Tips for imagination. How to develop imagination. Practice fantasy every day

Human life is unthinkable without imagination - a special form of reflection of the surrounding reality. Without it, all cognitive processes and activities are impossible: memory, play, planning, modeling, creative activity, memories, creating images of surrounding objects, etc. Some equate imagination with fantasy, but from a scientific point of view, this is not entirely correct. Imagination is the mental ability to imagine something or someone real, while fantasy is associated only with a fictional world. It is desirable to distinguish between these concepts.

Imagination functions.

A man without imagination would be incapable of figurative and abstract thinking, to anticipate events, to solve problems mentally, without actions with any objects. To be able to plan, dream, think about a movie you have watched, a book you have read, or a tune you have heard, you must be able to imagine.

Scientists share recreative and creative imagination. From the name of the categories it is clear that the recreative is aimed at presenting images that a person has already encountered, or according to their description, and the creative is aimed at creating some new images from the transformed old ones. Another type of imagination is a dream - a representation of a desired future. Without a dream as a form of imagination, a person will not have a desired image of the future, because of which he will not be able to build goals and ways to achieve them.

How to develop imagination?

As in the case of other human abilities, it is worth working on the imagination with its low development. The good news is that both adults and children can do it equally successfully. True, the children have fewer various prohibitions, restrictions and stereotypes in the perception of reality, which allows them to effectively develop and use their imagination. But with the desire and constant performance of some exercises, adults will also be able to use this ability to the maximum.

There are many ways to develop imagination. It is advisable to choose the one you like the most and start active mental actions.

Word games.

In games, it is good to develop the imagination of children, since this is their leading activity. But for adults there are interesting games that will also allow you to develop your imagination:

• The game "Storytellers or inventors." The essence of the game is that everyone tells fictional stories, which can then be supplemented by others or illustrated.
• "Mime", "crocodile" or "inventing riddles" can also be a great pastime. Here the essence of the game is that you need to guess the object by its description, display or drawing. That is, the guesser must imagine the main characteristics of the object and convey them to the public, and the guessers, on the basis of them, present this object.
• "Associations". The association game has long been popular among adults and children, but it is also great for developing the imagination. Coming up with an association to a certain word, a person imagines an object and imagines some kind of connection with another object. An important point is that sometimes the most incomprehensible connections to others need to be explained. Here a person also describes his process of imagination to others.
• Building fantastic hypotheses or writing fairy tales also has a positive effect on the development figurative thinking. In such games, participants must come up with some fantastic assumptions and develop them. For example, the player is asked the question: “What would happen if a bear knocked on your door and asked him to shave?”, And he must answer it. The most ridiculous and interesting assumptions cause the brain to think not in the usual standard direction, but to form new mental images and connections.

Reading diagrams and maps.

The study of real maps or diagrams of "hidden pirate treasures" will develop the imagination of both children and adults. One should try to “travel” around the map, remembering or imagining the places where the mental journey stops. Children can take some simple and fabulous cards, and adults can use a real map of the world or other countries. It's a good idea to draw a small sketch at the next stop and place it on the map.

Geometry knowledge.

Avid "techies" who are not inclined to humanitarian tasks such as writing can also come up with a variety of ways to develop their imagination. These can be quite complex tasks for connecting dots with several lines, removing matches, drawing figures without taking the pencil off the paper. Another interesting method on how to develop imagination, including for children, is to use sweeps. geometric bodies. Using the sweep, you need to determine what volumetric figure will turn out when it is collapsed, and vice versa: try to imagine its sweep using the figure.

Capturing surrounding events.

A rich life experience and a broad outlook are considered helpers for the development of the imagination. The more images and thoughts a person has, the better his imagination is developed. In order to use this effectively, it is desirable to record new knowledge, experience gained, any observations. You can keep a kind of diary, you can sketch the perceived information, you can tell or film your observations. So a person forms a huge base of the most diverse figurative material that can be used for imagination.

Art as a means of developing the imagination.

Reading fiction books promotes the development of the imagination. Usually, since childhood, people do not like to read huge pieces of text of a descriptive nature, whether it is a description of nature, or its appearance, the scene of action. Namely, the presentation of such descriptions is considered one of the best ways to develop the imagination.

