A Rebellious Method for Finding Your Inspiration Again
I'd be willing to bet the reason you're feeling uninspired, depressed, and unmotivated is that you're simply trying too damn hard.
You're wearing yourself out trying to be a better person -- trying to learn more, to be more intuitive, to access more divine guidance, figure out what you truly love, make more money doing it, locate your soul mate and find your life purpose.
(Is that all?)
Somehow, the more new age wisdom your consume, the more you seem to be blocked. With every personal development book you devour, you feel more and more existentially panicked and just plain tired.
- Waves don't move in only one direction.
- The pendulum has to swing both ways to gain its momentum.
- Always exhaling without ever pausing to take a breath is hyperventilating not breathing. It ain't healthy.
I have a radical solution for you.
A 30 Day Challenge
Put down the self-help material and walk away. For one full month, just stop. Surrender. Let it go.
1. For the next entire month, live your life like you couldn't give a shit about whatever it is that you've been striving for.
I want you to imagine that whatever part of you that's been cracking this whip of spiritual development and personal growth is a dried-up evil old nun with a pursed disapproving mouth like a cat's ass.
Your goal for the next month is to piss her off.
You're going to disappoint her. You're going to get a big fat F in her class.
2. For the next month, instead of whatever results you've been working to produce, I want you to concentrate on consuming a guilty pleasure.
Read something for fun -- preferably some type of fiction. Binge-watch a series from your Netflix queue.
Play. Hike. Drink cocktails (if appropriate). Go shopping (if you can afford it). Take naps.
Do some kind of staycation.
*Alternate Approach for Over-achievers If you just can't handle not having a project, then promise me you'll at least make it something creative.
Something that may not make you money or win you any fame or make you a better person -- but something that will bring you some simple pleasure or pure joy.
Devote the next month to something you tell yourself you can only do when all the other Stuff gets accomplished.
Or write 3 pages in a journal first thing every morning until your inspiration comes back.
Something Unexpected Will Happen When you allow yourself to walk away, some of your ideas follow you. Then you can see what you're really working with, what truly matters, what you absolutely cannot live without.
The only way to find that out is to threaten to leave it all behind -- and mean it.
There's a reason why The Art of Surrender is so popular around here.
When you have your A-Ha Moment, write to me and tell how it presented itself!
Post about it on Facebook and tag me or tweet me. I'm taking my own version of this challenge too, so I'll be posting about what I'm up to on social media.
Image credit h.koppdelaney via Creative Commons on Flickr