Reigniting Inspiration

When your days seem to blur together and time appears to drift away, you wonder how to regain inspiration in your life, where everything no longer feels repetitive. You remember those moments when you felt inspired—to start a new job, to go to the gym, to take some time for yourself, to start a home project, or to go on vacation. You wonder how to reinvigorate yourself to feel that excitement again—to break from the humdrum into feeling something more. That requires inspiration. Inspiration is defined as an extraordinary quality arising from a creative impulse. How do you re-spark that creative desire?

First is making or making do with space. What are the regular activities scheduled in your daily activity? Do they feel draining? Are they exciting? Are you maximizing your time? Are there some activities on which you can spend less time? Are there some activities that require more of your time? Often you feel as though you have maximized the time in your day, but sometimes a segment of time can open to allow you to take on another project or there is a way to reorganize the time already designated for an activity.

Second is move. Literally. Get up and move. Go for a walk, run, or jog. If you normally go in one direction, try another. Just change up your normal movement routine; or if you find yourself not moving at all, go for a walk down the hallway or around the block. If you have an exercise routine, change it up. Research demonstrates that with movement, the brain gets invigorated and oxidized. With new forms of movement, the brain adjust and gets reinvigorated when performing alternatives to routine.

Third is take everything step by step. Break down your tasks into SMART goals—small, manageable and measurable, achievable, time oriented goals. Maybe you already have a grand idea, but have trouble implementing it. You are not alone– staying on task when you have many competing demands and distractions is challenging, especially if what you are working on seems overwhelming. Can you break down your idea into SMART goals? Try focusing on one of the tasks from your SMART goals, and you will find yourself accomplishing more, and more efficiently, than you expected.

The final step is connecting to a deeper purpose. Mindfulness is bringing your attention to the present moment. Are you focused solely on the end goal, or are you focused on the steps to get to that objective? For example, you can clean your house because you just want it to be clean and are solely looking out for the end result of cleanliness; or as you clean your house, you are being thoughtful about why you are cleaning, what it means to yourself that you are cleaning, what it means to your family that you are cleaning, and what it means to your overall sense of purpose as you take those boxes and start sifting through them.

By first identifying what you are actually working on, how to make space for yourself—and if there are blocks in your schedule that can be utilized in other ways, physically activating your body, mentally preparing yourself for the steps of achieving a task, and then infusing into your movements meaning and purpose, you will find the menial and overwhelming tasks less burdensome. You will start finding that internal spark—that re-inspiration, to begin again