In these days it is especially important to reach creative outlets. However, some days, weeks it seems, creativity can be lurking far away. Inspiration and creativity go hand in hand. They are like two friends with knowing smiles that something really good is about to happen. Imagination is our greatest ally! Some people just ooze imaginative qualities and others need to work at it. The key: we all have the ability to be very imaginative. Once we acknowledge this fact, then all we have to do is to set an environment for our two knowing and smiling friends to enlighten us.
For me to become or continue to be inspired is both effort and effortless. The effort is like setting a stage or a dinner table, plowing a garden, choosing clothing. Feed the garden of your soul and surround yourself with beauty; these are some of the effort parts. How? Walk in nature, read and take notes from an inspirational book, listen to meditative music, dig in the dirt, play with a child, doodle. You get the picture, there are many ways of “effort” to get to the inspired state of being. Next comes the effortless, you don't do anything. Unless you consider relaxing doing something. Just be. Just be. Just be. Where? Whatever effort you are performing, be in that moment, nowhere else. This is where inspiration arises, creativity takes her hand and they go somewhere. Got it? It's not hard, it just takes the intention to be with the moment.
As I go to sleep at night, I love to listen to something inspirational. It is a practice I have enjoyed for many years and I also do if I wake too early to rise. One of my recent choices is the YouTube channel, Giving Voice to the Wisdom of the Ages. It has a plethora of spiritual classics and teachers which can be listened to in their entirety. I use it as one might choose a book in a library. Not in an intellectual way, but by spirit. I think to myself, what do I need to hear right now? It's kinda like opening your favorite book, letting it fall open and seeing exactly what you needed to know at the moment. Maybe you are like me and you need a lot of reinforcement. I call reinforcement my lifeline. It's my connection with my Higher Self, my truest ally and confidant. I cherish and protect this relationship above all else. Why? Because it undergirds every other relationship I have and it gives me hope, insight and let's me walk with my two cherished friends, inspiration and creativity.
My friends, may your moments be beautiful even in the midst of turbulence. May your days be light filled even when the sun is not shining. Live well. Love, Julia
Julia Parsell is a Certified Holistic Health Counselor with an emphasis on the intersection of science and the sacred. She writes from experiences and transformative understandings that have led her to an authentic and peaceful life. She goes by these names: wife, grandmother, mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, cousin, and friend. As home educator of her three children, she also developed/ran cafes, and maintained various leadership roles within her community. Her greatest desire is to encourage others to live life fully. Her passions are family, writing, and trail blazing. She is happily married in Western North Carolina.
