In a world obsessed with measuring education, skills, and abilities, one exceptional dimension tends to be overlooked: the power of inspiration. In fact, we should all value this ability a little more. It’s a channel full of possibilities that allows you to become passionate, develop yourself, broaden your perspectives, and turn on your engine of motivation.

What inspires you? Maybe you don’t even have an answer to this question. Or perhaps you’d choose your partner, children, or family. Of course, this is a perfectly valid answer, but you really need to go a little further. Because, in reality, the ideal would be that every day you’d find new things capable of inspiring you.

For example, reading a book, or listening to a new song. A magical sunset. Meeting someone who dazzles you with their challenging ideas. A TED talk. An avant-garde building. Playing sports.

We could give a hundred or even a thousand examples of dimensions, events, and circumstances capable of awakening the muses of inspiration, those who whisper to you ideas, goals, and revolutionary dreams for you to fulfill.

As a matter of fact, inspiration and, above all, feeling inspired every day is a way of investing in your psychological well-being. Let’s see why.

“When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait and obey.”

-Rudyard Kipling-

The importance of the power of inspiration

Each of us has within us the power of inspiration. However, not all of us make use of it.

This is because feeling inspired is basically an emotional and mental state that requires a certain balance, an internal calm. Thus, a stressed or anxious mind is rarely able to look at something with genuine curiosity, pleasure, inspiration, and hope.

On the other hand, a calm brain is far more receptive. In fact, the seed of inspiration arises when your brain is calm and allows the daemon of Greek mythology to visit you. Daemon was a term that was widely used in philosophy. Even Carl Jung spoke of it, defining it as your creative genius, as a force capable of guiding you toward your destiny.

Jung also told claimed that, for your daemon to emerge, you need to listen to your heart, giving priority to your emotions and intuition. That’s why factors that are so common today, such as stress, hurry, pressure, and worries, leave no room for this ancestral genius, present in so many cultures, to enter.

The power of inspiration can improve your life

The power of inspiration is a concept that’s been extensively studied by psychologists, Todd M. Thrash and Andrew J. Elliot. Their research work, conducted in  2003, places this capacity as an extremely relevant psychological construct for well-being. The reasons that justify it are:

• Inspiration gives you transcendence. In other words, you suddenly experience moments of clarity when something attracts your interest and motivation. At the same time, your consciousness expands into new possibilities. In fact, you’re not only prepared to do something, but you feel excited about doing so.
• Inspiration generates motivational focus. That’s when you know what you want, or what it is that’s aroused your interest. You’re focused on something extremely concrete, a real vision.

People who make use of inspiration in their daily lives are different

Psychologists Thrash and Elliot explained in their work that people who constantly make use of the power of inspiration share some common characteristics. Moreover, they even designed a scale to measure inspiration.

According to their scale, the factors, behaviors, and personality traits that define inspiration are as follows:

• Being open to experience. These are men and women who interact with their environment, relate to others, and like to learn and experience new things.
• Inspiration doesn’t tend to appear while you’re relaxed and almost motionless on the couch, awaiting the arrival of your muses. Inspiration comes with movement, with work, with the kind of daily activity where everything flows and you’re a part of every stimulus, every voice, sensation, and image.
• People who make use of inspiration possess intrinsic motivation. This means that they’re not guided by rewards and they don’t expect anything in return for their efforts. In fact, their greatest benefits come from their feelings, from being excited, and generating changes through their inspiration.

Finally, Thrash and Elliot pointed out that if you cultivate the power of inspiration, your mind becomes stronger. This means that you further develop your creativity, attention, reflection, self-competence, and the ability to achieve.

All of this affects your emotional well-being. Indeed, your muscle of self-esteem is strengthened, and with it, everything works better. In addition, you feel more positive, ready, and able to transform your reality. It’s a tremendous feeling.

The Key to Finding Inspiration Anywhere

It’s important to know that finding inspiration isn’t only a competence that affects intellectual activity, but other life aspects as well. Read more »

 

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