According to Albert Einstein, Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world and all there ever will be to know and understand.  

Research has shown that imagining an act can activate and strengthen brain areas involved in its real-life execution and improve performance. This, I should say, is true. Imagination is an astounding thing, and I believe that our ability to imagine is one of the many things that separate us, humans, from other animals. We can imagine what does not exist, what has never existed, and we can even imagine different ways of living and interacting with each other. 

On the other hand, some people might reject this since they think imagination provides no real advantage to society. I disagree. Let me ask you these questions. How would your life be personally and professionally upgraded if you were to activate your brain in ways you have not done before? Imagine if you could usher this higher intelligence into your daily conscious awareness? How much more satisfying and polished would your life be? JUST IMAGINE. The imagination is like a time machine. It is a form of mental time travel.

Writing is one way of unleashing our imagination. It is the fuel of good writing. Although there are many other important factors, even necessary elements that an author must possess and bring to bear, they all emanate from imagination. Without imagination, creative writing is unattainable. Writer Brian Clements uses his imagination to create worlds jammed by people who are entirely feigned. However, stories (full length or short) and poems, even if they are fantasy or science fiction, or paranormal, hold up a mirror to ourselves and help us see both our imperfections and our strengths.  

On the other hand, writing is not the only channel for imagination. Scientists marvel about solutions to problems in the world, leading them to discoveries that change the course of human existence. Explorers and travelers muse at what lies over the next gravel road, down the rabbit hole, or pass the ocean. Centuries after centuries, these explorers turned us from a world of small isolated groups into an interconnected world. Inventors nibble at practical problems and create solutions to them. All of these people use their imagination in different ways to achieve different ends, making our world more prosperous.  

Moreover, imagination is unique. It is inevitable that even the most powerful person cannot harm it or cannot destroy it. However, in a seemingly absurd way, the one possessing it must choose to free it for it to wander liberally beyond the world that surrounds us. It is for the reason that it can pull together elements that we are already familiar with and assemble them in ways that we are unfamiliar with; even to devise new characters that had never existed before and provide them with their own personalities; and to generate stories that never happened, yet which have the power to move the reader to tears, anger, inspiration, action, and transformation. 

Humans, however, at times conceal the freedom of their imagination despite knowing that it is the touchstone of creativity. They refuse to go beyond what is immediately present to their sensory gear, failing to invent new images that extend beyond the familiar and known, forsaking to visualize alternate worlds outside the principality of that within which we live. Take a moment to watch a young child play alone, and you will experience firsthand the magic that comes from imagination. Creative thought turns unexciting into a magical experience. It turns a simple box into a powerful rocket, a laundry basket into a pirate ship, and a simple basin into the deep blue sea. Taking a moment to view the world through a child’s eyes is enough to bring back the joy and wonder that imagination brings. 

Einstein had it right when he said: “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”  Reality is merely an outward expression of what we have chosen to accept and focus on in the world. But when we turn our thoughts to what we want to create in our lives, the possibilities are endless. With that kind of imaginative power, why would we waste it focusing on the wearisome only to preserve a less than optimum reality? We have the power to create so much more, and it is up to us to use our imaginations to change our lives and our world for the better.