Just imagine yourself somewhere, in a place far, far away for 60 seconds. This place could be anywhere you could possibly think of, be it fiction or non-fiction. Now, what you do next is to try and forget about what is happening currently, with the Coronavirus and other world problems you could think of, in addition with the thoughts constantly plaguing your brain. Every. Single. Day. Take all those, mash them up into a tiny ball, and make them vanish completely from your mind, like how a magician clasps his hands together and the coin that he once had in the palm of his hand has now disappeared in front of your very eyes. Then, once that is over, when those overwhelming thoughts vanished, take that full minute to yourself to create a different perspective. A different world even, and live in it, instead of the world "now". I know "living in your imagination" isn't as clear as I would like it to be, but I will try my hardest to explain it. You see, what I want you to do is to make your mind alive, to make it react with color and life, rather than let the usual "doom and gloom" settle in. Most importantly, I want you to spark your creative mind. See, I believe that using our thoughts for such trivial needs is in fact one of the key components to living a good life and one of the healthiest ways to make it through trials and hardships we face, without the use of stimulants. You could even say that the imagination is a drug, without the side effects.
I feel that "living in your imagination" is one of the most difficult things to do. The reason being is that we always have something else on our mind. We only very rarely think of a singular thought. For example, let's say you are stuck at home and you have to work on your website for a few hours to help your business grow. You also have a fixed time before it has to be published. Then in the midst of your editing, the phone rings and you realize that you needed to go to work today and were going to show up late for the 2nd time. Then you start thinking about the rest of the day, with thoughts constantly filling your mind like "I need to pack a lunch", or "did I eat breakfast?". To make it even worse, you also have to think about the ways you're going to get to work, be it bus or car. Do you see? You already have 7 different thoughts running at the exact same time:
1. You need to finish editing your website.
2. You have a deadline.
3. You have to go to work.
4. You are going to be late and must apologize to your manager.
5. You need to pack a lunch for work.
6. You need to eat breakfast before you go.
7. You need to figure out transportation.
Absurd as this list looks, that in reality, is seen as the general norm. Our brains have evolved from keeping one individual thought to maintaining multiple. I'm not saying that it is a bad thing, its honestly great to multitask. However, if it persists then it isn't healthy, in my opinion. There are times when we can overwork our brain, and it usually comes from cases of multiple thought processing. It can become too much for us too handle and it could eventually hurt our mental health. That is why I believe that just settling down for a single minute, and engaging the imagination in the form of an "adventure" can help combat these overworking tendencies. You could see yourself deep in space, exploring a new habitable planet with extraterrestrial plants and creatures, or halfway around the world in Europe on a scavenger hunt in famous museums. Any and all forms of creativity is healthy for your mind, and it makes us have a nice break from reality, because to be perfectly honest, we all need it as much as we can, especially now.
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