How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century

Have you ever heard of the saying, “It’s all in your imagination?”

This phrase can trigger some people and here’s a big reason why. They’re bothered by what they see around them and how that doesn’t reflect what they feel or think on the inside. Yet this disconnected mind-body experience is all in our control.

We have the ability to learn how to imagine better, and I want to show you how.

But I have to be honest here, I didn’t always imagine that well. In fact, my mind was under siege for quite a long time. And making my way out of an awful place into a peaceful state where I allow myself to dream has been one of the true gifts I have been able to attain. This gift still needs to hold up the test of time, but something this precious won’t be let go of easily.

And you can definitely build this core of imagination within you. Actually, you already have it and you might not even know about it. On the other hand, you might be aware that it’s there, but you’re unhappy with its size.

That’s quite all right.

In time, you can grow this knowledge of yourself and expand your mind. But I don’t inspire this for sport. It’s imperative you build your imagination as quickly as you can without skipping any steps. The coming century is in need of it.

The imagination is the golden pathway to everywhere. — Terrence McKenna | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
The imagination is the golden pathway to everywhere. — Terrence McKenna

What the coming century holds

If we look at the next hundred years, it can be hard to imagine what could possibly occur.

Flying cars. Self-operating appliances. Robotic labor replacing human labor.

All of this holds the potential for much freedom and enlightenment of humankind. And yet it also raises quite a few concerns as well for a crowd unwilling and unready to move forward.

Righteously so, there’s some due skepticism to big promises, even if that promise holds substance and weight. There could be a huge displacement of jobs and people into this transition that society isn’t preparing or planning for.

When progress becomes the only answer, we tend to leave behind those who never signed on in the first place. It’s a polarized, perpetuated mindset that can be harmful to both ends of the spectrum.

I’m progressive and I do think it’s important to imagine better for the sake of our society moving forward. Yet, the approach I use is much more balanced and centered throughout the process.

The economic machine of our world needs the guidance of vision to lead us without frightening us or leaving us scarred. In my opinion, only the brightest, strongest minds will lead us towards these high points. In this way, the most important thing to take away here is the fact that the world needs our help.

And the only way we truly can help is by expanding our minds and stretching our imaginations.

We must do what we can to spread those ideas that can lurch us forward, especially in places that so direly need them. The growing number of gifted and privileged individuals has the ability to spread more positivity.

Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. — Gloria Steinem | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. — Gloria Steinem

A world of people with stilted imaginations

The world with imagination can increasingly look like a prism of much amazement.

Look how far we’ve come already from the pioneers of tomorrow. Buckminister Fuller and the geodesic dome. Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity. Nikola Tesla and the alternate current. Where would the world be without even a handful of people imagining the world differently than where they see it?

But we are in a world where stilted imaginations are growing at an alarming rate.

It’s not a surprise that there is more distracting the average individual in this world. Phones, pings, pictures, problems. There’s a lot involved with a person’s daily routine, and with it comes the flurry of reptilian emotional reasoning.

We can get caught in seeing things very easily as they are and not look ahead at what we would like to occur. The world is filled with people constantly showing and telling you how life already is wherever they can. How would you decide if any of it will do something for your future?

The man who has no imagination has no wings. — Muhammad Ali | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
The man who has no imagination has no wings. — Muhammad Ali

Can you imagine an effortless future?

Take a moment and close your eyes. Dream of your life five, ten, or even twenty years into the future. Can you visualize it? Try it now.

Is the picture positive leaving you fulfilled, or does it still feel as dissatisfied as you may have been?

If you’re asked to dream that far ahead, it may or may not be easy to do so. If you’re asked to picture an image of yourself doing something other than what you see yourself doing now, you might say you can’t see it.

This is a telling sign that the mind has been strained and stiffened over years of dissonance. The only antidote is some exercise and stretching or perhaps some yoga of the mind. Thinking about the mind this way is a metaphor for how it’s as malleable as our muscles.

The mind needs due attention to keep it active and sharp as a tool that will work for us.

Stilted imaginations will not lead the world in a positive direction. They will do nothing for you. Not your brand, not your business, not your relationships, not your finances, not your lifestyle. None of it. And that can lead to some dark pitfalls of the mind if we let it out of our control.

Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. — Jamie Paolinetti | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. — Jamie Paolinetti

The pitfalls of imagination

There are many issues that can arise from an imagination that isn’t utilized with a dose of wisdom and common sense. Both are widening gaps in our societies, but one is a growing problem.

When it comes to wisdom, there has never been more of a free flow of wise counsel flowing on the Internet. You are no longer barred by your location and circumstances unless your location has no access to Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). Once you are logged onto the Internet, you might find numerous amounts of sage advice to cover any width or length of a situation you are in.

Yet, when it comes to common sense there is a disparity.

Common sense is based upon circumstantial events. It tells us how to behave in circumstances from some sense of latent sensitivity, intuition, or higher guidance.

There are two types: the common sense that helps you survive, and the common sense that helps you thrive. In our modern-day society where money is the clearest indicator of thriving versus surviving, we see plenty of people lacking good common sense. They are unable to navigate their circumstances thoroughly and with precision.

But a high nuanced common-sense society demands it. There are ever-increasing games to play with new levels of common sense.

This is where the pitfalls of the human mind can take us into painful downwards spirals.

We make up stories that justify and rationalize unfiltered behavior through a lens of hurt. We create new laws that override common sense with rage for retribution. And we add layers to our sensitivity through our imagination that lead to suffering.

Imagination creates reality. — Richard Wagner | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Imagination creates reality. — Richard Wagner

Escape and arrive through imagination

We see this time and again with the current state of politics and the exacerbation of depression and suicide.

You may not know it but there are just two points where your imagination can take you. Forward or backward. Up or down. And sometimes like current-day politics, left or right.

If you’re looking for a trajectory of humanity, it’s best to look at like from a 3-dimensional outlook.

Understand the only way is a steady rate of upward and forward movement without too much of a tug of war battle in between. If we do not, we can tear each other and ourselves to shreds.

We know the pitfalls of humankind and how violent domineering we can become, but there’s always a better way. Imagination does not neglect politics, but too much rigidity in pulling in the wrong direction will avoid the forward progression of life. Pulling too far back will delay your progress, and staying too close to the ground will keep you from elevating.

In order to keep your own trajectory and that of others around you at a steady rate, it’s time to learn to take control and imagine better.

We are more often frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. — Seneca | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
We are more often frightened than hurt, and we suffer more from imagination than from reality. — Seneca

How to imagine better

To improve such a thing as imagination, you must not only know what it is you wish to avoid but what you also wish to create.

We’ve all experienced something we want to stay far away from, but many of us don’t consider it far beyond that. It takes some daring to dream forward and the process of protecting those dreams is an important action. It sets the stage for bettering our imaginations and utilizing it to bring in the world we wish to see.

Imagination as a means to lead to betterment not just for the Self but for the Society relies on several pillars to direct its power to a narrow channel of manifestation.

You must desire to master these to serve the bigger picture and to avoid the pitfalls that your visualization could lead to. If you can stay in check, life can and will open to you as if you were open to it being what you want it to be.

Life is and will be what we make of it. Especially if we’re disciplined with our mental prowess.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. — Albert Einstein | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. — Albert Einstein

Purposeful imaginings

Without substance, your imagining will fall through the cracks and reach the perils of imagination.

Since you do not want it to get there, you must be aware of getting it to the best facet of what it can be. Therefore you must understand deeply what is behind this desire for this fantasy. Is it to help you to attain short-term gain or is it going to help you in the long run?

Knowing the answer to these first and foremost questions is the most important engagement when bringing any new creation to life. You must know why it will be there. And it must not be for selfish reasons to escape the reality we live in.

The desire to enact true change of the beneficial kind for both inner and outer worlds is where the rewards will be reaped the most.

Take a moment to answer this question: do you have a purpose?

The only other reason to imagine is from our own selfishness. It’s necessary to desire, but without an overarching goal, it will be nearly impossible to see it on a grand scale.

The next 100 years are dependent on us having commitments and reasonings behind our vision when we sanction our will towards it.

Your imagination should be used not to escape reality but to create it. — Colin Wilson | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Your imagination should be used not to escape reality but to create it. — Colin Wilson

Focus and faith

To begin, you must have something in mind you desire to create.

