Inspiration

Inspiration. One of the first times I really thought about inspiration was when I read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. She talks about inspiration like an entity - a being - who moves and acts and whom you get to choose to engage with, or not. Inspiration is not something to take for granted, it’s not even something to be expected. Rather, it’s a gift of god / nature / love that comes knocking on our doors. The choice is ours whether we decide to answer that knock or not.

I love this concept, and it’s one that has altered my life, honestly. What I struggle with is what to do when inspiration doesn’t seem to come knocking, or at least I’m not hearing the knock. How do we not dwell in a hole of uninspired living? Does inspiration surely come back? Or perhaps after enough unanswered knocks, it comes to visit less frequently.

To be honest, I have no idea, I can only speak fro my lived experience. What I’m finding is that sometimes I have to go looking for her. Sometimes I have to put myself out there in ways that stretch my comfort zone or require more willpower of me than I might like to give in order to be open enough to receive that inspiration when she does come knocking.

What does that look like? Well for me in this moment it’s sitting down to write this blog. I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired in this moment, but I know my soul has been calling me to write. I also know I’ve written blogs in the past that have brought me and others a lot of joy, and so it couldn’t hurt to try. Sometimes the opening towards inspiration (even when I don’t feel it) might look like sitting down to write a Yoga sequence, making a new playlist for a class, or trying out a new teacher or style of Yoga.

I show up in these ways because I know that inspiration will come knocking again, and I want to be ready for her. Here’s to the small moments, the little details that peak your interest, the simple, mundane, and the beautiful all wrapped up in one.