Have you been struggling to think creatively or imagine alternative realities or solutions for a problem? Do you find it challenging to daydream or wonder? Would you like to learn techniques and strategies to help others – students, colleagues, team members – be more imaginative? Or simply want to learn more about imagination and creativity?

Many people relate creativity with only artistic expressions – like design, writing, music, or dance, while others connected to business and leadership. However, these views are based on limited understandings of creativity that can prevent us from appreciating our own creative potential. “Creativity can be about anything”—it is a way of life, as Ruth Richards describes it. At the heart of creativity is imagination. Imagination is the engine of creativity and humanity’s superpower. Reconnecting with our imagination can lead to positive outcomes and help build the foundations for a creative, more healthy society. The connection between imagination and wellbeing has been widely studied and emphasized, highlighting how it induces feelings of happiness, deepens self-awareness, and focuses on the present moment, as well as develops stronger self-worth and confidence.

This summer I will teach an experiential workshop on imagination and individual creativity as part of the Creative Education Foundation‘s Creative Problem Solving Institute 2024 conference (Niagara University, NY, June 23rd-27th), best known as CPSI. The workshop is aimed at anyone interested in learning more about their personal creativity and how to develop a stronger connection with their imagination.

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June 25th: Daydream. Imagine. Play. Reconnect with your superpower. Thinking imaginatively can greatly improve our wellbeing and happiness, but paradoxically it is one of the hardest activities to practice because some personal attitudes lock our imagination into the status quo constraining it to our memory and experience as well as grounding it in the real world. This experiential workshop will present imagination as people’s superpower and the engine of creativity by helping participants embrace who they are and believe in their ideas. Through daydreaming, playful exercises, and metacognitive activities, participants will activate their imagination and be able to envision radically new possibilities and scenarios about their lives or society while also learning tools to transform those ideas into realities.

You will walk away with:
• A deeper understanding of how to identify and overcome personal blocks that can stifle our ability to imagine
• Strategies to have stronger connection with your imagination, feel happier, and increase self-worth
• A set of metacognitive activities and techniques that you can use to empower students, team members, or yourself to dream and envision an ideal future