This figment can incite a focus towards it that is all-powerful. Along with that, your desire must be full and passionate without an ounce of doubt. This pure faith that the end will occur is bound to attract everything it needs to enact events to contrive this end goal.

The clearer you can imagine this particular end in mind, the more assured you can rest that it must occur without a shadow of a doubt.

Focus and faith are the cornerstones of creative power and the key to imagine better. These are two skills that you must sharpen at every stage. Without it, your mind will be at risk of operating out of control.

When you have a fixed point and the generation of positivity, the likelihood of your dream occurring is higher. It will bring certain steady confidence that will fuel your path to building towards this fantasy.

To begin creating this fantasy, your focus will allow you to sift through everything that does not carry you in some fashion closer towards this goal you have set. Your sight will be set and you will naturally be tempted to allow nothing to distract you from attaining this end.

Everything becomes a steady support mechanism to contrive this fantasy into being. As long as you maintain strength behind what you see in your mind, nothing will deter you from seeing that which you imagine coming into fruition.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. — Albert Einstein | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. — Albert Einstein

Cultivating evidence for hope

It may sound high and mighty to make such claims. But every day, there are more reasons behind this belief to hold true. Speaking my imagination as clearly as I’ve seen it and witnessed is key. Doing this causes me to reflect deeply on what it is I am creating while I see it come to be.

You are not far off from this ability.

You must seek out evidence to bring about solidity to your imaginings. No one can go off pure faith forever without experiencing points of hopelessness and a necessity to find some material reasoning.

To keep hope alive, you must seek out evidence that will make your dreams real in this world. You must seek out any establishing factor as if the case in point were true. You must do everything you can to stabilize this evidence.

One of the best ways to do this is to keep your vision as open as you can to receive data and information to bear your claims. This way you widen your presence to what you are attracting and you don’t question what comes to you.

Even if something may seem like a negative to your circumstances, it usually is just a special token to help you unlock and rid yourself of any negative self-doubt.

Doubt will be your imagination’s end.

In this way, all that comes towards you is in full a gift to help you level up and act towards what you imagine.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. — Carl Sagan | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. — Carl Sagan

Protecting dreams

The most important part of cultivating focus and faith towards this foreseen future is the dire importance to protect these imaginings. I am not saying that those who imagine will have no self-defense against anything. Quite the contrary.

You must realistically look to how you can cultivate your surroundings.

Many experience difficulty in protecting their dreams from the onslaught of brutality in response to the fresh rebirth of life. The world is scared of their own shadows and those tainting our surroundings and that which we attract. We fear that these forces will destroy what we have worked so hard for as of yet.

But imagination is the one thing that can shine a light on the shadows, make switches in the matrix, and shatter any barriers to allowing us to move freely.

Our minds are meant to expand to encompass our desires.

The only way we can make them pure from projection or negativity is by protecting them against dark forces and using our minds to wield positive power. You can only spin your perception so far until prompted to clarify your solutions outside of your projections.

Research and discretion are important pieces in protecting your dreams.

There is in actuality little to be on the defense for because the process of attracting what you imagine towards you is a magnetic quality. The goal here is to create a bubble around you so that you can perpetuate your own projections within it. This will strengthen your focus but also your faith in your own beliefs. At the same time, the boundary will help you keep what should be on the outside, out.

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. — Sylvia Plath | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. — Sylvia Plath

Act as if

If you have been following the instructions thus far, you will see the results of your perseverance in the shape of a luck-filled path. This path is filled with mandatory actions you need to play at the right place and the right time. You needed to perform these actions in order to reach the next step on your journey.

If you believe your dreams to be true, you will completely engross yourself in completing these necessary actions. These actions will be filled with faith and belief in the goal your sights are set on.

Acting as if the end has already occurred brings invigoration into your actions. It brings passion and daring and confidence you would not have had. Not unless you believed in your powers to bring your imagination to reality.

This is the power of the Self in action within its bubble.

You successfully found a point on the horizon and are headed there with an ambitious drive. There is nothing that can stop you now.

You can know when to blame yourself if you do not act from this deep knowing. You will know by your actions because they won’t lead you to your end reality. Your actions will have a thread of doubt woven within them.

