Whether you find it in another person, in nature, music, books or art, from food, or the internet, inspiration is everywhere. In the fast-paced, technology-driven, instant gratification type of world that most of us live in we are constantly exposed to thousands of images and messages and opinions, but how do we know which ones are actually influencing our thoughts and behaviour in our daily lives or if they even influence us at all?
A few weeks ago I wanted to write about inspiration and creativity and thought a logical place to start would be the dictionary. How boring, but a starting point nonetheless!
There are many definitions of inspiration out there:
~ Inspiration – n – stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc., to special or unusual activity or creativity.
~ The act or process of inhaling; breathing in. [1]
The second definition caught my attention. I have many sources of inspiration; sometimes when listening to music just one line of lyrics can inspire me to write an entire journal entry and other times I find myself stuck. Thinking too hard about what I want to write or how it should be written leads me down an endless frustrating path of blocked creativity. I find that striving too hard to do something can be counterproductive. After asking others what inspires them and spending too much time on dictionary.com, yet still not feeling overly creative, I decided to move onto other things.
This is where meditation came in…
There are many methods of meditation but this time I chose to focus on my breath, following my inhale and exhale until I slipped into a semi conscious state of relaxation. Part of this process was allowing myself to let go, to detach from the outcome – does it matter if I even write this article?
The more I looked outside to figure out what inspired me and where my source of creativity came from the more I found myself writing a sentence only to delete it a few seconds later feeling frustrated and uninspired. Instead I decided to look within. Shortly after my meditation the message came to let the whole thing go and when the time was right it would come to life.
Then a few days later it’s a regular morning – I’m drinking coffee and listening to music and boom – creativity has arrived! Within about 10 minutes I managed to polish off what you’re reading now. I also resisted the temptation to continuously review and edit what I was writing which made it flow that much more smoothly.
My conclusion? Inspiration can come from anywhere which may or may not directly influence our creativity. I’m satisfied because I’ve enjoyed the process, the words have flowed freely and I believe the real source of my creativity has come from the silence within.