Change Your Life: Giving Yourself The Time To Be Inspired

It could be a myth – but often myths are just facts lost in the mists of time – that, having struggled for many years to find the meaning of life, the Buddha understood the truth whilst simply sitting under a tree. It may also be legend, but legend has it that Sir Isaac Newton had his most significant scientific insight, once again, whilst sitting under a tree. And although it was an apple that reputedly dropped for Newton, you have to find your own tree to allow your very own pennies to drop for you – your personal development depends upon it.

Only a clear and uncluttered mind can be inspired. And the normal mind is anything but clear and uncluttered. Psychology has concluded that the normal mind is overwhelmed by random thought – some fifty thousand random thoughts zip through our minds every single day. The majority of those thoughts are innocuous but, psychology concludes, some of our thoughts are self-destructive – I was going to say positively self-destructive but that would be an oxymoron – these thoughts are both negative and toxic. I’m speaking of the thoughts that create the illusions of damaged self-esteem, worry, stress, anxiety and depression. Left to itself, the adult mind simply cannot be inspired.

And is life worth living without the spark of inspiration? Is life nothing more than going through the motions if you’re not excited and delighted by the rough and tumble of the out-of-the-ordinary? However, the out-of-the-ordinary is far too rare an occurrence for the normal mind that merely exists in the comfort of the routine. But, if you don’t stir yourself out of the slumber of the mundane you will simply not have experience real living. Not just that, you’ll be a drain on the energy of those around you – particularly the people that you claim to love.
Everyone is capable of being inspired and being inspirational. You are capable of escaping from the normal and living your very best life. But you’ve got to make space for inspiration, you’ve got to give yourself the clear, uncluttered time to let the inner you out. Our neighbour in the Alps has often asked me what I do for a living. And, although I’ve explained it to him on a number of occasions, he still persists in asking – in his own words “It seems to me and my wife that you waste a lot of time doing nothing!”

Doing nothing is not a waste of time. Doing nothing can often be the time most fruitfully spent. The peace and clarity of mind that comes with spending time doing nothing is the incubation chamber in which inspirational ideas simply spring to life. Thomas Edison found that he only became inspired when his mind was still to the extent that he set about creating quiet moments for his mind every day. Edison had over four hundred inventions patented to his name. Pablo Picasso stated that he was never sure when inspiration would strike so he made sure that he cultivated a prepared mind.

How prepared are you to be inspired? How regularly do you simply let your mind set off on flights of fancy? I’m not talking about wandering into negative thought – I’m talking about simply letting your mind wander onto what normal people would find unachievable or undoable. Such things are only undoable to a normal mind constrained by preconceived negative notions. De-program yourself – let yourself go, let yourself off the hook of normal ‘living inside the box’. Find your tree, sit down and spend some quality time doing nothing.