Everything is a Source of Inspiration (Including You)

Part 1 – the chaos

The word ‘inspiration’ usually gets used in the context of something uplifting, motivating or creatively stimulating. While I am a believer that words do and should have specific meanings, I also recognise the limitations of language to fully convey the spectrum of thoughts, feelings and experiences that are truly reflective of the human experience. In my own life, I increasingly have a non-dualistic approach to much that I experience. Therefore, I see inspiration through this lens, and give it a much more neutral meaning, beyond positive and negative. Inspire comes from the Latin word ‘inspirare’ which means to breath into or animate. So, yes, while I will be sharing thoughts and ideas on inspiration, that will just be the filling of this sandwich. Holding that filling together will be the idea that while self-expression is important, it is maybe more important to explain or even show more of our internal workings to flesh out how we reach conclusions, what our motivations are and ultimately, what we did with our inspiration. I hope to reflect that in the way I will throw my ideas onto this page.

When I began to think about the concept of everything being a source of inspiration, I was very clear on one thing, what I DID NOT mean was that we had to be involved in finding only the good or being positive about everything. Yes, from an idealist, non-duality viewpoint, everything can be positive and, especially for the purpose of this talk, it can be inspirational. However, from a materialist perspective, things can be very good or very bad and just about everything in between. But I am not suggesting that we get lost in mental gymnastics to make things good and positive. Rather, to bring awareness to the stories that are inspired by anything and everything that we encounter in life. As always, I don’t just want to talk about this, I also want to embody it in the way I communicate this to you.

Did that last paragraph sound as if it was repeating the ideas of the first paragraph, just said a different way? That’s because that’s exactly what it was. We turn ideas and feelings around and around, seeing how the light of our awareness is refracted as we go over it again and again. Yes, taken to the extreme, this turns into analysis paralysis, but without this, we miss a lot of nuance and meaning. It’s a kind of seeing and seeing again.

Those of you that have read my ‘brain dumps’ on Discord, this is going to be an expanded version of that. What are my brain dumps? They are a bunch of ideas and feelings that may or may not be connected, usually involving a lot of questions or queries but it is about the question itself and not so much the answer. Or rather the questions themselves are an answer in and of themselves. I will litter this post with screenshots of the last few brain dumps I posted on Discord. But why begin with brain dumps? Because they are an example of inspiration.

For me, one of the more difficult parts about writing, is that it does not reflect the actual literal way my mind is working through ideas and notions. This never used to be a problem whenever I wrote before. I think in some ways writing was a way to give a more polished, ordered slice of my thoughts. Words on a page gave an impression of taming the inner chaos, but really just masked it. But this is not what I am about these days. I want to unleash some of that madness and non-linear thinking because I think it is more true to how most of us actually think and feel. I can do this reasonably well when I’m talking in a reading – I love the freedom to jump from one topic to another, to go of on tangents, insert memories or stories that come up in the moment – to work with and display the inspiration as it happens.

Why do I feel there is the need to illustrate the more chaotic workings of my (or rather what I believe are our) inner processes? In a nutshell, to make us aware that this is how all of us function. At one time I used to think it was important to be understood, and I most definitely feel profoundly grateful when someone does understand or ‘see’ me the way I intended. But there is one thing I have heard repeatedly over the past few years that has inspired this realisation that to be understood is not as big or as pervasive a goal as it used to be. I’m pretty certain you will be aware of this dynamic. What I am referring to is where a person (and I have been this person) will give a viewpoint or idea and is countered by an opposing or alternative viewpoint. So often the response to this counter-viewpoint is either a self-deprecating “I’m not explaining it properly/I don’t know how to convey what I want to say” or a projected “You’re not understanding what I am saying!” Both of them imply “if you could just understand what I am saying, you would agree with me!” But isn’t that complete bullshit? For example I watched a video from a well-spoken guy the other day who laid out a story about a situation that recently took place in the UK. I completely understood his justifications and understood the reasoning and even the fears he talked about. But if you break down his video, what he was justifying was that it is OK to kick certain people in the head. These days, the question “what are we justifying?” is way more important to me, than getting lost in and arguing about the justifications.

But back to inspiration! While I do not share this man’s views, I love, yes love, the fact that he took the time to record and publish that talk because 1) I wouldn’t necessarily have realised that other people feel the way he does, if he hadn’t posted it, 2) he inspired me so much with his candour, his clarity and even with his hate (which was an expression of his fear of a threat and inability to protect those he loves) and vitriol (he was honest, but there was a brutality to his honesty because it lacked kindness, and thus conveyed the lack of kindness he probably shows himself). Now, all of this that I just shared here is about what it inspired in me and really not at all a statement on him, because I don’t know any of this to be objectively true. It’s what I did with the encounter. Not what I tried to do, or what I thought I should do, but what organically came up within me (on the heels of however many years I have been observing and questioning the way I react to life).

