Idea: Make-believe is a worthy use of imagination (unlike worry). Last time, I offered what I think is one good reason for “shutting down imagination” about…
Tag: Imagination
Why Not to Worry
Posted in Friendly Philosophy
Idea: Worrying is trying to control the future (which is impossible).
Last time, I talked about a helpful technique for shutting down worry. But it works by shutting down imagination. And to do that, we need a really good reason.1
I used to think I worried–I imaginatively rehearsed distressing future situations–because I was “trying to be prepared.” Worry is practice, and the more practice, the better.
But I recently realized that what I’m really doing is trying to control the future. I worry over and over not for practice, but because I only feel in control of the future while I’m imagining it.
So why not worry? It’s an attempt to do the impossible. And that’s not a worthy use of imagination. (We’ll have to talk about worthy uses of the imagination later.)
FOOTNOTES
How to Stop Worrying
Posted in Friendly Philosophy
Idea: The core of worry is imagining yourself outside the present.
I’ve been obsessed with the topic of imagination recently. This is partly because I realized that imagination is central to worry. You imagine something happening to you (or involving you) in the future, and feel distressed about it.
I don’t know how to not feel distressed about something. But I do know how to stop imagining. Specifically, to imagine yourself outside the present, you have to pay less-than-full attention to what you’re presently seeing and hearing.
Why? Imagination takes the parts of your brain involved in seeing and hearing,1 but uses them for pretending to see and hear things that aren’t there. So, if you focus those parts of your brain on your present environment,2 they’ll be too busy to imagine. And if you can’t imagine, you can’t worry.
But why would you want to shut down your imagination like this? We’ll have to talk about that later.
FOOTNOTES
Imagination for Attitudes
Posted in Friendly Philosophy
Idea: One function of imagination is to help us get into a particular (kind of) attitude. Imagination is important — even fundamental — to human…
Top 40 Philosophy: The Beatles, “A Hard Day’s Night”
Posted in Friendly Philosophy, Music, and Top 40 Philosophy
The fifth of six Beatles songs to go #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1964, “A Hard Day’s Night” is our next-to-last song this week.…