Many times you have probably heard things begin with, ‘Imagine that‘, and ‘picture it’ in your mind, and sometimes you may do that when requested, or your mind finds its own way to wander and create something of its own. And create it does, for many people in many ways, and when you are bombarded with various sources of input and imagery it can be an overwhelming overload of that input. For some it lingers too, or manifests into something else, or can lay dormant until a completely random time is chosen by your brain to resurrect it and make it a thought.

It isn’t something that people can control either it seems, although you may be able to determine its path once it’s arrived, or minimise it taking over and disrupting where your mind was, where it comes from and why is still a mystery as far as I know. Being incorporated and stored by your processing centres, filed for later use or dismissed as not needed by your awareness, and then something else happens, which we aren’t aware of, because it then decides what to do with the image, information, thought or idea itself. Chucking it back at you with no prompting sometimes, or at least not a conscious one, there may well be other factors which determine why a Memory of something comes back or pops up out of the blue as they might say. But we are not privy to why that is apparently.

And an extra curveball comes our way with thoughts and memories, as they can and do interweave themselves with our subconscious and can appear in Dreams, which can then alter our perception towards it, or turn it into something entirely new. Quite an odd thing. And depending on your level of imaginings, then I guess it can be more vivid and disturbing in some minds than others, my book Meeting in the Middle of Nowhere gives an idea of what it is like to have what they would call hyper visualisation happening. And my article Hyperphantasia, A Down Side gives a brief overview of how it might affect someone, with fears, phobias and how the brain will hold onto things you might very much like to let go of.

But it is down to the individual to try as best they can, to work out the best way to keep your mind in order. To filter what goes in, to work through what does, and to try not to let it get too cluttered or crazy in there. You are the only one who has to live in there (hopefully), and you know what they say about things and people getting to live rent free in your head? So for this, imagine your mind and thoughts are your living room, or bedroom if that’s your personal space. And all the things you view, talk about and see, are things knocking on that door wanting to get it. You may well have left the door open and it’s already beyond what you would call ‘personal space’, but scale it back, make it an empty room again, starting with just you. There is a knock at the door, and it’s a horror film with terrible imagery that wants to come in and sit with you for a while. Next it’s the media knocking, they want you to sit down and read all their headlines, and all your acquaintances, family, colleagues, friends, work, movies, books, music, words and ideas you have ever been exposed too. They all work their way in, and it’s down to you to sort through it and manage it, because if left unchecked, it seems that the mind has a very curious ability to completely unravel. So, keep an eye on yourself, as you are really the only one who stands half a chance of actually knowing what is going on in your mind, unless of course, it wasn’t yours to begin with…

(c) K Wicks