Science Agrees: Imagination Can Reshape Real-Life Experience
Just think about how much we used to utilize our imagination as kids. As an adult though, most of us, do the contrary. Sometimes we even limit our own imagination.
For a child, imagination is the main tool for learning and exploring the world. As we get older, due to our belief systems we learn to suppress imagination and limit its usage. However, imagination can change our real-life experiences.
Therefore imagination can change our life!
Recent research shows that imagination affects attitudes on the neural level. Especially considering hypnosis and how hypnosis incorporates imagination, hypnotherapy can help us reconstruct our lives in a way. Hypnosis highly relies on imagination and the power of creating new neuropathways.
Newly published neuroscience research points out that our real-life experiences can be affected by what our mind imagines. The study named ‘Forming Attitudes via Neural Activity Supporting Affective Episodic Simulations’ was published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that based on fMRI performed during the research, it’s concluded that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex plays a pivotal role in facilitating the power of imagination.
Representational-similarity analysis (RSA) yields environmental representations in the vmPFC. Figure a: The vmPFC region-of-interest used for all fMRI analyses.
Source: Roland G. Benoit, Philipp C. Paulus, and Daniel L. Schacter. "Forming Attitudes via Neural Activity Supporting Affective Episodic Simulations." (2019) Nature Communications/Creative Commons)
In other words, science supports that our imagination can reshape our attitudes towards positive as well as negative.
Think about all the times your imagination might have affected your life in a negative manner. To give you an example, imagine when you unintentionally pictured yourself being laughed at during a stage performance or pictured the crowd not paying attention to you at all during your first public speech.
Were you aware of your mind navigating you towards somewhere negative? As a result, it is no coincidence that your imagination turns into reality and you actually suppress yourself from being able to perform your best. Negative self-talk is a very subtle but also very powerful form of underestimating and doubting yourself.
On the contrary, positive imagination of situations and people will lead to better and more satisfying experiences. This also happens to be one of the strongest tools that’s widely used in hypnotherapy. During hypnosis, when the subconscious mind is stimulated, positive imagination is triggered with the help of your hypnotherapist.
Images, pictures, and situations are more vivid on the subconscious level and the mind cannot really differentiate reality from imagination. During repetitive sessions or recordings, these positive images are reinforced. Sure enough, we start seeing positive changes!
Just like negative self-talk, positive self-talk can be just as effective, especially if it’s repetitive. There are many ways of initiating positive self-talk such as meditation, self-hypnosis, breathwork, or even looking at the mirror and giving positive affirmations to yourself.
These small practices contribute to positive imagination which results in positive real-life experiences. When we can master positive self-talk, we become limitless and infinite.
What are you waiting for?
You can start using your mind’s power: The imagination!
Our mind often speculates the future and evaluates the past. Does your future look positive or negative to you? Don’t forget, your positive imagination will also affect your future positively.
Now, we need to become aware of our negative self-talk and replace it with positive consistently.