But do not use these moments to sidetrack you as a novice would. Use these moments to give you the clarity and resolution you need to align and drive forward.

Experts in this arena cultivate a sense of positive regard for the Self knowing that they do not have to win every battle in order to win the war. This deep faith in oneself brings about everything from the perception of the owner to paint a full picture and story full of trials, tribulations, and triumphs over the uncertainty. It gives a cosmic encapsulation of the world as a mere reflection of the inner workings of your being.

The world is but a canvas to the imagination. — Henry David Thoreau | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
The world is but a canvas to the imagination. — Henry David Thoreau

Relaxation and rest

To dream and visualize is not a hard task at this point, but it can be a draining one. You must allow time to calm your mind and body. You must give permission to your soul to wander and collect from the world around you.

And the best way to do this is through R&R.

This is where the subconscious can process your life to restructure and help where needed. The subconscious mind is what rules our daily lives and the cycles of our life. So it’s important that you take this step with the utmost ritual and respect to its subtle power.

When you find yourself at your wit’s end, you must relax and let go of any attachment to your end goal. This allows your most powerful brain to come online and have a conversation with its conscious half. Without the subconscious, there wouldn’t be such an innate understanding of much of the data and information we experience throughout life. It’s entirely consequential to absorbing the knowledge you encounter to restructure your unconscious.

Relaxation and rest are what give us the ability to pay attention to all that comes into our periphery. It helps us settle for the new day. Each time we regain clarity within our consciousness. Each time we move forward and discover a new world with the ability to imagine better.

Imagination is the language of the soul. Pay attention to your imagination and you will discover all you need to be fulfilled. — Albert Einstein | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Imagination is the language of the soul. Pay attention to your imagination and you will discover all you need to be fulfilled. — Albert Einstein

Help people help you imagine better

We go further when we go together.

Your dream can become realized if you have validation from others. And this is strong reasoning for you to be able to enlist others into your dream. If they know what vision you see of the world, people can decide whether or not they see themselves in the world you painted for them.

If you’ve progressed thus far in learning to imagine better, you can then have the ability to articulate your imagination. Especially in a way for the right people to continue to sign on.

You cannot go through this process of imagining better alone. It requires at some point for you to turn to others so they can help guide you. This is because they will guide you to the highest point of your vision.

This is the test of what you can create. It is something that can truly help others and will not just be you escaping your circumstances? If you can bring other people with you wholeheartedly on their own without any manipulation, you will have cultivated a pure desire that can carry others along.

If others are having a hard time accepting your hopes for the future, it’s likely they are on the fence. Or they have something within them that doesn’t register or resonate with your imaginings. There’s resistance that you must overcome with them. In order to bring these people along you will need to help them so they can join you.

Level with them and see the world through their eyes. This will allow you to use the same process I have laid out for you. This will help you to imagine better and to create a bridge for them. When you do this, you will have become adept and create anything upon will. You are ready for the coming century.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. — George Bernard Shaw | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. — George Bernard Shaw

The next 100 years of positive imagination

To execute on a new world, you need to conceptualize a new world. And to conceptualize a new world you need to uncover insight about a new world.

Insight is something so coveted, hard to come by, yet readily available. Insight is a skill that comes from looking at the facts, data, and research. It comes from asking the right questions while not limiting oneself to the answers.

We need more limitless minds entering the market to change the direction of the way the world revolves. If we hope to make any effect on the way we relate to one another and our environment, then some strong and imaginative minds are what we need to get there. We must reach high to emulate this and support the ones who dare to imagine better and bigger.

My dream is to share with others the beauty, boldness, freedom, unity, and nuanced genius of imagination. My goal is to share the mastery towards realizing our imaginings in a prosperous approach. An approach that builds on value and creating experiences that support our creativity and expansion. This leads the right people to get inspired so they push forward where the world needs it.

The coming century will not look like the last 100 years, and it definitely won’t have the same issues either. But you can only make sure of it if you act according to your true imagination. This means that you have reached the stage of true intelligence and can reign in a new generation.

Live out of your imagination, not your history. — Stephen R. Covey | Sana A Ahmed — @sanathemonster — How You Can Imagine Better for the Coming Century
Live out of your imagination, not your history. — Stephen R. Covey

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