Watching movies does not leave much room for the imagination, but movies can also be used for educational purposes. For example, you can stop the movie at some interesting moment and imagine what will happen next. It turns out interesting when the plot that arose in a person’s head is much more interesting than the director’s idea.

The same can be said about paintings. Looking at the canvas of another fashionable artist and not reading its title, one can try to imagine what an impressionist or a typical modern artist depicted in his painting. If the picture is realistic, you can try to imagine what happened before the situation depicted in the picture, and what after.

Even the simple browsing of photos on the Internet or a friend's photo album can be one of the ways to develop the imagination. You need to imagine what kind of people are in the photographs in ordinary life, compose a biography for them, imagine what profession would suit them, etc.

To develop imagination, you need to distance yourself from the idea that adults do not need it. This is very important for resolving everyday situations and difficulties. After all, once someone got tired of sweeping and he invented a vacuum cleaner, another got tired of walking and he presented a prototype of a bicycle. Sometimes everyone needs to be spontaneous, creative and surprised by everything new in order to make an important discovery.

• What is imagination?
• How to develop imagination
• Visualization
• Count in your mind
• Silent movie
• read books
• fictional stories
• What if?..
• Find a creative hobby
• Sequel, prequel, fanfic...
• New words

Dreamer - this is the name of the one who is cut off from reality, lives in his dreams and is not able to cope with the vicissitudes of fate. It's practically a diagnosis. Speaking to a friend, “Yes, he is a dreamer!” - a person will most often wave his hand doomedly, as if adding: "There will be no sense in him."

But let's imagine what our planet would look like if people had no imagination. We are the only species that is characterized by fantasy, the ability to imagine objects and phenomena that do not exist at a given moment in time. (By the way, it is worth understanding that fantasy and imagination are synonymous).

So what would our world be like? People still live in caves, there are no cars on the roads, there are no cities, and you, the reader, do not have a computer from which you are viewing this article. And the article, too, of course, no. If man had no imagination, he would not have become a man, civilization would not have appeared, and the Earth would have remained a wild kingdom of animals.

Are we all a product of the imagination? Exactly. Everything that is around us, our self-consciousness and even the ability to read and write - all this exists thanks to the imagination. Therefore, before you say that dreamers are not of this world, think about the fact that it was dreamers who created this world. At least its man-made part.

But I seem to be getting ahead of myself. To understand the importance of fantasy, you first need to understand what it is.

What is imagination?

Imagination is a property of the human psyche to create new images based on those already in memory. Roughly speaking, imagination is a visualization of non-existent events, phenomena, pictures. Non-existent does not mean impossible. This means that a person can imagine an acquaintance whom he does not see at the moment, or draw in his mind a familiar landscape. Or maybe come up with something new that I have not seen before - for example, a triangular blanket that deprives people of sleep.

This is where we differ from animals - none of them is able to reproduce or create images, they can only think about those pictures that are currently in front of their eyes. Imagination is one of the foundations of thinking, memory and analysis - we are able to think, remember, dream, make plans and bring them to life precisely thanks to fantasy.

The creation of new images is based on a combination of already known components. That is, everything that a person is able to come up with is a vinaigrette from what he once saw. The mechanisms of imagination have not yet been studied, few people imagine how it works, what it is based on and in which part of the brain to look for it. This is the least explored area of ​​human consciousness.

There are many varieties of imagination.

active imagination allows you to consciously call up the desired images in your head. It is divided into creative and recreative . The creative serves to create new images, which can later be embodied in the results of labor - paintings, songs, houses or dresses. Before starting work, any person first imagines its result, then draws a sketch or drawing (if necessary), and only then gets down to business. If there were no imagination, the work would not even begin - what result would a person strive for if he were not able to imagine it /

Therefore it is also called productive imagination, since the images are embodied in the results of labor, inventions and cultural objects.

Recreating imagination is aimed at resurrecting visual images of what you once saw - for example, you can close your eyes and imagine your dog or the situation in the apartment. This kind of imagination is an important component of memory and the basis for creative fantasy.

passive imagination produces images that a person does not intend to bring to life in the near future. It is conscious and unconscious and also has its subcategories.

dreams- conscious creation of images of the distant future. Dreams are plans that a person does not currently have the opportunity to implement, but theoretically they are viable. They may not necessarily be the property of only one person - descendants often fulfill the dreams of their ancestors, described in drawings and literary works.

