Imagination is a powerful and often underutilized tool for emotional and relational health, at least that’s what I concluded after reading a study led by cognitive neuroscientists at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Germany. In this study, participants were asked to categorize 30 people they know as “liked,” “disliked,” or “neutral.” Then, while inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, they were given the names of the people they categorized as “neutral” and instructed to either vividly imagine an 8-second positive experience with them or an 8-second negative experience with them. The results:

• Participants voiced a preference for those with whom they imagined a positive experience.
• On a subsequent test, they also indicated that they “liked” them more than they did in the initial rankings.
• Participants’ perspective of those with whom they imagined a negative experience remained unchanged.

Interestingly, the fMRI revealed a distinct brain response pattern in those who imagined a positive experience. That pattern likely contributed to the positive change in perspective.

Imagine how this might prove beneficial in our families.

• If one of your children is upset with one of their siblings, perhaps you can guide them on a positive imaginative experience together.
• Teaching your children to get along with their peers? A positive imaginative experience of a fun encounter might help.
• Struggling with a peer at work and bringing that frustration home. Take time for a positive imaginative interaction, such as a pleasant lunch or a fun activity, with that peer.  

Teaching our children effective and productive ways to utilize their imaginations may not only benefit them relationally, but it may also help them learn to counter the negative imaginations that fuel depression and anxiety. In the process, you can have a lot of fun learning to imagine. And those positive imaginations may just help us move toward a better community. Teac your children to postpone scrolling and let their minds wander to just imagine…a better world, a world of positive relationships, a gift-giving community, relationships filled with fun interactions, times of joy.