Image from Inspiration Line
Inspiration comes forth from within. It’s what the light burning within you is about, as opposed to motivation, which is doing it because if you don’t do it, there will be negative repercussions. Motivation is making myself do something that I don’t really want to do. Inspiration is having the clear picture of what I am wanting — and letting Universal forces come into play to get the outcome.
I believe that what distinguishes motivation from inspiration is that motivation draws on effortful action and effortful action is always under-girded by fear. Inspiration, on the other hand, is spontaneous as it is the natural behavior of love. It therefore spurs action that is effortless (even if it appears effortful to others and even to ourselves when we are not focused, aware and awake!). The thing is, we are so habituated/conditioned into motivation that we leave little room for inspiration!
Yet, I am certain we have all experienced inspiration even if it has been infrequent and unpredictable. Think back to a time when you did feel inspired. Did you not feel such a buzz, ready to do anything, take on anything? Did you not feel so thrilled, so joyous, so enthusiastic, so enchanted almost? Wasn’t it an absolutely wonderful feeling? Imagine if you could sustain that for more than a few fleeting minutes or hours. Imagine living your lives on the clouds of inspiration, which are really the clouds of love! Wow!
Unfortunately, most of us know only too well the ‘drop’ from such an elevated state of being. And while it is a conditioned and learned ‘drop’, we, in our conditioning call it ‘reality’ as if the euphoria or inspiration we felt was not! Has it occurred to you that this ‘drop’ does not have to happen? At least not it the way it typically does? Can you contemplate living from inspiration most of the time, if not all of the time, rather than sporadically?
Have you noticed that moments of inspiration are moments of sheer delight, of sheer ‘ah-ha’ when absolutely no doubt exists? It is as if you have encountered truth and you and truth are one! There is absolutely nothing in the way! Indeed, it is what you experience when you are flowing freely in the stream of happiness, of love, of the truth of who you are. In moments of inspiration, you experience limitlessness. In short, inspiration is the experience of who you truly are and because we are mostly asleep to who we truly are, we experience inspiration only rarely!
So, how do we make inspiration a more frequent experience? How do we remain inspired? Here is one way:
Never identify with a problem or any unpleasant situation you are experiencing. Instead, use the problem or situation to prompt you to remember that you are infinitely more than any problem. Remind yourself that you are limitless, free and powerful and most importantly, allow yourself to feel it. By refusing to identify with a problem or unpleasant situation, you are free to rise to the lofty, limitless heights of inspiration!
Blessings, Lucy
Awakening to Happiness!
I guess most of the time we are driven by motivation rather than inspiration as you say. But motivation is not a bad thing I guess. I mean there are so many people who arent driven at all. But yes I guess we must try to get into that inspired state that you have described so well in this article.
I agree lvs that motivation might be better than no motivation at all which might leave us stagnant/stuck. That would accelerate our ‘death’ rather than growth. Yet, if we can become more aware of the inspired state, we may seek it more often and thus live from it a bit more. This helps us grow spiritually and thus in all directions!
Lovely to have your comment :-)