Over the years, we think and act more formulaically, and this narrows our options. If you notice that you are increasingly using familiar solutions, ready-made answers and proven techniques in everyday life, ask yourself the question “how to develop imagination” and include fantasy exercises in your to-do list.
Imagination helps us to know the world, understand other people, make original decisions, makes us more free. Here are some imaginative games and exercises suggested by creativity experts Michael Michalko, Julia Cameron, and Jean Cotrot.
Pass the tests
- What awakens your fantasies?
1. In a strange place. Sit at a table in a cafe and watch one of the visitors. Imagine how this person lives, what he thinks about, what he does. Imagine what would change in your life, actions and habits if you were in his place. Write a brief history of the person you have just become in your imagination.
2. Idea from chaos. Place a few random dots on the paper, and then connect them with lines. What associations does the figure evoke? Two people can play this game: one person draws several lines or a figure without looking at the paper, and the second person must finish it as creatively as possible so that a complete picture is obtained. Then the players change.
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3. Favorite items. Make a list of ten items and personal items that surround you on paper. Write what associations, even the most ridiculous ones, they evoke in you – with some book, emotion, person, past event. Do not limit yourself to the most obvious parallels, allow yourself to fantasize.
4. Meeting with the beautiful. Discussions of artistic, musical, literary images are perhaps the most enjoyable exercises for developing the imagination. Go to abstract art exhibitions more often, carefully look at the paintings and try to describe them. Come up with stories, give your own interpretation of even the most plotless compositions. Let works like Malevich’s Black Square be the mirror of your imagination.
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5. “A suitcase of nonsense.” Put interesting drawings, cartoons, brochures, leaflets with quotes and proverbs in a separate box – in a word, everything that seems original to you and can evoke unusual associations. When a new idea is needed, take out of the box what comes to hand, and then try to make connections between a randomly selected item and your task. Sometimes this leads to amazing results!
6. Burime. This literary game, known since the XNUMXth century, can be considered another fascinating exercise for developing the creative imagination. The meaning of the game is to compose poems to given rhymes. Today burime also exists as an online interactive game on several sites with different rules and atmosphere.
Julia Cameron, novelist, screenwriter, best-selling author of The Artist’s Way and The Right to Write (both Livebook, 2015); Jean Cottraux, cognitive psychologist; Michael Michalko, author of several books on creativity development, including Mind Games (Peter, 2007), Creative Explosion (Medley, 2014), Rice Storm (Mann, Ivanov and Ferber, 2015).