For example, man's thousand-year dreams of eternal life are being realized today thanks to modern medicine, which has made it possible to significantly extend our age and youth. What if we compare 60-year-old women of the Middle Ages and the 21st century? The first, most likely, was no longer alive at that age, because at 40-50 she became a deep toothless old woman. And the current granny, with money and desire, may well compete with her granddaughter in figure and marry a thirty-year-old youth.

People's dreams of being able to quickly transfer information have come a long way from pigeon mail to the Internet, dreams of capturing pictures of the world around them have evolved from rock art to digital cameras. The dream of fast travel led us to tame the horse, invent the wheel, invent the steam engine, the automobile, the airplane, and hundreds of other devices. Everywhere you look, all the achievements of civilization are dreams come true, and therefore - a product of the imagination.

dreams- Another branch of passive imagination. They differ from dreams in that their realization is impossible. For example, if today my grandmother begins to dream that she will go on a trip to Mars, this can be safely called a daydream - for this she has neither the money, nor the opportunity, nor the health, nor the necessary connections.

Daydreams and daydreams are conscious manifestations of passive imagination.

hallucinations - unconscious generation of non-existent images by the brain in cases of violation of its work. This may occur while taking some psychotropic drugs or in the case of mental illness. Hallucinations are usually so realistic that the person experiencing them believes they are real.

dreams are also an unconscious creation of images, but if hallucinations haunt a person in reality, then dreams come during rest. Their mechanism is also practically not studied, but it can be assumed that dreams are of some benefit. They can tell about the true attitude to the unresolved problem, which we try not to think about by an effort of the will.

Here we have talked mostly about visual images, but imagination has to do with all human senses - smell, hearing, taste, touch. Imagine that you are biting into a juicy lemon. Sour? Gritted teeth? Did saliva come out? This is the work of the recreative imagination.

All people's imagination is developed in different ways - someone can easily invent amazing stories and present unprecedented pictures, and for someone even school essay is a real problem.

The thing is how much effort a person and his environment applied to the development of his imagination. If a child grows up in a family where there is no place for fantasies, then over time he becomes as mundane as his parents.

The French psychologist and educator Théodule Ribot described three stages in the development of fantasy in the 19th century. The first begins in childhood, along with the birth of the imagination. This period covers childhood from three years old, adolescence and adolescence. At this time, a person has the most unbridled fantasy, he believes in miracles, is able to embark on adventures and commit rash acts. The body at such a time is strongly influenced by hormones raging during puberty.

Unfortunately, this period has its own dark side - most suicides occur at this time precisely because young people succumb to their feelings inspired by the imagination. An amazing fact - the stronger a person's imagination is developed, the stronger his feelings. It is people with violent imagination who are able to fall in love before old age and really suffer from unrequited love. And they experience all other emotions more vividly.

The second period does not last long and is the birth of a rational mind in a person, saying that emotions and dreams cannot be a fundamental life guide. In terms of physiology, we can talk about the end of puberty, the formation of the body and brain. At this time, a sensual and sensible personality is fighting in a person - in most cases, the second one wins and the third period begins.

It is final, reason subjugates fantasy and a person learns to live by the rules, and not obeying the call of a dream. Creativity disappears, feelings are considered only ghosts of the past, a person becomes practical and measured. His imagination degenerates, but never completely disappears - it is impossible. There always remains a small spark of fantasy in the soul, which can be blown into a flame again.

So it was in the time of Théodule Ribot - he calculated that the onset of the deterioration of the imagination falls on the age of 14 years. But today everything is much sadder - due to the influence of the media, the Internet and too much information, kids already by the first grade begin to lose their imagination and think in clichés.

How to develop imagination

Lack of imagination makes inner world dull and monotonous, deprives a person of the opportunity to develop and enrich himself at the expense of images and ideas that our brain is capable of endlessly generating if it is not interfered with. There are numerous imagination exercises to help adults learn to fantasize.