So, back to inspiration again (yep, we’re doing a little dance) in the context of this post, inspiration is a thought, feeling or idea that is awakened or ignited within oneself or others, and therefore, every encounter, observation or experience is a source of inspiration. Everything being a source of inspiration speaks to a process of being mentally or emotionally stimulated to explore new and existing perspectives, whether the stimuli are perceived as negative or positive. Now, this would have been the first paragraph had I decided not to include you in the dance.

If you’re still with me, excellent. Tell me, do you see everything as a source of inspiration in your own life? Do you see inspiration as a statement on you and your magic? I say magic, because in a way, that’s what the Magician in the tarot does. The magic resides in him, not in his tools or knowledge. It’s how he uses it. We can create a new approach, a new cycle in any moment if we bring awareness to what is inspired (we can follow on from the Magician to the next Major Arcana card, the High Priestess) and what we hold space for and nurture and grow from that space (the Empress).

But there’s another part to this, and this is the part that I feel is more fitting for Leo season. If everything is a source of inspiration, then so are each and every single one of us. Yep, you inspire others. I recently watched ‘The Batman’ and the part I enjoyed the most about that movie was that our dark, brooding superhero had a rude awakening when he realised what he had been inspiring. Over the years, there have been many movies, video games and even songs that have been blamed for inspiring people to acts of depravity. I am in no way suggesting that they, or even us, can be held responsible for other people’s actions. But I do believe, that it is crucial to consider what we are inspiring in the world at large. It’s why I often ask the question “what if everyone did what I do?” knowing full well, that no matter what I intend to convey, it doesn’t mean it always translates into what I would like it to. The vast majority of people do not have anywhere near the reach that a movie or song would have, but, we all have people in our lives that we impact. This is not about manipulating people into behaving a certain way towards us, but being clear in our motivations and intentions. A friend who has never known me when I was in a relationship asked me yesterday whether I was a PDA kinda gal, and how I was when I am in love. I said I was an openly affectionate person. I am like that with all my friends and loved ones too, not just romantic partners. Life is way too short to not be open and honest about my feelings. Of course, with all this talk of ‘love-bombing’ it can be difficult to know if someone is genuine in their affections, so I make it a point to explain what the other person inspires in me, making sure to keep it from a place of ‘this is my experience’ but without needing the other person to change or be anything other than they are. This literally means more “I love…” and “I feel…” sentences over “you are…”. This is not just a rule of thumb for saying lovely things, but also having more difficult conversations. If I’m starting sentences with “you” then I know I’m making judgements that may not be true about someone, so will usually switch it up to a question: “are you…?”

I think the beauty of sharing our inspiration-process is that we can relate more to each other. It’s also a more honest and authentic expression. I have, admittedly, gone to great lengths to write at least the first part of this post all over the place, to go as non-linear as possible, and sure, it’s an exaggeration for effect, but only slightly (see the below brain dump screenshot). Why? Because I don’t want to live in a world where people only share who, what and where they are in perfectly curated posts, or creative outlets. Inspiration is not just something creative people tap into, but something all of us use all the time, and create our lives from. I don’t think when we share, be it in any form, it is just a proclamation of personal truth, but rather an invitation to dance, to relate. If not with each other, at least with the ideas expressed. One of the reasons there are many things I won’t discuss with strangers or even certain people that I know is because I don’t know about their suitability as a dance partner. Now I say that, but I’m always open to boogie on down, but where it is not about the dance, just about arguing about justifications, I leave people to it. They usually only need me as audience member and not a dance partner anyway.

So no, I don’t intend to write crazy all the time, but I am willing to write in whatever way I feel inspired to, and I am loving that the most about writing on Substack at the moment. When I got to this paragraph, I changed my mind about information I was going to include on the expression of our inspiration. I have decided to make this part 1 and next week part 2 where I am going to be talking more, about breaking free of the orbit of patterns and behaviours we are stuck in, especially when it comes to the expression of our inspiration. We’re going to be looking at unstandardising (and maybe even unfucking) our lives. But to wrap up this week, just consider your relationship with inspiration. Do you feel inspired? What does that mean to you? Are you only looking for certain types of external stimuli as a control factor to what is inspired in you?

I gave this post to ChatGPT and asked it to re-write it in a succinct, standardised way, only conveying the information and only telling, not showing. I’ll include a screenshot below, alternatively, I’ll include ChatGPT reading it’s response in the voiceover at the top of the page. This will become significant as you will see next week: