Active Imagination

When we’re children, our imagination and creativity know no bounds. One second, we might be pirates sailing through the perilous seas of our bathtub and the next, we’re hiding in our indestructible castles built of blankets and sheets. As we get older, however, our creativity levels and imagination can dwindle. Daydreams may often be more confined to the limits of reality, and we may be told that it is not okay to be imaginative, especially in a playful manner. 

While we certainly can get by without this creativity and visualization, having it holds a special place in psychology, in our mental health, and our mental development and maintenance. This article will set out to evaluate and emphasize the importance of the active imagination both as a child and in our adulthood, as well as review online therapy as an option for curious parents and families.

Active imagination and child development

Play behaviors are hardwired into different species to satisfy their needs for fun and to help them develop a variety of abilities that will improve their chances of survival. Similarly, the creativity and imaginative activities that human children engage in play a crucial role in their development.

Active imagination helps children build valuable social skills

If you know a thing or two about play therapy, you know the beneficial effects that come with allowing a child to express their active imagination through pretend situations. Children who play pretend can come up with their worlds and characters, through which they emulate some of the social skills they’ve observed in the real world and figure out how they apply to any given situation.

These benefits can become even greater when children play pretend with other children. This allows them to learn about cooperation and compromise with others in an imaginative environment, instead of just from a parent.

Imaginative play actively supports cognitive development

Through actively imagined situations, children learn how to problem solve, how to use language, and how the world around them works. Let’s say, for example, that you have a child who is pretending that they are working at a restaurant in outer space. Their experience will teach them how they need to talk to the people around them to keep things moving smoothly. Active creativity and active imagination will teach them how a real-life restaurant works when they start researching more about the mechanics of a real dining experience, and it will teach them how to come up with solutions if something should go wrong in the restaurant.

All these skills are skills that we should be fostering in our children because they can be applied to real-life situations.

Pretend play often includes physical activity

Children are wonderful at being active, and their active imagination doesn’t stop when they are playing pretend. Besides the cognitive benefits that come from active creativity and imagination, pretend play also gives children the opportunity to become more comfortable with their bodies and helps them improve necessary functions, such as motor skills and hand-eye coordination.

Active imagination in adulthood

In adulthood, it’s not uncommon for someone who has an active imagination to potentially be viewed as childish.

We still need these skills

Skills that we’ve learned will not just vanish once we stop using them, or use them less frequently. However, the skills that we learn can become less convenient if we don’t use them consistently. Using your active imagination and being creative will keep the skills mentioned above honed for continuous use throughout your adult years.

Play relieves stress and improves relationships

Think back to a time when you played a game or engaged in a creative activity using only your mind.

How did it feel? Did it make you feel smarter, more connected, and removed from the stress of everyday life? Creative activities and imaginative games with others allow us to recharge our brains, take a much-needed break from our daily stressors, and help us connect with those around us. This can be especially true when we use creativity or imagination in a work environment.

It keeps your mind and body energized and honed

Something is refreshing and electrifying about doing a creative task and using your active imagination. It allows us to escape, if only for a moment, from life as we know it. Active imagination allows us to explore new worlds outside of our homes, learn new things about our existing world as well as ourselves and puts us in touch with that childlike part of ourselves at all ages. Our active imagination keeps us on our toes, mentally and physically.

The term “active imagination” is just another way to say “visualization”

There is, at times, a stigma attached to the phrase “active imagination.” When we think of the phrase “active imagination,” we likely don’t conjure up visions of success and abundance in our lives. Instead, we most likely think about people who are extremely imaginative but whose lives are perhaps less conventional. 

What is visualization?

One way that society has managed to work around this is by turning the phrase “active imagination” into “visualization.” When we hear the word “visualization,” we may think about the self-help industry and the power of attracting what we want simply by imagining that we already have it.

When we visualize what we want, and we know that we want what we visualize, it may tell our subconscious mind that we can obtain what we want out of life. Active imagination and visualization is essentially the same principle that you see in other aspects of psychology, such as positive thinking and positive affirmations. Visualization, or active imagination, can help us to reprogram our way of thinking and, therefore, our way of doing.

The use of active imagination in psychology

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, some therapists use play therapy when attempting to evaluate and assist children who have behavioral or mental health issues. This type of therapy is usually applied to care for children only and is not very often used in adult cases. For adults, psychologists can apply creativity to psychotherapy to achieve the same effects and incorporate active imagination in sessions.

According to chapter 13 in the Handbook of Therapeutic Imagery Techniques, “The theoretical purpose of using imaginary situations is based not only on how the patient views his world but also being able, in time, to ‘open up the closed system of internal reality.” This means that being able to look at a situation from an imaginative perspective can help us conceptualize the consequences of each relevant decision and weigh them, allowing for more reasoned and rational decision-making and more thorough benefits.

Tap into an active imagination in online therapy