Inspiration and creativity quickly evaporates when it’s forgotten and neglected. It will not be forced on a whim, or squeezed into your day to be considered if or when you have a spare moment. I know inspiration doesn’t strike when I am tired. Stressed. Or pre-occupied. Nor when life admin or life in general takes over.
It doesn’t take much for inspiration and creativity to evaporate.
Especially when you realise you’ve been spending far too much of your valuable time and precious energy devoted to something that is absolutely no longer in alignment with who you are now or where you’re headed.
I realised the extent of this in my own life last week, I’d given four years to something that has exceeded it’s sell by date. My patience snapped and my inner warrior shouted ‘Enough of this’.
I’d made the decision I’d been grappling with for a while. Too long really. Wanting my next steps to appear before I’d leap. But no. I understood that for anything to change I’d have to make my move first, be willing to take the leap and only then would the next step appear.
My circumstances were no longer going to tolerate the intolerable and now was the time to act. So I did.
An old chapter is going to be over. Soon.
But what would I do next?
How would I fill the gap?
A week ago I honestly didn’t know.
One of the biggest realisations that came to light is that I felt anything but inspired. I felt depleted and drained and it dawned on me how little energy I had to tend to my soul cup or what lights me up for a long time. And so it was time for me and inspiration to get re-acquainted, as in order to keep the flame of inspiration burning you have to repeatedly feed it with ideas, visions, insights and encouragement.
When your soul cup is dry how do you begin to refill it?
Some people find it easy to manifest the life they want, they make it sound simple, easy and do-able. All you have to do is say what you desire. Focus on it some more and miracles appear, just like that.
For others it’s not quite as clear cut. We’re focused on our hopes and dreams, we believe we’re ready and open for things to fall in our laps. We’ve done the vision board, journaling and have beautiful affirmations ready to repeat before we write our morning pages. Just to get us in the right head space.
But despite all our best manifesting efforts life doesn’t bring us what we desire. We’re stuck. Swamped feeling maybe we didn’t try hard enough. Maybe we’re blocked and need to work on our clearing our chakras some more. Maybe this is our destiny and we’ll have to just lump it. This is what life intended and we can do absolutely nothing to change it.
I believed this. I believed that if things weren’t happening as quickly or seamlessly for me, as they appeared to be for others, then I must be doing something wrong. I must be on the wrong path or chasing something that wasn’t meant for me.
Here’s what I believe now. I believe that in this life school there will be times when we are stuck, we cannot envisage a more positive future or we feel so completely and utterly overwhelmed that we cannot make a decision over what to eat for dinner, let alone create an inspirational life plan to see us through for the next five years.
I also believe and know when I feel like this inspiration will return. Miracles and manifestations do happen. And they happen a lot quicker when we focus our valuable time and precious energy towards what we do desire, and give less attention on what we really have outgrown.
We may not always get what we want, maybe there’s a reason for this or maybe not. But I know we leak a lot of time and energy spinning our wheels with things we really don’t want anymore.
There’s so much power in realising you don’t have to do what you’ve always done.
As we reach the middle of the year, with the Summer Solstice fast approaching you may also be thinking what’s next?
How can you feel re-inspired and re-invigorated in the weeks and months ahead?
How can you remember what you truly desire, in your heart of hearts?
What always works a treat for me is seeing things visually, a powerful image and inspirational words remind me of what I am drawn towards. I choose to focus on what fills up my creative well and brings the spark of ideas into my consciousness again.
A vision board isn’t enough for me and so for the last seven years I’ve created my own vision book. This is a notebook that I start at the beginning of the calendar year and grows and evolves with me month-by-month. I fill it with my hopes, visions and dreams, reminders of what I intend to do and most importantly what I have actually accomplished. Because often we’re so forward focused we forget all the things we have done. The pages are also filled with welcome signs that let me know I am on the right path and of course visual images and quotes that speak to me in the moment. This book becomes a daily reminder of how I want to live my day and my life ahead.
Our souls do not speak human language. They communicate with us through symbols, metaphors, visions, words, deep feelings and everyday magic.
There’s something so comforting about re-visiting the things we know and love
My vision books have become a sacred space that keep me on track, remind me of what it is I desire and steer me towards the life I envisage. Whenever I need encouragement or a burst of inspiration it is there ready and waiting for me to remember to come back to myself and notice. Especially when I have drifted completely off course. I notice the little flickers of the new coming into existence.
The people, jobs and places that are no longer in resonance will fall away. The energy is no longer an effective match. Rather than cling on to the old or fight for something that isn’t in resonance. Let go. Let energy do it’s thing. Trust and get excited for the new. Meet yourself there.
Often we attempt to stay in the same place until we have the next steps clearly marked out in front of us, but life doesn’t always work like that. Like a game of chess you have to know when to make your move. Only then will the next step you need appear in front of you.
It may not be what you anticipated or envisaged. You may not feel ready. With your perceived safety net gone you’re leaping into the unknown.
Whatever happens next needs trust. In yourself and the powers that be – the universe, the divine whatever it is that makes life and miracles happen.
As for me a week on miraculously I’ve had time to adjust my sails, re-visiting the things I love such as spending time pottering in the garden, walking through the forest and diligently focusing on the places I want to explore, the hobbies that have been neglected and even writing my morning pages and journalling again. Remarkably this is something I stopped doing four years ago.
And my vision book is growing and evolving day-by-day with new hopes, dreams and goals. Now I have a little more space and energy opening up I am feeling re-inspired. The flame ready to burn brightly once more.
What lights a spark and inspires you?
Need more support coming back to yourself, take a look at the 1-1 Soul-to-Soul Sessions, available online now.