Feeling inspired is your natural state of being

“I just realized I’ve never felt inspired in my life,” he said softly. The room went quiet in respect for his vulnerability. It was early days in the Vision Program when I used to teach in a classroom setting. As a group, we were exploring the question “What does feeling inspired feel like?” There’s something fascinating about inspiration – even just talking about it can evoke the sensation of it in our bodies. When discussed in a classroom space, the air becomes charged, and everyone present can sense it. For that particular gentleman, it was a new experience. While I was concerned that he was grieved, I was also encouraged. There were many new potentials available to him now that he had begun to tap into his source of energy.

I remember when feeling inspired was also foreign to me. For much of my adulthood into my mid-30s, I was “coasting” through life. I wasn’t overly miserable, but I wasn’t excited about life either. I was just going through the motions. Life felt like something that was happening to me, not through me. It’s not that I wasn’t appreciative of my life, it’s that I wasn’t consciously aware that I was even alive.

Given the circumstances of the last few years, it’s important to talk about inspiration. Many people are emerging from the pandemic more exhausted, lethargic, and uninspired than ever. When we understand what inspiration actually is, this all makes perfect sense.

Inspiration is an indicator of energy flow

If you believe, as I do, that there is a consciousness that exists beyond our human experience – call it God, the Universe, or the I Am – then it goes in hand that there is a source of energy available for creating all that is, as well. I believe that that consciousness intends to know itself through us as human beings. It is our “role” as humans to allow energy, the resource that creates physical reality, to flow through us into the manifest world so that consciousness can expand and express itself. We humans get to be the joyous experiencers of life. Because I perceive the human aspect of who we are to be an extension of consciousness, not separate from, then I also see source energy as “our” energy. Before I get too deep down the rabbit hole of metaphysics, let me bring it back to more practical terms.

All of this is to say that there is a source of energy that flows through us and creates the experience of the physical world and “inspired” is the term we use to express what this experience feels like.

Inspiration is the feeling of source energy flowing through us into the manifest world.

We humans (and all other living beings) act as the conduit between the non-physical and physical realms. When we establish our connection with that source and open to its flow, we are literally streaming new energy into the manifest world. This flow of energy can be detected as a palpable current within us – we feel electric, just like the air in that classroom.

I think some people believe that inspiration is a divine blessing bestowed only upon the fortunate few, like Oprah or Goethe, but this isn’t true. It’s the natural state of being for every human. Sadly, we have been conditioned to believe otherwise.

Flowing energy is natural

If you accept that the human experience is designed so that we are channels who flow energy, then it’s easy to accept that feeling inspired is a natural state of being. However, if we have the ability to receive and direct energy through our being, then we also have the authority to restrict that energy from flowing. What blocks the flow of energy? Resistance.

Resistance blocks the flow of our energy.

We create resistance with our thoughts. When we think in contradiction to consciousness, we impede the flow of energy. I don’t know why this is. Perhaps it is a “safety” mechanism that was built into human design so that we couldn’t move too far away from the truth of who we are. What I do know is that we can detect if we are generating resistance by how our thoughts make us feel. The worse we feel, the more resistance we are offering. We’re so effective at creating resistance that sometimes the energy reduces to a mere trickle. Some of the methods we use to achieve this are telling stories about our unworthiness, believing in lack, and denying our own desires. More effective than all of those is the biggest impediment of all – the propagation of fear.

Over the last few years, the upheaval of our previous reality coupled with the uncertainty of our future has had a traumatizing effect on humans. The circumstances of the pandemic caused to amplify our fear. Or perhaps it merely shone a light on the fact that we have always had an underlying fear that we aren’t inherently safe. Maybe we translate the “temporariness” of life as it being “unsafe”. Or maybe we have just been too afraid to stand face-to-face with the profound mystery of life itself. Whatever the origin of the fear, as it intensified, it diminished our access to energy.

The forced isolation also exposed another curious aspect of our relationship with energy – that often we seek to gain energy from things outside of ourselves such as relationships, jobs, travelling, etc. The invitation now is to learn how to connect with the inner source of energy that is the birthright of every human. If we don’t master how to receive energy naturally, we will generate all kinds of destructive behaviours to get energy artificially – behaviours such as engaging in drama, divisiveness, violence, and war. Sound familiar?

Feeling inspired is so natural to who we really are that we can only tolerate its absence for so long before we find a way to release our resistance. We do so either by conscious choice or collapse in surrender. It can become too much to bear the suffering that builds from attempting to hold back the energy that creates worlds. If it becomes impossible to unbind ourselves from our resistance, it can come in the extreme circumstance of our death, the ultimate release. My encouragement would be to go the path of embracing life instead.

Embodiment requires practice

Energy is attracted by passion for life. The desire for being alive is the most powerful energy-bringer there is. After years of protecting ourselves from life, it’s no wonder we are all so drained. To reclaim our energy requires us to reinvoke our joy for living. I’m not talking about seeking out pleasurable activities to distract us from our suffering. I mean being in true awe of the human experience.

Consciousness wants to express through us. We work really hard to block that expression and then we wonder why life is so difficult. If your energy feels stuck, then get it moving. Do anything to invite the energy in. Sing. Dance. Scream. Roll around in the grass. It’s not that those actions bring about inspiration, but being in action can help soothe our minds and release resistant thoughts, which returns us to our natural state of energy flow.

Inspiration is not a mental concept, it is a felt experience. The embodiment of it requires practice. We have to unlearn all the habits we’ve developed that serve to block our energy and relearn to let our bodies operate at “waterfall” capacity, where the energy is endlessly flowing. The easiest way to accomplish this is by doing simple practices every day to remember what feeling inspired feels like.

Drop into your body
One of the quickest ways to feel inspired is to reconnect with your sensual nature. To consciously experience the world through our bodily senses is unique to the human experience. Let yourself delight in the wonders of being in a body.

Get creative
Creativity is another powerful way to connect with your energy. The act of creating invites you to receive energy in the form of new ideas and new potentials and translate them into real world things. What the end creation is does not matter, only that you have opened to letting your energy flow.

Revel in nature
Nature is also a wonderful place to connect with your energy. It is the perfect demonstration of what it means to live without resistance. Everything in nature just is. It accepts its impermanence and its significance in the evolution of all that is.

Embrace humanity
Inspiration can be found in every single aspect of humanity. If we look at our experience from a broader perspective, we can appreciate that we are up to truly astounding things. At the end of the day, it is miraculous that we exist at all.

Inspiration begets action

There’s a propensity within humans to want to feel good. It feels good to feel inspired. It’s the reminder of who we really are. It is the realization of ourselves as expressions of consciousness and it provides the energy to create the fulfilling experience of our human lives.

It’s not necessary to feel inspired all of the time, but it sure makes life a lot more exhilarating. When we tap into the magic of being alive, it increases our access to energy. If we are practiced at noticing where the energy wants to go – in other words, we trust the impulses of our own inspiration and we follow through with easeful action – we can be sure that the actions that follow will lead us to living a truly inspired life.