(Un)Imaginable Life Paths

What we become depends on the pathways we are able to imagine and act upon in an ever evolving environment that shapes our existence. Like the conditions that surround us, also our space of imagination is not static and rather evolves throughout time. Thereby new experiences, especially transformative experiences, enable the emergence of imaginations that we did not have at an earlier stage in life. Imagination can evolve into various directions. It can change, expand or get more differentiated. Considering that we always imagine from a specific moment in time, mentally subjected by the weight of our past and the conditions of our present, we can only imagine certain pathways whereas others might be unimaginable. Some of my life's current circumstances where unimaginable for me at an earlier moment in time. At this specific moment I had not yet made the experiences that later in life enabled the emergence of the current state of imagination. Among others, such experiences include the internalization of knowledges, perceptions, ideas or practices. Not that I belief that the current state of imagination is special, it is just different, but enabled actions and decisions that otherwise would not have been possible. As in past mental states also now many pathways are simply unimaginable out of my current perspective. What brought me on a certain life path happened mostly due to random, sometimes maybe intentional, experiences out of which new imaginations emerged. These imaginations then affected my decisions and actions out of which further experiences emerged. This loop stabilized the pathway I am currently on, including slight changes in direction that my surrounding conditions and imagination space enabled me to pursue. The question that keeps me thinking for a while is if its possible to consciously search for certain experiences that enable the evolvement of imagination into potentially other meaningful directions? But if this form of searching emerges out of an existing space of imagination, are life paths continuously conditioned into certain directions?

Mar 28, 2025