A few months ago I read an amazing story about a 90-year-old woman who “imagined her way through cancer treatment.”
During her chemotherapy sessions, 5 days a week for a period of six months, this woman imagined “the IV pole she toted around with her in the hospital was actually a Christmas tree; the people who worked with her transformed from hospital employees to Sir Galahad and Sir Lancelot; and the room she visited to receive her treatment turned into a room with a view … even the scale she used in the mornings to maintain her weight wasn’t immune to her imaginary machinations. The scale remained a scale, but (the woman) imagined she was a jockey getting weighed before a race.”
The article called her fantasies “imagination run amok” – in other words, gone wild or berserk. But I call her fantasies “brilliant.” She used her imagination to traverse a very difficult experience. And the result is startling. Despite a very low survival rate for her advanced age and the type of lymphoma, she is now home and recharging her energy so she can go back to playing tennis, cycling and volunteering at a local art center. Wow!
I share this story not to encourage the kind of flights of fancy that take us out of our reality into magical thinking, but to bring awareness to the immense power of our imaginations.
When we use affirmations, visualization, focused meditation, we are actually using this great attribute of imagination to “re-imagine” our lives, circumstances, etc., which then creates an air of positivity around us and literally changes the composition of our internal energy.
For example, consider what happens when your thoughts are consumed by a problem. You literally can feel the heaviness of the issue within you (maybe the pit of your stomach?). Even without saying anything, others will ask you what’s wrong because your countenance – the way you “look” and the energy you put out – has a negative, dense quality to it.
On the other hand, think about what happens when you are infused with positive thoughts. Your smile is contagious; a sense of wellbeing pervades you inside and out, and others are drawn to the brightness of your countenance.
My point being ~ we have the power to “choose” our thoughts. That courageous 90-year-old woman chose to use lovely, happy thoughts, memories and childhood fantasies to invoke a wonderful atmosphere of positivity for herself. And just think of the smiles she put on the faces of both patients and staff in that hospital.
So, ask yourself this: What area of my life could use an infusion of imagination?
For a little more on this subject have a look at Louise Hay’s “You Can Heal Your Life,” which offers insight and instruction on how to use visualization and affirmations (aspects of our imagination) to create positivity and change in life.
Blessings, Plynn
Plynn Gutman 