It's nearing the end of the second quarter of the year, and here I am in the Prof. Afferbeck Lauder's scheme still stuck in the second letter of the alphabet.

Well there are a lot of things starting with the letter B that I would like to discuss, but I must move on really. That means we will be talking about things beginning with letter C in the next few columns. The first word that comes to mind is creative, or creative imagination to be exact.

As I mentioned on more than one occasion previously, we follow the ABC steps routinely in our relaxation classes. These steps are Attitude, Breathing and Creative Imagination.

In the exercise, when we get to the last step, I ask participants to sit, close their eyes and relax. I ask them to use their imagination to transport themselves to a place conducive to relaxation depending on the weather of the day.

So, in winter I would ask them to imagine themselves being in a log cabin somewhere in the snowy mountains, sitting comfortably in front of a blazing open fire place.

If you can do that well, you are halfway towards relaxation. So, is it really that simple? The answer is in the affirmative. I could say that because at the end of each session I would need to wake half of the participants up. By the way, they usually wake up bright and refreshed.

So really, the ability to relax, or to be more specific the ability to create imagination is inherent in us. You only need to look at little kids playing. They can pretend they are an elephant, a tiger, a whale, anything.

I remember when I was a little kid myself. We lived in a village with dirt tracks and not sealed roads like nowadays. So, when a car happened to be in the village, it was quite a sight to behold. We kids would crowd around it, touching it, peering through the windows, marveling at this wonderful contraption.

And for the next few days we would be running around, making the "vroom - vroom" noise, halting and screeching, then moving the arms and hands around, twirling the steering wheel that was not there. And we never got sick of it. 

Have children changed? In some ways they might have, but there is something that hasn’t. That "something" is their creative imagination.

Get a bunch of kids, give them a blank sheet of paper and a box of crayons, colouring pens or pencils. Without hesitation they would soon engross in their activities, drawing, sketching or simple doodling. A showcase of creative imagination at work. 

Now, do the same thing to a group of adults. What would they do? They'd look around. They'd check what everybody else was doing, hesitating, then mumble something like "Oh, I've never been good at drawing." 

If we think about it, ability wise are we not as good as four-five year olds? I should think not. Are we less creative or less imaginative than those kids?

Again, I certainly think not. We are concerned that others may not like our drawing. We are worried we might make a fool of ourselves. It's not that we are less able, it's just that we are not as confident. It is not a question of ability, it is a question of confidence.

The ability is always with us. But somehow our confidence changes as we get older. And unfortunately in most cases it changed for the worse instead of the better. 

So that's what we endeavour in our relaxation class. We try to rekindle and nurture that confidence, specifically confidence in using our creative imagination.

As we get more confident, we utilise our creative imagination to achieve our goal, namely relaxation of both body and mind. "Does Imagination work?" I hear you asking. I'll answer that by quoting phrases from people known for their wisdom. 

William Blake (English poet, artist, mystic) -"What is now proved was once only imagined."

Albert Einstein (German born physicist)- "Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Last, but no means least, Kahlil Gibran (Lebanese poet, artist, mystic) "Imagination finds a road to the realm of the gods, and there man can glimpse that which is to be after the soul's liberation from the world of substance."