2 minute read
Arts & Healing 2022
Arts for Military Veterans
By Amber Robinson
What Can Your Imagination Do for You in 2022?
Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” Have you ever thought about the power of imagination and what makes it so important to us all?
Stop to think about the things you’ve used your imagination for in your life. They are probably some of the proudest moments. They were most likely times you created something new and exciting, problems solved something big at work or stepped into a new home or work space you had envisioned first.
It’s your creativity and imagination that writes those awesome college papers your teachers love, the ones where you are not only showing you understand the content you are learning, but also visualizing where you could use it or talking about where you have used it. For me, as a 44-year old college student, I’m usually writing about the latter.
We use our imaginations daily when we think about how we’d like our day to go, how we are going to time out our day. It’s used constantly by us, but not usually given the credit it deserves. I mean, what do you think happens when scientists imagine possibilities outside of the box, what happens when inventors do that? The world advances!
According to an article in the Harvard Business Review (https://tinyurl.com/imaginationHBR) we need imagination more now than ever. As we deal with an ongoing pandemic with rapid mutations happening constantly, it’s hard not to get down. But when the days get dark, we need our imaginations to create light in the midst of them, to create a safer, brighter future.
As we move from the crisis, reactionary phase of the pandemic, we’ll all need to envision something new.
The Harvard article states, “renewal and adaptive strategies [will] give way to classical planningbased strategies and then to visionary and shaping strategies, which require imagination.”
In the same ways our world’s great “imaginers’ will help us move from crisis phase to a new way of thriving post-pandemic, you can create a brighter future for yourself. In an article by Forbes magazine (https://tinyurl.com/Globokar-forbes) writer Lidija Globokar shares the way athletes have always used visualization as an example of how it can be used to reach any life goal. Famous athletes like Muhammed Ali, Kobe Bryant and Arnold Schwarzenegger all used visualization and imagination to achieve the things they are now famous for.
But the article says it has also been used successfully in police training and with new medical surgeons. Those who went through visualization training prior to their first times under job stress not only executed better on the job, but did so with reduced anxiety.
So, in 2022, I challenge us all to be mindful of our imaginations. I posit we give our imagination the credit it deserves and become conscious of its use.
With that said, what will you visualize for yourself this year? In what ways will your imagination lead the way to a life that thrives?
- Albert Einstein
