When Imagination Looks Like Good Information | Blog

I woke up the other morning, and before I even got out of bed, my mind had already gone somewhere.

It was the morning after my first night in an Airbnb in a somewhat remote area, with nature and woods all around. The house was beautiful, peaceful, and full of windows that looked out into the trees. During the day, it felt expansive and calming.

But somewhere in the back of my mind, as I lay in my bed, in the very early morning, I had started imagining what it might feel like to be walking around when it’s still dark outside, before the sun was up.

You know what I mean? When I can’t see out, but others can see in. 😊

Then I noticed my mind moving toward another thought. What if there were lizards or rodents in the house? That could be reasonable. I saw a bunch of lizards outside the night before. What if I walked out into the kitchen in the dark and something scattered across the floor?

I played out what might happen if I opened the bedroom door and walked into the other room. I could feel my body start tensing, and a resistance to getting up.

I wanted my coffee, but I was actually hesitating getting out of bed because of what might be out there. I had visions of me being in the kitchen, tense and nervous. I was hesitating getting out of bed because my mind had already created a future experience that felt real.

But here’s the thing. Even though my body was tightening and my imagination was playing out all sorts of scenarios, there was nothing actually happening out there.

The house was quiet, but my internal state was activated.

What struck me afterward was not only that none of what I imagined happened, but that once I got up and walked out there, I wasn’t tense at all. I made my coffee, sat quietly, looked out at the trees, and completely forgot about all the scenarios my mind had been creating.

It was such a simple moment, but it felt like such a clear example of something we all do.

Ok, maybe not imagining lizards in the kitchen, but taking imagination as meaningful information about reality or the future.

We imagine how a conversation will go and start feeling defensive before it even happens.

We picture ourselves walking into an event awkward and uncomfortable, and suddenly we don’t want to go anymore.

We feel inspired to create something new in our business, and then the mind starts projecting images of failure, struggle, judgment, uncertainty, and overwhelm. Before long, we’ve slowed down or stopped moving altogether.

We begin organizing ourselves around an imagined future.

And because the feelings that come with imagination are real, it’s easy to assume the imagination itself is pointing to something real.

But imagination is not predicting the future.

It’s revealing the state of mind we’re in right now. That’s it.

Once imagination and feeling come together, resistance often follows naturally.

An image appears. The body responds. The feeling becomes convincing. And before long, we’re relating to that imagined experience as if it’s actually telling us something important about reality, about ourselves, or about what’s about to happen.

Now resistance makes sense.

Of course, we hesitate when the mind is painting a vivid picture of discomfort, failure, rejection, conflict, embarrassment, or uncertainty. Of course, we want to pull back, delay, control variables, overprepare, or avoid.

Resistance is rarely random. Most of the time, it is a response to something that feels real in the moment.

The challenge is that the future hasn’t happened yet.

We’re responding to a picture in the mind.

And what becomes interesting to notice is how quickly we begin building strategies around that imagined experience.

I see this all the time in leadership, business, relationships, and in the work people do with themselves.

We stay quiet in moments where honesty would actually serve the relationship. We postpone the launch. We try to control every variable before moving.

Someone avoids a conversation because they are certain it will go badly.

Someone delays taking a step they deeply want to take because they are already feeling the imagined pressure, exposure, or disappointment connected to it.

We hesitate with things that genuinely matter to us because imagination has gotten hold of us, and we’re treating it like reliable information.

And often, underneath all of it, the mind is trying to protect against a potential future feeling. Embarrassment, disappointment, conflict, failure, or uncertainty.

Sometimes it’s even memory being projected forward, and it feels justified.

A past hurt, failure, embarrassment, or painful experience gets carried into the present and quietly shapes what we expect now.

The mind starts preparing for something that is no longer actually happening, but we remember how it felt, and we want to avoid feeling it again. Because imagination comes with feeling, the whole experience can look incredibly convincing. It feels logical to do everything you can to avoid that.

But when we begin to recognize what’s happening in real time, something starts to loosen.

There is less need to organize around every feeling that appears.

Less need to treat every fearful image as a warning.

Less inclination to build our lives around what the mind happens to be projecting in a reactive moment.

As we settle back into the present, we become more available to real life instead of the version our imagination has created.

We remember that feeling is temporary energy moving through us. We can handle it.

And from there, there is often more openness, more movement, and more capacity to respond to what is actually happening instead of what merely looks like it might happen.

Maybe this week you can start noticing where imagination has quietly been shaping your experience.

Where your mind has already moved into the future, and your body has followed, so resistance looks reasonable, it makes sense to avoid, stall, or keep thinking before taking action.

Could you, instead, in some small way, experiment with holding it more lightly?

You don’t have to fight the feeling or force yourself past it. You don’t have to get rid of imagination.

Just notice it for what it is. A picture in the mind. A momentary experience passing through.

And then see what happens when you stop relating to it as a preview of reality or as good information.

Maybe you still walk into the room.

Maybe you still have the conversation.

Maybe you still say yes to the thing that’s calling you.

Maybe you open the door and go make the coffee anyway.