Retirement Article
Six Ways to Improve Your Imagination and Improve Your Retirement Experience
Scott A Gese

Stay curious and embrace the joy of a retirement filled with activities fueled by an active imagination. If you do this you'll have a solid guarantee that your retirement will never be boring.

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What is imagination?

Is it art or is it science?

Webster defines Imagination this way:

Imagination: The act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality.

Science sees imagination as a thought process.

If you look at imagination scientifically you'll find the act of imagining an image sets off processes in the brain. The visual cortex as well as several other regions of the brain are involved through a widespread neural network.

You can carry this process further, you could take a look at what your mind is imagining and project it into the outer world through any number of outlets. Writing, drawing or painting would be several obvious artistic outlets.

But they're not the only outlets available to you. Math, science, engineering and many other physical outlets are all vehicles used to manifest the physical results of your imagination.

The end results of a mindful and intentional thought process will produce both physical art and science.

There are numerous books on the subject of using your imagination and setting intentions (mental) to achieve a physical result.

Here are a couple of examples.

Mind to Matter by Dawson Church and The Intention Experiment by Lynn M. Taggart are a couple of good books I've read and recommend.

Dr. Joe Dispenza also writes on the subject through his books. I've read several including Becoming Supernatural and Breaking the Habit of Being yourself. Both excellent reads.

Learning a few good techniques on setting intentions is a good place to start. From that point it's a matter of experience. The harder and longer you work at it, the easier it becomes.

Imagination can also be considered a process for creating art.

If you play a musical instrument, speak a foreign language or for that matter, anything that took both time and effort, you've used both your imagination and intention setting. Those mindful thoughts and intentions eventually became physical reality in the form of what you were focused on.

If you lack imagination or don't understand the process of setting intentions the books I mentioned will help. Once you understand the process there are ways you can learn to improve upon it. Here are a few suggestions. A hands on approach will stimulate your brain much more than just looking or reading about it.

Explore different art forms:

The more you expose yourself to the arts the more apt you are to stimulate your own artistic imagination. Art forms such as drawing, painting, sculpture and music are perfect for ways to get yourself inspired.

Experiment with creative activities:

Hands on activities are a great way to stimulate your imagination. Try using a pottery wheel, plan out a flower or vegetable garden. If cooking is your thing try being creative in the kitchen. Experimenting and exploring new activities can be a great avenue to unlock your imagination.

Try your hand at creative writing:

Don't know where to start? Try writing prompts. A prompt is a structured idea that can spark your creativity and your imagination. If writing prompts is not your thing, you can find plenty of them online. If you use an A.I. Chat program you can ask to have it write prompts for you. Then use them as a springboard to promote your creative writing skills.

Consider Role-Playing Games:

If you like playing games try RPG's. Join an online role playing group where you can participate in a structured framework of storytelling and other imaginative roll-playing games

Read fiction:

What better way to spark your imagination than by immersing yourself in an imaginative world. A mark of a good fiction writer is that they can lead their readers to places that only exist in the imagination and make them seem real. What better way to fuel your own imagination.

Use your mind to visualize:

Visualization techniques are used by many great athletes to enhance their performance. You can use it to tap into your imagination. Start by visualizing something as simple as something you did that day. Think of what if's. What if this happened or what if I did this instead. Play with it and add to it. Soon your imagination will take over and you will find yourself changing the original thought into something completely different.

If you work on using these ideas on a daily basis you'll gradually strengthen your ability to use your imagination. Your retirement years will become much more susceptible to new forms of creativity and self-expression. Stay curious and embrace the joy of a retirement filled with activities fueled by an active imagination. If you do this you'll have a solid guarantee that your retirement will never be boring.

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Retirement Article
Six Ways to Improve Your Imagination and Improve Your Retirement Experience
Scott A Gese

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