Inspiration
To me, inspiration is the thing that “opens the world up” right before my eyes. It’s the mysterious and exhilarating feeling of opportunity. Of change being imminent. Of something actually being created, in real time. Something that actually matters.
The feeling of inspiration is intoxicating… a delicious treat! To be savored, no doubt. But when it fades away, it reveals something: that life without inspiration — without vitality, without a sense of becoming — isn’t quite complete. The full ingredient list isn’t there, you know? It’s like watching a movie without sound — partial, incomplete… begging us, almost, to bring ourselves back into fullness.
As the days move on, we lose steam. The luster of that inspirational spark wears off, and we sink into the feeling of repetition. What a crime we commit against the life force that brought us here in the first place! What a dastardly trick of the mind, isn’t it? I understand, though. I’m culprit #1 of feeling defeated or falling into the routine. Modern life asks a lot of us, after all: go to work, pay for medical bills, plan for the future… so many tasks that layer themselves on top like thick, boring pancakes, snuffing out the flame.
What I’m talking about is the quality of feeling like you’re building something. Like there’s possibility in the air. Like a crack has opened up in the fabric of the predictable spacetime that you’ve been enveloped in, and something is now alive and imbued with life energy. I think a good life should be filled with as much as this sensation as possible.
For me, two things tend to trigger it: First and foremost, seeing someone taking radical action and standing for something. A leader, an activist, a courageous human who has such a strong conviction that change is possible that they’ll invest endless energy, they’ll show up, they’ll lead others… and ultimately, they become the cause of the effect that they envisioned. Those who bend the universe in the direction they choose, simply by deciding that they’re going to.
Secondly, beauty. Beauty for its own sake. Beauty that reminds me of the incredible, boundless network of energy that holds atoms together and keeps our hearts beating every second. True beauty reminds me of this sense we have within us — this feeling that something matters beyond just feeding ourselves, changing diapers and online shopping. That something matters because we have the ability to create from the raw material of life — and creation always makes the pie bigger than it was the day before.
Personally, I’m tired of days that are uninspired. I’m tired of feeling helpless, on a treadmill, the sky is falling… etc. I can do more than that. Life can be more than that. Even when catastrophe strikes — even in fires, floods, pandemics, and all the rest — there are incredible examples of human goodness, of collaboration, of sacrifice. People who have next to nothing, giving half of it away because their neighbor needs it just as much. Volunteers coordinating resources, fundraising and doing their part to bring meals to hungry families who’ve lost their homes.
I’m inspired by the people who choose action and commitment over resignation and detachment. Amazed and inspired. And in time, I’ve committed myself to becoming the kind of person who chooses life and possibility and goodness. I’m committed to shedding the unsatisfying layers of my conditioning that pull me into indifference, inaction and endless analysis. The truth is, life feels the best to me when I’m in action — especially when I’m creating something with other people. Creating healing together. My commitment to myself is to become the kind of person who generates that kind of action — rather than waiting around for it to strike — and to share this energy with the people in my life, too.
That’s my commitment to myself. So I’m curious — what’s yours? What does inspiration mean to you?
(Optional) Action Steps!
- Create a calendar block for 10 minutes today. Anytime you’d like.
- Take those 10 minutes to journal (on physical paper): what were the last 2 or 3 times that I felt truly inspired? That I felt alive, bubbling with possibility and life energy? What was I moved by (i.e. what was awakened within me)? What was I moved to do by that situation?
- Let that feeling of goodness pervade your body and spirit
- Commit to another action, if you so choose
