INSPIRATION, ENVY, AND HOW TO ACCESS YOUR CREATIVITY
4 MINUTE REAd
What inspires you?
If you don’t feel prepared to answer this question, are facing creative roadblocks, or are searching for motivation to reinvigorate your passions, I hope this blog post can help bring you a sense of clarity and relief. There are three places that I visit in order to find inspiration: inside myself, outside myself, and in others.
Keep in mind that these 3 sources are not necessarily separate from each other. Life entangles in magical ways and you’ll surely find that the same inspiring qualities in someone else can be found right here within you too. Think of inspiration as an infinite body of water that you have unrestricted access to once you’re able to find it and tune into it. Remember that inspiration is boundless and formless.
01. OTHERS: Finding inspiration in others can come quite easily. All we need to do these days is hop on Instagram or YouTube or put on our favorite playlist to feel the creative energy flow through us. It should always be this simple but sometimes, inspiration can be rooted in envy. Let’s examine a potential fallacy someone might encounter when finding inspiration through others:
You’ve come across an Instagram post by a cool trending artist that details their journey of success. But wait a minute… success? You’ve closed the app out of fear of the word success and then begin casually browsing through YouTube. You stop scrolling at a video titled, “How I Made Over $200K This Year.” Uh-oh… now you’ve closed YouTube to avoid the pit-of-doom feeling when you are faced with another person’s success. You say to yourself, “I’m much older than them and still am not capable of doing what they do.”
While on my innocent quests for inspiration, I sometimes find myself tumbling down a steep hill toward urges of comparison, feelings of inadequacy, and envy! For some twisted reason, the more I believe I’m aligned with society’s ideals of success, the easier it is for me to welcome inspiration. During periods where I believe I’m failing according to society’s ideals of success, the harder it is for me to feel inspired because everywhere I look, someone else’s success is a reminder of my failure. Whether or not we feel successful according to our own standards, society can easily convince us to stay on the hedonic treadmill, sprinting toward a shinier, richer, better example of success.
It’s important to remind ourselves that we’re all on our own paths and come from our own unique backgrounds and struggles. If you can’t shake feelings of envy right away, remember that whoever it is, they would love to have your support. The illusion of separation keeps us believing we are separate from others and that our hardships do not intertwine. Once you practice seeing yourself in others and vice versa, shifting jealousy into admiration becomes an easy task. Keep in mind that we can also learn from others whether we admire them or not.
We are all born to create and the pressures of competition naturally diminish our sense of community and belonging in the world. When we begin to understand creating as a basic human necessity – rather than a commodity or a gift bestowed upon a few lucky chosen ones – the voice that tells us we’re not good enough begins to quiet down. I encourage you to redefine success and failure according to your own beliefs. For example, success can look like trying your best and failure can look like never trying at all.
Consuming a bunch of online content can easily remove us from reality. If you have access to loved ones, spark a real conversation and ask them questions about their life. Draw, watch, read, and listen together and your creative spirit will be illuminated by an entirely different perspective than your own. Adding someone else to your creative process will always increase the depth of your ideas.
02. OUTSIDE: By ‘outside,’ I really just mean nature! Nature and creation are one and the same. You are sure to find creative inspiration by examining and learning about the mechanisms of nature, its symmetry, geometry, and perfect design. Go on a walk alone, or bring a friend or pet along and let your senses guide you. Let your eyes and thoughts wander freely. Read writings on nature outside and then take a moment to walk around. Let the fresh words in your mind enhance your experience. Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Rachel Carson are a few authors I’ve practiced this exercise with. I always come back with new visions when my own experiences intertwine with memorable words that linger in my imagination.
Besides literature, you can also pair nature with music. Just be sure to find a safe familiar route to walk and maintain awareness of your surroundings. Bring a magnifying glass to examine leaves, droplets, flowers, bugs, and mushrooms. Pretend plants are sentient, imagine conversations with insects, and envision tiny worlds. Play with your imagination and curiosity! No matter how silly something seems, surrender yourself to your experiences and welcome them as gifts of the present moment.
03. INSIDE: After hanging out with friends, listening to music, pretending you’re an enchanted forest elf on a walk all alone, or whichever method of gaining clarity and inspiration you’ve utilized, you come back home to yourself. When you feel back at home in your body and have a moment to reflect, be sure to examine your core as often as you can. Take note of which parts of life spark powerful reactions from you and who and what sustains the fire in your spirit. Writing (journaling) can be a great tool to map out the landscape of your mind in a similar way sketchbooks aid with exploring parts of your subconscious. Allow yourself to let go of judgment toward yourself, if not for your own well-being, for the sake of maintaining the purity of your art. By loosening your grip on control, doorways of chaos, uncertainty, and discovery begin to open. In the process of discovery, you and your art will grow.
Each friend, family member, experience, and landscape is an endless ocean of inspiration. To unlock its wonders will require reflecting, slowing down, examining your heart, and opening yourself up to new sources of wisdom. Dive deep into waters that excite you and leave judgment and fear behind when exploring new possibilities. Listen to the quiet gentle voice of your intuition rather than the deafening sounds of society. Have fun, remember you have nothing to prove to anyone, and let yourself wander freely to places that feel right inside.
Thank you for reading <3, Chayna