Visualization

It is from this exercise that one should begin the development of the imagination - it helps to develop the ability to reproduce and build visual images in detail. Visualization improves not only fantasy, but also thinking and memory.

Imagine an object. For example, a box of matches. Imagine it in all details - brown sides, inscription. Now mentally open and take out the match. Light it up and watch it burn. It seems simple, but at first the visuals will elude you and your brain will try to steer you into its familiar passive observer state.

You can think of different objects, locations and actions, trying to reproduce them in your head to the smallest detail. Imagine how you go home, turn the door handle, take off your shoes, jacket, put the keys on the bedside table ... The interior can be unfamiliar. In general, practice visualization and over time you will notice that you are better at managing your own thoughts.

Count in your mind

Mental counting helps develop imagination, although it may seem unrelated to fantasy. If you are far from mathematics, then at least perform the simplest operations - addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. You can’t count quickly - imagine how you solve a problem in a column on paper, but don’t try to use a notepad. Everything should happen only in the head.

If you have the highest score in mathematics, then you can complicate the task set for yourself - solve geometric and algebraic equations, draw drawings in your mind. Silent movie

Silent movie

Turn off the sound while watching a movie and think out your story to what you see. It is better if these are humorous dialogues of characters that will cheer you up. You can invite friends to visit and make a soundtrack for the film with them, turning a horror movie or a melodrama into a real comedy.

read books

This helps to develop various aspects of personality, including fantasy. Try to vividly imagine descriptions of the interior, landscapes, people you meet in the book. Over time, their vivid images themselves will begin to appear in the head without effort.

fictional stories

Gather a group of friends and tell each other fairy tales. A prerequisite is that fairy tales must be invented independently and preferably impromptu.

What if?..

With this phrase begins the first sentence of the game of hypotheses. You can play it in a company and by yourself. Assumptions should be as unrealistic as possible: “What if our house is now flying in space, and there is a vacuum beyond the threshold?” “What if Count Dracula comes to us now and offers to buy a set of knives from him?” And develop the idea by building stories about what could happen in such a non-standard situation.

Find a creative hobby

All people have a creative streak. Many people think that a hobby that does not bring money and world fame is a waste of time. But this is not true - a hobby develops imagination and makes our life richer. Remember how you wrote poetry in school or loved to embroider before you got bogged down in a routine. Let your crafts be far from ideal, but if the process of creating them is a pleasure, then you need to get the forgotten tools out of the dusty box and start creating again. What it will be - knitting needles and threads, matter and needles, paper and paints - it's up to you.

Sequel, prequel, fanfic...

Are you familiar with these words? In simple terms, this is a continuation, backstory or its own version of the development of events in a film or other work. What happens after your favorite series or book ends? You can come up with it yourself. What kind of life did the characters live while the author did not pay attention to them? And how could everything have been if one of the characters had not committed some key act? You can create your own literary reality. It could exist

A dog with six legs, an ostrich with the head of a crocodile, multi-colored snow that appears flying through a rainbow ... What is there in this world, but it could be! Imagine non-existent animals, objects and phenomena, discuss them with friends - it will be funny and fun. Imagine if people lived underwater like fish. What if oranges were salty? We would eat them as a bite to eat with fried potatoes! This may seem like nonsense to some, so carefully choose friends with whom you can play this game - otherwise some vigilant friend will call the orderlies.

New words

Feel free to play with the language like a constructor. This is a very flexible material, from the disparate elements of which fundamentally new words can be composed. At first it will seem difficult, but over time, new words will themselves pop out of my head, and maybe become the basis for a new one. secret language in your family. So the table easily turns into a “borshchedrom”, the dog into a “gawkleg”, and the cat into a “mukhozhralku”.

Knowing how to develop imagination, you can significantly expand the horizons of your consciousness. All these exercises are aimed at the complex development of a person - they help him become more liberated, cheerful and extraordinary.

And let you heal the glory of an eccentric, but this should not embarrass you. Remember that great people did not follow the beaten paths of ordinary people, that all inventors had a wild imagination, and the most successful and wealthy businessmen were able to create their own business by implementing new, previously unknown opportunities. They invented their own world.

A good imagination is one of the best tools in the world for success! The most successful people tend to creative personalities and imagination plays an important role in their life. By imagining something, a person learns to do it faster. Do you also want to develop your imagination? Then just go to the first step!

