A post by Cassandra Vieten

As a psychologist and researcher, my career has focused on how people change. In particular, I have investigated the experiences, practices, and environments that transform people’s worldviews—their stories about themselves and the world—and as a result, change their thinking patterns, behavior, biology and brain. Over a couple of decades of research, I am convinced that extraordinary experiences can change us in profound and lasting ways. Just like an experience of trauma can change us in lasting ways, a profoundly positive experience can change us in positive ways: kind of like post-traumatic stress in reverse.

But here’s the surprising part: those experiences don’t always have to be real. More accurately, those experiences don’t have to be externally or physically real: they can happen in our imagination. Practicing imagination holds the potential to transform our lives into something extraordinary. Even negative imagination, when we don’t get stuck there, can be helpful in our personal growth journey.