Chasing Rainbows

When was the last time you reflected on the super power we each had at one point but most of us lost?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past two days.
I spent most of Monday snuggled up on my office couch rereading a novel I absolutely loved over 15 years ago.

It was interesting to experience it so differently a decade and a half later,
and what stood out to me the most was how the story actually transported me deeply back into my imagination.

Into worlds and realms and stories that make the seemingly impossible come alive with possibility.

There’s a sparkle of boundless potential that shines through the eyes of children who have yet to be told that many of their dreams aren’t a match for our so-called ‘reality.’

And so they continue to imagine.
And imagine and imagine.
And dance and twirl in that imagination.

A tinkering with possibility.
An unconstrained vitality of spirit.

And they end up, as a result, being way smarter and more talented than the rest of us ‘reasonable’ people.
Until we hold them back with our 'reality,' that is.

Here’s a really cool fact,
the experiential part of our brains couldn’t care less about whether something is actually happening
or if we’re imagining it.

That’s why we sometimes find that as we reflect back on memories or hear old songs,
it feels for an instant like we’re back in those moments
reliving those feelings and scenes and sensory experiences.

That’s why we get pre-angry at people for doing what we imagine and assume they’re about to do before they’ve even done it
(please tell me I’m not the only one who does this hahah!)

When we vividly visualize and tell ourselves stories in our minds, our brains send out nerve impulses that create the experience in our bodies as if we were living it in this very moment,
knowing very well on a conscious level that it isn’t actually happening right now,
and yet experiencing it nonetheless simply because we allow ourselves to go there in our minds.

The human capacity for imagination is one of the hallmarks of our resilience as a species.

It’s what enables us to endure the unimaginable
(people used their imagination to survive concentration camps – check out Man’s Search for Meaning if you want to read the actual story behind this)
and magnify joy in the seemingly most ordinary of moments.

Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve rarely given myself the space to run wild and free with my imagination lately.

I’ve been playing with it today and it’s been incredibly joyful.

So here’s my question for you (and I do hope some of you will actually gift me the joy of sharing your answers with me)

If you were to allow your own imagination to go unbridled and unchecked for a while
without any buts and without any ‘reality checks’
If for a moment even the impossible could come alive in you, where would your mind take you? What internal reality would you create?

Where would you go if you let yourself dream?

I’m over here chasing rainbows xx