We like to feel inspired. We take pleasure in that joyful excitement when a spark of inspiration comes to us as though from nowhere, creates new thoughts and feelings within us and drives us to perform new and positive actions.

Inspiration is one of our greatest gifts. We can be inspired to creativity and change in all aspects of our life – our work, environment, spirituality, relationships and health. What is inspiration, how does is affect us and how can we invite more of it into our life?

Inspiration is all about transformation
It changes you as a person. If there are talents and abilities that you have ignored, or put to the back of your mind, or even discounted as completely unrealistic, inspiration will bring them out of the attic of your mind and into the light again. This can be a very threatening experience. Most of us fear major change, at least in its early stages, and the temptation to fend off or deny inspiration can be very great. You may feel inspired, for example, to take charge of your health and fitness, to adopt a healthier diet or train for a marathon. Oh, but that would be hard work and time consuming, and how would other people react? Would your efforts be met with impatience, disbelief, ridicule? At these moments it is so easy to find ways to justify staying in the same old rut. Inspiration, though, does not give up so easily and once experienced will always be there, calling to you however much you try to ignore its insistent voice.

Talking yourself out of inspiration is to deny the growth of life and spirit. The purpose of life is to grow, evolve and change, and inspiration is your call to action. The way to overcome the fear of change that may stunt your life’s growth is to realise that when inspiration strikes it shows you the big picture, the brilliant end result that you can achieve once you allow the inspiration to take hold and guide you to the actions you need to take. The marathon you are inspired to run? It starts with a brisk walk around the block. The novel you want to write? The business you feel inspired to start? The delicious celebration dinner you want to cook? Allow inspiration to show you not only the glowing vision of achievement, but also the succession of transformative steps you can take to get there.

We can open ourselves up to inspiration
You may already know what works for you, what awakens, nurtures and empowers your creativity. It may be the beauty of nature, listening to a particular kind of music, being around certain people or expressing your spirituality. When inspiration comes to you in these situations, be ready to let it in, overcome whatever fear of change or personal obstacles you face, and work your way to the vision you are inspired to make reality.

If you are not yet sure how to go about inviting inspiration to come in, you may like to try the ways already mentioned above, whilst affirming to yourself the intention to allow inspiration to enter.

We are usually more open to inspiration when we feel deeply relaxed, and so using meditation or complementary therapies to promote a state of receptivity could be the key to being inspired. A therapy may appear to be a purely physical experience, but complementary therapies will always affect body, mind and spirit alike, and you may well feel inspiration strike during a massage treatment to relax your tensed muscles. (For me, ear candling puts me into a near trance-like state, and this therapy will be covered in a future article.)

There is a limitless supply of inspiration out there just waiting for us to let it in and use it to fuel our fires of transformation and achievement.