Your brain has a really awesome survival feature. Whenever you are in a positive mood, your brain will widen your focus, but whenever you’re in a negative mood, your brain will automatically narrow your focus. This allows it to focus on any threats or problems your facing. It’s a cool survival instinct that’s built into
Creative people are sensitive to problems, but that’s a good thing. Most people are confronted with a problem and they choose to ignore it. Others have smaller problems that they don’t even consciously recognize are problems. Creativity thrives when there are problems. They guide our creative behavior. They teach us what we need to do.
Creativity is just as much an emotional process as it is a cognitive one. Creativity isn’t just WHAT you’re thinking, it’s HOW you’re thinking. The emotional state that you’re in when you create powerfully influences your process, which, of course, determines your outcome. Being a stand-up comedian made this really easy for me to notice.
The way you improve imagination is by influencing the direction/topic or by removing constraints. Imagination, itself, doesn’t need to be improved. You already have plenty of it. People that think they aren’t very imaginative tend to view imagination very narrowly. Imagination is a combination of combining mental imagery, emotions, and storytelling. Generally, we view imagination