What is inspiration and how can I become inspired?
I would like to explore these questions in this article. Let’s go back to the semantic origins of the word. In Latin, inspiratio means “animation” and “breathing in,” composed of in ‘into’ and spirare “to breathe” and “to breathe”; spiritus is “breath,” “soul,” and “spirit.”
Inspiration is therefore the breath that is “breathed” into us. Inhalation and exhalation are the basis of our life. Without breath, no human being or higher mammal can exist. The basis of life, in the way we understand the term inspiration in modern times, is also a source of creative processes, good ideas, and everything that allows us to “grow.”
Whatever inspires us, it starts with the breath. This is important to understand. That breath does not simply come and go and nothing else happens. That may be the case for the default mode of a lot of people, but only the absence of one’s own inspiration can have such a relationship with breath. When we refocus our attention on our breath, on its constant movement and brief moments of stillness, and follow it like the endless waves of the sea, listening to it again, then the inspiration we desire for our lives comes all by itself.
That’s my experience. Spending a week in silence in a monastery, focusing only on your own breathing, is like cleaning your house. Once the house has been cleared out, there is room again to put up a canvas for instance, and then space is created, both inside and outside, where I can develop something – but I don’t have to!
Studies show that the best way to break out of old habits is to move house. I am convinced that this is true, and yet the most important change takes place when you set aside a few moments each day, perhaps writing down when these moments will be (for example, while washing up after lunch or doing any other activity that bores you and normally causes you to drift off).
Then, have one or more appointments with yourself; let inspiration come to you and perhaps it will reveal something wonderful.
Be well,
Milan