Picture this: A lone elephant lumbers across the open savanna.

As you read that sentence, your imagination began painting a mental picture. You likely saw in your mind’s eye an elephant walking across wide, grassy terrain.

Stop and analyze what you just did. It’s really rather remarkable.

Chances are, as you read this, you aren’t on safari in Africa. There are no actual elephants in your immediate vicinity. But you’re still able to envision an elephant in widescreen detail simply by reading words on a page.

And that happened, automatically and without any effort on your part, because we humans are both visual and imaginative beings. Not only are we born with eyes that allow us to view the world around us, but our brains have the extraordinary power to record and recreate that reality within the limitless universe of our imagination.

And even more amazing, those imaginary constructs are often linked to our very real emotions. If you’re passionate about...