
otherwise healthy body to the chemical abuse of cigarettes. However,
when I quit, my body revolted in a way that told me there may be no logic in
it, but there was an artificial necessity. Well that was when I went
through the physical side of withdrawal and make no mistake that was
hard. That was when will, resolve and commitment paid big
dividends. There was no subtle side of physical withdrawal for me;
it was all snap and snarl. But I survived and so can any of you who are now
facing that rather uncomfortable process.
Now a number of full trip around the sun reborn, I am still struggling with the
rise and fall of the addiction tide. But now the healing is in a
different realm. The physical breaking of the cycle is well behind
me. What lies before me is the daily reexamination of how I view
myself. And that brings us back to the original definition of
imagination. My addiction rose out of my own mishandling of the
negative feelings and unfulfilled desires that make up the person I
am. In short I failed to imagine better things for myself in terms
of my own insecurities and perceived failures. To quote one of my
own wee missives:
“When I was angry
it told me everything would be alright
and I believed it
And I never learned to communicate”
The role of imagination is huge in overcoming an addiction. I
implore you to look deeply for the reasons that drive you on to that next
puff. If your experience is anything a kin to mine, you will
understand that you are using cigarettes to cover something that needs to be
brought out into the light. What ever it is you are feeling,
anxiety, sadness or fear, cannot be kept at bay with a
cigarette. Why destroy the vessel (the body) in order not to
experience the soul. Where is the logic in that? I
believe that the soul is where the imagination lives. Open that door
when you are sad and see if you cannot use your imagination to construct a
better view of the sadness. If you are angry, do not run to the old
remedy, but create a gentler scenario for yourself. If you are
lonely, remind yourself that you always have you and you are the greatest
self-creating machine on the planet…Imagine that…
stay well
nonic
