From Worry to Wonder: Using Your Imagination in Partnership with Hashem

I woke up this morning at 3:00 am, my mind jumpy and unsettled. Nothing unusual there. As a woman of a certain age, I have grown accustomed to waking up in the middle of the night. Chewing on some sort of potential catastrophe looming just over the horizon, my mind would scan my upcoming day for signs of trouble. Unresolved issues in my family, which child is struggling with what, will I gain weight from last night’s pasta, financial concerns and of course, what am I making for Friday night dinner. 

Coming from a family whose generational love language and primary coping skill was worry, my family used their colorful imaginations to conjure up every possible doomsday scenario as a strategic response to uncertainty. Getting ahead of your problems by imagining the worst was my family’s answer to showing up as your best. Needless to say, stewing over my negative projections in those predawn thought-spirals is clearly not what Hashem intended when he gave us our imagination.

Hashem gave us imagination so we can co-create our personal destiny, and a more beautiful world around us. Yet so often we use our imagination as a weapon against ourselves and our G-d given aspirations. Our minds are natural wanderers. Are we mindful of the territory our thoughts take us to? Or do we allow our fears to hijack our capacity to use our thoughts for the highest good? 

The key is awareness. It is in recognizing the stories we tell ourselves when problems arise. Our imagination can be our friend when sourced for personal aspirations and constructive problem solving. It is a direct line to the unique potential Hashem has installed in us. At its best, our mind is like a curious toddler exploring the wonders of the world around them with reverence and awe. The intricate pattern of a spider’s web or a majestic cloud formation above. A child’s unfettered mind can instinctively draw up a beautiful picture of possibility that is limitless. 

Yet as adults, with our more “rational” sides, we censor ourselves or worse, use our imagination to build a worse-case scenario that keeps us limited and small. This leads us away from the very reason why G-d gave us imagination in the first place. When we are mired in worry or self-doubt, we assume the worst and forget our G-d given mission to flourish and thrive.

Used positively, our imagination enables us to put something valuable out into the world. Something meaningful for our lives and the lives of others. Human imagination at its best has brought us knowledge and wisdom, the arts, community resources, or the simple setting of a beautiful Shabbat table for guests. All of these require the simple rerouting of our thoughts when we lose sight of Hashem’s love for us and desire to be happy. 

So the next time your thoughts go astray, remind yourself that Hashem has a different script for you and YOU can let go of the inner static. Lean into the most expansive and exciting recesses of your mind and enjoy the vision of what wants to come forward from there. Your problems will work themselves out, but your dreams need you to believe in them. Hashem and the world are waiting