Awakening the imagination is certainly an interesting topic that I won’t begin to scratch the surface of, but that shouldn’t stop me from “having my say”.

I came across an interesting article at the Medium the other day about this topic. If you want to see the whole article, click HERE. Let’s start off with a short quote from the article:

“As artists, we seek to restore our childlike perception: a more innocent state of wonder and appreciation not tethered to utility or survival.”

~ Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

I kinda like that definition of an artist. That is something I certainly would work to achieve. Even in my initial stages of becoming more artistic, I am looking at things from a different perspective. Little details of life catch my attention, that in the past, were just ignored.

Utility and survival are two of the fundamental needs in identified in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. (I got to do some posts about this pyramid sometime soon). They are necessary to move beyond the survival and utility state with the final goal of self-actualization. Maslow believed that the birthright of the real self is creativity.

Before my years are over, it’s time I started achieving my birthright.

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Getting to the primary point of this post, the subtitle of the aforementioned article was

Awakening The Imagination

Some say there is a fine line between madness and genius.

Imagination is absolutely critical to the quality of our lives. Our imagination enables us to leave our routine everyday existence by fantasizing about travel, food, sex, falling in love, or having the last word — all the things that make life interesting. Imagination gives us the opportunity to envision new possibilities — it is an essential launchpad for making our hopes come true. It fires our creativity, relieves our boredom, alleviates our pain, enhances our pleasure, and enriches our most intimate relationships.

Psychiatrist Bessel A. van der Kolk —The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma,