Keeping Your Imagination Alive

As we enter adulthood and mature with time, the temptation can be to 'get serious' about life. In these moments, it is vital that we pour life into our imaginations, our playfulness and our creativity.

Life is more than just convention - at some point so many of us put down the paint brush, stop singing, drawing, sculpting and telling each other stories altogether.

We become 'consumers' rather than makers of art, theatre, music and film. We believe we are simply no good or that imagining things is simply a waste of time.

Many of us, bound by the duties and responsibilities of adult life, feel foolish, embarrassed and perhaps even afraid to pursue creativity or incorporate artistic practices into our daily lives.

We all too often decide that creativity is a place only for artists, for professional musicians, writers and craftspeople. We attach so much status and quality in the act that we forget it is still ok and important for us to have a go.

In fact, there is so much delight, joy and stimulation to be drawn from creativity. It is crucial that we don't discount our own imaginative potential simply because we judge imagination as foolish or decide that we have nothing great or good to offer - so why bother.

Creativity is not meant to be perfect. Neither it is only to be reserved by children or professional creatives. In drawing, making, playing, singing, drumming, etching and sculpting we cultivate a vital part of ourselves.

Seeing stories in the clouds above, in ripples of water, in the last hour of daylight or the bird patterns across a field, we free our minds, our hearts and our fixed routines towards something richer, something more playful and something human.

Imagination is everything. Don't let it fade simply because you have bills to pay or because you were once told you couldn't draw. Never give up on introducing creativity into your daily life and carving out space to explore, to invent and to imagine other worlds and other realities.

You may just find enormous joy and that you begin protecting and honouring something hugely precious within you. Something that has every right to be there. No matter what age you may be.

Imagination is not the reserve of a select few. It is there for us all and one of life's greatest gifts and treasures.

Be brave and tell a tale, sing a song, stitch a stitch and draw a night's sky. You cannot know the power, the freedom and confidence you might meet with.