The Imagination Powerhouse and its 8 Little By-products

After deliberating, research, and testing for the better part of a year and a half, I’ve concluded (and am 96% sure), that our imagination produces by-products that fall into 8 categories: anxiety, sleep and/or depression, others' wants/needs, physicality, social activities, draining work, creation mode, and consumption mode. (Check out that fancy infographic. ^)

Literally everything that I could possibly think of our imaginations producing fell into these categories. You might be surprised to see anxiety and depression listed as by-products of the imagination, but I do believe that they just come with the territory of being human - as does our imagination. 

Each and every one of these imagination by-products are likely a part of our daily lives. In small doses, I'd like a little bit of each of the by-products, but I'd love a ton of creative projects. Each person might feel a little different about their ideal percentages of imagination by-products. 

Once you understand how much of each of these imagination by-products you’re producing, you’ll be a lot closer to actually controlling the process. (If you want to.)

What makes me think that our imagination produces each and every one of these? Imagination seems like our brain's process of visualizing and possibly actualizing concepts or events. It's not just daydreaming when we picture our dream house, body, or life - any time that we visualize something - we're utilizing our imagination.

Pretty much any deed needs to be visualized in our imagination before it's made into a reality

For example, if all that we're doing is visualizing our kids' schedules, and planning out how we're going to tackle them, then our imagination energy is mainly going to 'others' wants and needs'. If we imagine the ideal body and health state that we'd like to be in, so we go to gym or try out new workout class, then our imagination energy is going to 'physicality'. And just like imagining up creative projects, our imagination can conjure up and visualize doom and gloom, which seems to manifest into anxiety. (No science behind this - this is just my experience.)

I don't consider any of these by-products of your imagination to be 'bad' - even draining work. (I call it 'draining work' instead of just plain ol' 'work' because there's also energizing work, which usually falls into 'creative projects'.) They're all a part of life, and I believe that we need them all. But some of it, we want less of. 

I know that I want less anxiety, for example, so I make an effort to channel it into creativity on a regular basis. And I believe that others (maybe artists especially) can do that as well. 

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