"Defeating the Impossible"*: Imagine That!

*In, Defeating the Impossible, @Ali Anani writes:

"First of all we need to defeat our self-defeating attitudes. We imprison ourselves in false assumptions and then we believe these assumptions. Why do we tend to imprison our imagination by negative thinking?"

Dr. Anani’s thoughts challenge me to look at the framework within which the elements described can be formed.  In order for me to do that, I need to divide the discussion into an introduction and the three parts found in the comment.

Introduction: The Sensory Framework

For those of you familiar with my work, you know that I consider us to be sensory beings. As humans, we process sensory stimulation and interpret and translate this into organized experiences.  This capacity of transforming physiological signals into meanings and experiences that are adaptive forms the basis of our realities.  But something happens along the way that moves beyond the adaptive to the mal-adaptive. Rather than forming our own meanings, we absorb, so to speak, the meanings created by others. We begin to internalize messages which are defeating, false and negative.

Part One:  “First of all we need to defeat our self-defeating attitudes.”

In order to achieve this important task we must first be aware and acknowledge that these attitudes exist, connect with their source and understand that it is within our control to own or “defeat” these attitudes.

Part Two: “We imprison ourselves in false assumptions and then we believe these assumptions.”

This internal process can be described through an external manifestation referred to as the Stockholm Syndrome, “or capture-bonding, is a psychological phenomenon described in 1973 in which hostages express empathy and sympathy and have positive feelings toward their captors, sometimes to the point of defending and identifying with the captors.” Once we have internalized false assumptions based on messages received from others, we believe these to be true because we bond to the captors, the source of those messages. The interesting aspect of this internal process, however, is that we imprison ourselves. Once again, awareness is the crucial element; once we become aware of the source of the messages, we can then choose to free ourselves from these assumptions.

Part Three: Question - “Why do we tend to imprison our imagination by negative thinking?"

Answer – Once we internalized meanings and messages from other sources other than our own formations based on our sensory experiences, we invest in maintaining these messages. Our imagination, however, if allowed to be freely expressed, can make us aware of the self-defeating attitudes and false assumptions we hold. In order to protect these we use negative thinking to imprison our imagination. The key to liberate the imagination and let it breathe freely once more is to return to our senses; imaging, the ability to recreate sensory impressions and feelings in our minds in the absence of outside stimuli, is the most important thinking skill we acquire for creativity and adaptation. Besides communicating what’s real, through the creative skill of imaging we can alter, combine, synthesize and otherwise manipulate sensory images to form images and ideas of things never perceived in reality. In this way we come to our senses, free our imagination and free ourselves from self-defeating attitudes, false assumptions and negative thinking.

I will conclude with the two quotes found at the beginning of Dr. Anani’s buzz:

“Bees aerodynamically shouldn't be able to fly, and

Leicester started the campaign as 5,000-1 outsiders for the title after almost being relegated last season- the "most unlikely triumph in the history of team sport".

But the bumble bee doesn't know it shouldn’t be able to fly and so it goes on flying anyway and Leicester didn’t believe in a predetermined outcome before the event took place; Leicester knew once both teams hit the field, anything can happen. Imagine that!

photo credit: www.freep.com