Imagination

Our minds are complex things.

As humans, we are constantly mixing our memories, emotions, and knowledge together.

That tends to mean that, the vast majority of thoughts we have throughout the day, are skewed by our emotions and past experiences.

They are our imagination.

This is normal.

The problem tends to arise when we forget this, and begin to think that our thoughts, opinions, and knowledge are complete fact and the truth.

When we lose the ability to decipher the difference between facts, judgments, emotions, and physical sensations, we set ourselves up for conflict, and often create our own discomfort.

I was introduced to a simple and powerful drill when going through The Strong Coach, called Notice-Imagine-Feel

Notice: spend 2 minutes pointing out facts. Facts are mundane, must be removed of judgement, and something that generally 10 out of 10 people interpret the same way.

“I notice my watch is digital.”
“I notice your shirt has a tennis ball on it.”
“I notice I left work at 6:07pm.”

Imagine: spend 2 minutes adding judgement and emotion to things. When we add judgement to it, it is no longer fact, and is now our personal interpretation. I.e. our imagination.

“I imagine my watch is garbage.”
“I imagine your shirt is insanely comfortable.”
“I imagine I left work late because my coworkers are incompetent.”

Feel: spend 2 minutes feeling physical sensations. In this regard feelings *are not* emotions. They are actual physical sensations. An area we tend to clutter by using the term “feel” to hide the fact that we’re using our imagination and casting judgement.

“I feel like my boss hates me.” (Judgement/Imagination)

“I feel tightness in my chest when I get called to see my boss.” (Actual physical sensation)

“My back feels like shit.” (Judgement/imagination)

“I feel soreness in my low back.” (Actual physical sensation)

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By creating this new vocabulary, and viewing these areas through a different lens, we can begin to have a more accurate perspective of ourselves, and in turn the world.

Go forth and be awesome! 😎