Steps

Part 1

We develop our imagination

Dream. Dreaming is a process that helps to build different logical connections and remember information without taking much time. Dreaming is far from a meaningless activity. In fact, it contributes to the formation of a state of high concentration and engagement. While you are daydreaming, an absolutely brilliant idea may suddenly come to your mind!

• Try not to be distracted by the computer/video games/Internet/movies, etc. If you are constantly distracted by various little things, the brain will not be able to focus and perceive information.
• The best time to daydream is in the morning (right before you get out of bed) and at night (before you fall asleep). An ordinary walk without headphones with music and other distractions is also suitable for daydreaming.

1. Look for new experiences. Be open, don't be afraid to try new things. A new experience can bring a lot of emotions and become food for thought and fantasy. For example, when you take a cooking class, you already begin to dream about how you will spend your vacation visiting different cafes and eating different delicacies. New experiences always open up new possibilities and develop the imagination.

   • Of course, you should not go to the other side of the world to do something and gain experience. Just the opposite! Take a closer look at your surroundings. You can always go to different lectures and circles. Try to find a new hobby, take up gardening, or just go to places in your city that you haven't been to before.

2. Watch people. In a cafe, on the subway, or on a park bench, watch people pass by. Make up stories and stories about these people, think about what could happen to them in life, use your imagination, feel sympathy for them or sincerely rejoice. Perhaps, by observing people, you will suddenly find the answer to a question that has long been of interest to you.

3. Make art. It doesn't matter what kind of art you decide to do. The main thing is that you should try to express yourself in it. Do not follow patterns and stereotypes, do what you like best. For example, if you are drawing, then draw the sun not yellow, as we are used to seeing it in pictures, but green. Use your imagination to get your drawings out of the box.

   • You can try to do any other kind of art, for example, writing poetry, sculpting from clay. Remember that you don't have to be a master at this. The point is to develop your imagination, not to become a world-class artist or sculptor.

4. Spend as little time as possible on the media. Movies, TV shows, Internet, computer games- all this is very fun and interesting, but do not get carried away, otherwise your creativity will begin to noticeably decrease.

   • In our time, people, especially children, are turning into consumers, not creators. They do not create anything, but only follow the patterns already invented.
   • You should control yourself. For example, when you are bored, try not to turn on your computer or TV. Use it free time in order to sit in silence and calmly think about something and dream.

Part 2

Use your imagination

1. Look for creative solutions! Once you get into the habit of using your imagination, it's easy to come up with creative ways to get out of any situation. This means that a good imagination will help you go beyond and come up with new ways to solve any problems.

   • One of the problems that most people often face is limitation. In the sense that a person who has a less developed imagination will be able to come up with fewer solutions to this issue, focusing only on the proposed subject (situation) and not going beyond. In one experiment, people were given the following task: they had to touch two opposite walls with a rope hanging from the ceiling. The only extra item in the room is the pliers. Most of the subjects could not find a solution, which was to tie the pliers to the rope (i.e. use the pliers as a weight) and why swing it by touching opposite walls.
   • Practice coming up with unusual solutions by walking around your house. Having stumbled upon any obstacles, think about how you can get around them, come up with something non-standard. Take a closer look at different objects and try to dream up what you can do with them and where they can be applied. Every thing has a set of functions that it performs, but that doesn't mean it can't be used for anything else!

2. Don't be afraid of failure and failure. Sometimes your imagination cannot help you, sometimes you simply cannot use it because of fatigue or inability. But there are a couple of tricks to get your imagination going so you can use it whenever you want.

   • Ask yourself how you would solve this problem if there were no wrong solutions. Think about what you could do if you knew there would be no consequences.
   • Think about what your first step would be if you could use any resources, sources and objects to solve the problem.
   • What would you do if you could ask anyone in the world for advice?
   • By answering these questions, you free your mind from any possibility of failure, which, in turn, opens up a perspective for you on any ways to solve the problem. Of course, everything will not turn out right away, finding a creative approach will not work for every situation, but following these tips will greatly improve your imagination.

3. Visualize! Use your imagination to imagine different situations that could happen in your life. For example, you can imagine winning a competition and earning an award while you're just training to compete in those competitions.

