“You have a big imagination” is what I have been told since I was a child. It is a true statement; however, the older I get the more I begin to hate this statement. As a child, having a large imagination is associated with intelligence; you are praised for your creativity and ability to turn normal objects into astonishing creations. The praising turns into concerned remarks when this ‘adorable’ imagination of yours decides to accompany you through your adult years. As an adult, imagination is associated with being lazy or delusional. Unfortunately, there is a negative undertone to the word “imagination” where it is seen as a not-so-useful thing to have. What would imagination help you achieve? Spending hours creating your own events and realities is ‘weird’; its ‘un-natural’. Imagination has accompanied me for years. It has been a love-hate relationship, but recently the love has been increasing. I came to realize just how helpful this imagination has been to me.

I am constantly thinking of unreal events, of created realities, and of imagined people. Creating my own little world inside of my head helps me have control over the real one. And surprisingly enough, it grounds me to the real world. I wouldn’t say that I’m detached from reality, but I do occasionally cross the border between my real world and my imagined one simply for pleasure. Its similar to taking a nap; you just need a break. I have managed to create my own world, and I am in control of how events play out. In a way, this ‘created world’ helps me experience emotions or events which I am not experiencing in the real one. I can give an Oscar speech, go sky-diving with Oprah, and live out the perfect love story. I am the one in charge. This is not the case in the real world. Its similar to taking a vacation and traveling to a beautiful destination where none of the toxicity of the world can reach it, and you think to yourself “this can’t be real”. I travel to my own beautiful destination, and I relax.

Imagination has been by my side for years. It has helped me cope with anxiety, loneliness and sometimes feeling hopeless. I had my own imagined friend, and he was a sweetheart. He talked me through heart-breaks and anxiety attacks. He walked with me to school every day, and assured me that I am worth living.  He puffed his chest up whenever bullies were near ready to fight them back. He sat with me during recess and ate with me during lunchtime. Simply put, he has helped me cope with the ‘bad’ in my life. And he didn’t magically disappear as I stepped into adulthood. He held my hand and guided me. Imagination helped me dream big. It helped me see myself in the future which motivated me to keep walking, to keep fighting until I reach that ‘happy place’.

However, things are not always happy in this created world of mine. Imagination is both a blessing and a curse. Being too caught up in the events of your imagined reality could make you detest your real life. It makes you envy your imagined self to the point where you are not able to be satisfied with yourself and your achievements anymore. You start to compare yourself to yourself and this only leads to more suffering. But also, you eventually start realizing after a while that you don’t really have complete control over your imagination; the world has control over it. So, whatever is happening in the real world is affecting your imagined one. In other words, you start “over thinking”. You start replaying the same events you’ve gone through in your head over and over again until your mind begins to detest those events. You lose yourself in both the real world and the imagined one. It’s a toxic thing to do. You start hating both the real world and the imagined one.

Imagination is a tool that we need to know how to properly use. It could help us in coping with whatever is happening with us in the real world. It also helps us jump forward into the future and motivate us to keep moving forward. Call it whatever you want, imagining, fantasying, dreaming or anything else. This tool should not be associated with something negative or useless. Having it does not make us ‘childish’ or ‘delusional’. It motivates us, gear up our creativity and helps us experience all types of emotions.