Worry vs. Positive Imagination by Billie Willmon Jenkin
Having taught students of all ages, I feel it’s safe to say that the younger individuals generally are more attuned to full use of the imagination than the more “mature” in years. Well, that is, the younger ones tend to key-in readily to positive use of imagination.
It seems that as we age (unless we intentionally program ourselves otherwise), we lose much of our positive imagination. Instead we allow others’ misuse of imagination to osmose into our daily practice. The joyful, positive imagination we knew as children somehow degrades into dreaded visions and expectation offearful outcomes: worry. And worry is a skill many of us have perfected.
Having been reared by a perpetually worried mother, I was confused when I heard the words of Jesus of Nazareth: “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Huh? How can a person keep herself from worrying? The only people who don’t worry are those who don’t have enough sense to know what’s happening. Or so I thought.
Somewhere along my earthly timeline, though, I was introduced to the concept that what we resist, persists; what we focus on is what increases. Worry about – and focus on - that which we do not want is like drinking a fifth of tequila so we won’t get drunk. No muy intelligente, amiga!
Worry and resistance takes various forms. Sometimes the resistance shows up as fighting hard (by either pushing or pulling) against circumstances not under our control. For instance, couples who want a baby (but don’t conceive as quickly as they wish) often begin fretting over the lack of results. The more time that passes, the more intense the desire to conceive (aka: the resistance to infertility) increases. When a couple adopts a child, they cease focusing on conception. Wham! How often, then, such couples conceive when the resistance is gone. It’s as if the intense focus prevented their desires from being fulfilled.
Similarly, we have witnessed (or experienced) the futile efforts that the “pushing” form of resistance brings. Watch (or remember) a mother badgering a two-year-old to eat his spinach or chopped liver. The more she cajoles or focuses on resisting his will, the tighter he clenches his little jaws. Think about it: A two-year-old eats mud and boogers, for krisesake! Why can’t we human beings see that he’d eat spinach if he thought spinach and chopped liver were disallowed?
Let’s look within to find how our resistance is thwarting our desires. Recall the last few times that voice inside your head commented about the number on the bathroom scales or the contours of your naked body in the mirror. Or the last time it evaluated the way you spoke up (or failed to speak up) during a recent conversation. Does that ceaseless conversation criticize you for your current status? Is it possible that – try as you might – you are failing to see the changes you say you want in your life because the two-year-old inside your mind is resisting the changes that critical voice continually shames her for?
If indeed what we resist persists, then releasing resistance to the thing-that-is-but-we-wish-were-not is the first step toward affecting change. To release that resistance, some of us benefit by using our imagination. In my chapter in the Wake Up Women book, I share some thoughts about using positive imagination to create peace and purpose in situations that often trigger resistance.
A key way we can use our imagination to release the resistance that binds us is to begin seeing that “problem” simply as a wrapping, a package, for the gift it conceals. Whatever we’re facing, it’s impossible to stay miserable if we can honestly believe that a Gift lies within.
“I can hardly wait to open my gift! It’s going to be interesting to see how this turns out!”
-Billie Willmon Jenkin
