How to Find Inspiration
If you hang around those who identify as artists, you have 100% heard them go on about where they will find their next form of inspiration. Even if you aren’t around these people, you have probably experienced what it feels like to not be inspired. Lack of inspiration can occur naturally and pretty much anywhere in your life. If you sit at your desk at your 9-5 job scrolling through Instagram, counting the minutes until the day is done, you are experiencing a lack of inspiration. It is difficult to feel inspired all the time, especially when we find a routine or decide that adulting is the only way to survive. Seeking inspiration helps us feel alive and excited. We look for things that we have never sought out before. It brings a new level of life that we may have even forgotten about previously.
Types of Inspiration
There are a couple of ways we can seek inspiration. The first is experiencing inspiration by doing. Another way to explore inspiration is by witnessing and finally encountering inspiration by being curious.
Inspiration By Doing
We lose inspiration in our lives simply by falling into a routine. We have distractions such as work, family, friends, technology, etc., that can often make us feel like we are on repeat. When you do the same thing repeatedly, you often find it dull. Inspiration by doing creates an opportunity to shift things up a bit. Don’t overthink inspiration because we can often feel inspired by the simplest of things. One of the main ways people feel happy, content, and inspired is through travel. We talk about this regularly about how we need a vacation, and it’s more than likely we do. Changing scenery can make you feel inspired in a matter of hours. While travel is a great way to do this, very few people can jump on a jet for the afternoon and end up in Spain. Instead, incorporating new and fun things into your life should do the trick. Inspiration by doing can be completed by going to an event, class, activity, workshop, or night out. Inspiration is felt when the activity is new or out of your comfort zone. For instance, when I felt uninspired, I decided to go rock climbing. I am terrified of heights which pushed me very far out of my comfort zone. Not only did this get me out of my routine, but it changed my perspective. While rock climbing, I felt inspired by my body and its capability to hold me up with very little grasp. I also felt inspired by watching those around me climb gracefully up a wall at the highest level of difficulty. Seeing others literally jump to land perfectly on a two-inch-wide slanted surface was incredible. This leads us perfectly into the next section.
Inspiration by Witnessing
You can probably recall a time in your life when you felt genuinely inspired by someone around you. When we get bored of activities or don’t know where our path is leading, we often seek out others for comfort, wisdom, feedback, and inspiration. We can feel inspiration after witnessing someone do something difficult. Maybe you have done this at the gym, where you see someone lift an incredible amount of weight. Perhaps it is after watching a new life come into the world through immense pain. Another way to feel inspired is by witnessing someone overcome. We don’t feel inspired by those who hide their emotions or hide their hardships. While it takes strength to put on a happy face, inspiration comes from showing the darkness. When darkness is revealed, the individual expressing that pain and hardship inspires those around them 100 times more than those who hide. Expressing difficulties takes true strength. Witnessing this kind of growth and vulnerability inspires others to do the same.
Growth and vulnerability are challenging. It takes a real heart and a craving to overcome hardship to express our most vulnerable selves. When you do, consider the people you have impacted. Showing up authentically inspires those around you the same way you feel when witnessing someone else’s vulnerability.
Inspiration By Curiosity
When we hear others being vulnerable, it is very natural to want to ask questions. This is the way to process and understand someone else. Understanding their experiences and empathizing with them originates through curiosity. There are many ways we can be curious. Asking questions is one way, but expressing curiosity in life will likely lead to inspiration. Another way to experience inspiration through curiosity is simply seeking out things you had not previously experienced before. Wandering somewhere and thinking, “I wonder where this leads?” is an excellent way of finding inspiration. We often have a final destination in mind either in our heads or on google maps. What might happen if there was no destination. Where would you end up? Perhaps somewhere different than you ever had before, thus leading you to discover inspiration. Simply including curiosity in your life will change the way you perceive the world from something dull to something exciting filled with possibilities.
No matter how you feel inspired, take the time to care for your body. Changing up a routine, experiencing different cultures and people, finding a job that better suits your personality, or being open with others are great places to start. Do not live your life with regret or resentment. Life does have a timer, and it often ticks faster than we realize. Pinning yourself down to make others happy or bring home that extra paycheck won’t lead to inspiration. Living freely and openly will bring you more happiness while also cultivating an environment of inspiration. Seek new things before falling into that same old boring routine that made you feel depressed and bored. Seeking inspiration shouldn’t feel like a task; it should feel like you are finding a piece of yourself that has been hidden for a while. It should make you feel alive and excited.
