Writing from the depth of your being is gruelling. To find the right words and the discipline that match your inspiration is a tough call. Discipline is the ability to balance both the speed and the patience of inspiration simultaneously. Inspiration does visit in its own time, not in your own time. It can come rushing at you when you are ill-prepared. It can come slowly. It chooses when it comes, but whenever it does visit, you must make yourself ready.
Welcoming inspiration makes inspiration stay with you. Whenever it comes, if you exhibit readiness to entertain it, it would make you a safe and friendly abode. The continuous nurturing of this makes you one with inspiration. Let me explain an experience I had on Wednesday night of March 4, 2020.
On that fateful evening, I was about to share ten articles I had written with the webmaster who managed my website so he could post it at his convenience. I was extremely tired but thought that I should quickly do that before I hit the sack. After I copied all ten articles, I could not explain what happened. I only discovered that I could neither paste nor find the same in the original word document I copied from.
Fast forward to Friday evening March 6, I had re-written nine of the articles with an extra one. This is the eleventh one. As I discussed the recovery or rewriting process with the webmaster, he asked me if I thought that the re-written articles were better than the initial ones that I lost. My reply was that I don’t know and that I only feel fulfilled and honoured the inspiration for both. As I wrote, the original thoughts came back to me. I had the original and more. The same information was captured but only in different ways. Yet the voice remained unchanged.
To another friend on the same experience I said, “I must be sincere to the spirit of inspiration that honours me with repeated visits.”
Like the journey from conception to completion, every piece of writing begins with a thought or an idea or a stream of same. It just pops up seemingly from nowhere. It comes to you. One thing you must not do is to ignore it. Make an effort to put it down. Write it. Every quote written, every post shared, every essay or article and book written, all came that way; through what seemed like a mindless thought or hunch. Only those who are mindful of inspiration put it down. You do honour inspiration by doing so.
This has been my experience with inspiration in my short span of writing. Inspiration can be said to live with one or visit one often if not always. The only pain therefore is that you serve it. It is non-negotiable. Another angle to this is that with such a relationship you just discover that you draw inspiration from almost everything. Almost everything inspires you, whether it is negative or positive, darkness or light. You see everything as the gift that it truly is.
Inspiration is not motivation. According to Wayne Dyer, “inspiration is when an idea takes a hold of you and uses you for its own purpose; while motivation is you taking a hold of an idea and using it for yourself.” How this relates to me with regard to writing is that it seems more like inspiration is ever present with me. Thoughts do not stop flowing. Hardly does a thought escape me because I make it a point of duty to put it down. When I fail, it comes with a feeling of loss.
Thus, inspiration is beyond you. Inspiration is a higher force. Inspiration is intrinsic because it is within and operates from within. Inspiration it is said, comes from the Latin inspiratus (to breathe into, inspire). It had a distinctly theological meaning in English, referring to a divine influence upon a person, or from a divine entity. The use today which often refer (someone or something that inspires) is considerably newer than the previous senses: Webster online dictionary.
Intrinsic motivation as the name implies is also an internal property or drive. When motivation is intrinsic it is something that drives you personally. You draw the strength from within you. Both inspiration and motivation are courage boosters. Just that one seems of a higher realm than the other.
When you have a knowing, an assurance that you have something to give and you go about giving it through pushing yourself hard, you are seeking ways to manifest it. That is courage. When you are driven to write, you sacrifice many other things to stay on that curve. It is a tedious process.
With inspiration, for example, the Giver of the gift visits the receiver of the gift, takes a hold of the gift and uses it through the vessel to bless others. The gift is already there in the receiver, but the Giver comes through inspiration to take it up and use it. The receiver’s only joy is to share what they have received. It is almost an inexplicable situation.
That is why it is essential for the receiver to have themselves in a position or place where they can attract inspiration. This requires the discipline that was mentioned earlier. This discipline always keeps the receiver positioned, regardless. The receiver stays glued to receive and share.
Calm is a good place. Reclusivity is fortune. Being silent in meditation is inspiration-friendly. Good placement is an essential recipe to invite and keep inspiration flowing. However, even in a noisy and rowdy place, the Giver can visit, depending on the purpose and urgency.
When you are inspired to write, you share those sterling thoughts that visit your consciousness. Those thoughts connect with the depths in you and you discipline yourself to stay away from the throng. You let every other thing wait in that moment so you can be in the moment. You entertain it. It is discipline.
Once inspiration hits you, it connects with those thoughts and ideas that are already in you. You think with the mind of the visitor and align it with your own mind and experience. What you bring up becomes the product of your musings. It resonates with a depth and everyone that is truly authentic finds resonance.
This process or exercise is born out of the strict routine to subdue every other thing in order to permit the flow. Sometimes you do have a rush of inspiration consistently over a period or during periods of extreme lack or need. You may be physically hungry, but that condition may invariably be your greatest point of inspiration.
At those moments you don't stifle inspiration because of your lack. You will regret it because the purpose for the dearth may be defeated. Truly inspiring writings are the fruits of pain. They are grueling. You don't birth them without pain; but they are pains that birth gain. They are wisdom earned through adversity. They are like the fountains of living bliss. They always have a purpose.