   • The more accurately and in more detail you imagine this or that situation, the more likely it is that the circumstances will turn out so that this situation really happens to you.

• You can do it on a plane, train, subway, or car (only if you're not driving). Just sit comfortably, put your hands together and start dreaming.

Warnings

• Daydreaming is a great way to develop your imagination and even cheer yourself up. But at work, during an important conversation or meeting, it is still better to be concentrated than to have your head in the clouds.

The chief instructed creative task, and you do not know from which end to approach it? Children ask to tell a fairy tale, but apart from "Kolobok" nothing comes to mind? The girl wants surprises, but you can't figure out what that means?

It's time to start looking for information about how to develop imagination in adults. After all, it is precisely with its absence that all the difficulties that may arise in the situations described above and many other situations are connected.

But do not get upset and study tons of information: from this article you will learn the most effective, but at the same time simple techniques for developing imagination in an adult. Get ready for a journey into a fantasy world!

To begin with, let's figure out what imagination is and why many people do not have it. So what does this word mean?

Imagination is the ability of a person to generate various images, ideas and representations in his mind. It can be active, when you deliberately imagine something, and it can be passive, that is, unconscious.

For example, if you felt hungry, and your brain immediately gave out a picture of an appetizing burger or fried meat, imagination was connected; if you were looking at vacation photos and remembered how good it was to lie on the beach, it worked.

Thus, if a person says that he has no imagination, then this is not at all true. Everyone has this ability, but it is developed in different ways. And like any other ability or skill, imagination can be developed.

This ability is most actively manifested in young children, adolescents and young men. It is during these periods of life that we explore the world, dream, and make grandiose plans. With age, a person usually goes deeper into certain thoughts, studies, work, pays attention only to real things and pressing problems.

And if you are not a creative person whose whole life is connected with images, but a serious programmer or sales manager, then it becomes more and more difficult to come up with bright ideas every year. A person begins to think in stereotypes and sees the world too literally.

The consequence of this is boring conversations, the inability to make the world around them beautiful and colorful. How to deal with it?

In fact, developing the imagination is not too difficult even for adults. In the following, various techniques and methods will be listed that will help to cope with the problem of a lack of active imagination.

The main condition for the success of these exercises is openness to experimentation and the absence of constraint. The simplest of them are performed only in your head, which means that you should not be afraid of mistakes - no one will see them. And those ways that involve interacting with other people will help you not only develop your imagination, but also have fun.

1. Activate the "imagination" with the help of visualization

Perhaps visualization is the most in a simple way activate the work of the imagination and develop it. The essence of this exercise is a detailed mental reproduction of a certain object, place, action.

You need to start small: try to carefully examine the object lying on the table, and then close your eyes and imagine it. It can be anything, such as a book or a phone.

2. Develop imagination by reading books

Visualization of events from books is closely related to the previous method. Only here the task is more difficult - you need to keep a lot of characters, images in your head, make them move and interact. Try not just to read the letters and words, assimilating certain information, but to generate a complete picture.

Over time, reading books will become as much fun as watching movies... Or maybe even better! After all, when reading a book, you can not be limited by the director's imagination, but give free rein to your own imagination, and at the same time develop it.

3. We play associations

Associative thinking is developed in most adults. So something, but everyone can imagine the color orange with the word “orange”. Playing this game with a team, you can not only have fun, but also improve your imagination skills.

4. We invent catops and other unknown animals

Where did the names of honey badger and weevil come from? Someone invented them! And, in the simplest way. Since an animal feeds on honey, it means that it should be called a honey badger, and that bird with a long beak - a weevil.

Even though the names you come up with are unlikely to be included in biology textbooks, this activity can be very fun and exciting. Combining different words and inventing new ones from them will perfectly help develop the imagination not only in children, but also in adults.

5. Join the art

In fact, all creative people use this method to develop certain qualities in themselves. If you lack ideas, inspiration or imagination, go to an art gallery or an exhibition, watch films and workshops.

Watch how others do it. Sometimes a brilliant author's concept can be born from small pieces and ideas. And if you periodically observe the work of your favorite authors, then your own ideas will also not be long in coming.

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