Imagination is an aspect present in all areas of life, including business. In people, imagination is a sense that gives us information about reality. Like our five external senses, imagination contributes to our understanding and perception of our surroundings. For example, sight allows us to perceive colors; and the ear, sounds. This particular information helps us make decisions. If we hear a natural roar, we may run, because we associate it with an earthquake. The senses provide us with information to react and adapt. The ancients went so far as to affirm that: “there is nothing in the mind that had not previously been in the senses.”
The inner senses
But in addition to the five external senses, people also have four internal senses: common sense, memory, imagination, and cogitation. And like the external ones, they participate in this provision of particular information to the mind. I say particular because the knowledge that is generated through them is not universal, but sensitive: it remains at the level of the factual. Common sense associates sensations perceived by the external senses. For example, the sound of one family member’s footsteps is easily associated by the rest of the family with a specific person. Memory evokes past events, without it, a person has no memories. Imagination recognizes images, words, and facts, which allows us to learn and associate ideas. Whoever learns a language enhances his imagination: he activates it with a parallel set of phonemes for the same reality. The same thing happens to someone who learns a geometric theorem or someone who trains in the average game of chess. Finally, the cogitative helps us plan the future, allowing us to organize our activities.
The importance of imagination
I would like to focus on imagination and its impact in the professional field. Marian Rojas, a renowned Spanish psychiatrist, points out that the human organism does not distinguish between a real image and an imagined one. Both trigger the production of cortisol, a hormone related to stress and alertness. Although cortisol is a natural response, excess cortisol can be harmful to health.
In the business environment, it is crucial to control your imagination to avoid unnecessary distress. For example, you should not believe rumors, project future tragedies based on current problems, or worry about a bad reaction from a boss. Excessive imagination can cause insecurity, restlessness and reduce creativity and focus, affecting work performance.
The lack of control of the imagination
The lack of control of the imagination can be a result of the lack of exercise of this internal sense. When we choose to watch videos, movies or photographs instead of reading, we adopt a passive position, receiving already manufactured images. According to Professor Manzur, Dean of Physics at Harvard University, the lowest levels of brain activity are recorded when students only listen to teachers or watch movies, even lower than when they sleep.
Conclusion
To maintain good control of your imagination, it is advisable to read more to develop it properly. It is also good for us to learn languages or develop geometry theorems. This helps us avoid ghosts that only exist in our imagination and have no reason to exist. It makes no sense to suffer “freely” for something that is only the product of an internal sense.
