“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly…”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Do you have days when you feel uninspired? I do, even though I usually have projects going that really inspire me. Still, there are days when none of my ongoing projects inspire me. I don’t feel the energy to take action on any of them. Those days I just feel tired, and a little cranky, even if I slept well the night before. The cranky comes from an inner assumption that I must be doing something wrong to feel like this, and I’d better fix it. Only I’ve discovered that I don’t need fixing, I need acceptance and a change in perspective.

The other day I wanted to create a post for the blog. I wasn’t feeling sparked about anything. I was feeling tired. So, with no inspiring thoughts to guide me I went back over past journal writings I keep for this purpose. I discovered a story I wrote and found it to be a good fit for the blog.

Before I knew it, I was immersed in rereading the story, adding a little description here and there, creating the post format on the website, finding the right quote and the right picture to go with it. I was in the flow.

It all came so gracefully and unexpectedly when I hadn’t been feeling the spark at all. I’d uncovered a little pocket of joy.

Later that day, though I knew I should be weeding and mulching out in the yard, I just didn’t feel like all that effort. Instead, I drifted into the kitchen and tried out a dessert recipe that I’d been hanging onto for a while. It turned out well. That buoyed me up and I decided to check on-line for other recipes to try. There, I stumbled upon a gluten-free bread baking book. Feeling a little spark, I downloaded it.

There’s a discovery here – little pockets of joy happen, even when we don’t otherwise feel inspired, if you follow your energy.

It’s easy to feel joyful when we’re feeling really inspired about something. That joy spills over into everything. The energy is flowing strongly and it feels great. Yet, even in times when the energy is not flowing strongly, the joy still happens. It’s just quieter, and we’re less apt to be conscious of it, though that is when we most need to be aware of joy happening.

I didn’t think I was inspired that day. I just thought I was tired. Instead, I found my inspiration in places I didn’t expect it, in old journal writings, in a recipe I had been holding onto and never tried, in a new cookbook. I found it and didn’t recognize it for what it was, because I thought I should be feeling inspired about working in the yard. 

Instead, I just did what I had the energy to do.

The discovery is that there is joy happening all the time. It may be quieter, less obvious on the down side, but it is there.

Instead of focusing attention on trying to fix ourselves during these times, we could focus attention on where the quiet enjoyment is.

Maybe it’s a new recipe, an inspiring movie, a book. Perhaps it’s sitting quietly and sipping a cup of tea. The thing is, it’s there. It may just look a little different than we expect.

It requires the self-acceptance not to beat ourselves up because we think we should be doing something else, even as our hearts are guiding us to the quieter inspirations. It requires a change in perspective to see the rainbow.

And the surprise is, it’s not about what we’re actually doing, not really.

It’s about following the changing flow of creative energy from within. It floods sometimes and it trickles other times, but it’s always there.

I thought it wasn’t there that day. I was wrong. I was looking for the flood. Instead I needed to listen for the trickle.

The inspiration is there, even on the days when it feels like it’s not. Your inner self will guide you if you give yourself permission to listen, and look for the rainbow.  

“Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” – Vincent Van Gogh
 
It is essential, especially now, when so much negativity is flying around, to focus on what is positive in our lives. Let’s take a good look at that by asking, what inspires you today? What is sparking your energy?
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It feels wonderful to be in that place where inspiration is flowing, sparking your energy. As Spring is making her spectacular entrance, royally clothed in pink and white magnolia blossoms, roseate crabapple, palest apple and bright red bud, the ground is dotted with sunny, yellow daffodils and clusters of grape hyacinths, and bright green leaves are poking noses out from their winter beds, Mother Nature inspires us and sparks our energies to join in the dance of creation.

Feeling inspired the other day, I set up my front planters with fresh soil and planted them with ivy wintered over in my garage/green house. Then I tucked in some fresh-faced purple and yellow pansies. I did the same with the front window boxes. It feels so good to mix around in the dirt, (it’s rather like cooking) nurturing new plants into their homes. It connects me with my yard and with the flow of energy that is Mother Nature.  Now I find excuses to stand outside the front of the house so I can enjoy the new display.

Next, I’m on to the planters on our back patio. Today I’ll be picking up vegetable seedlings to plant in them from a local farm.

Paddling around in the dirt, mixing in nutrients, clearing out debris, gentling in new plants and tending established plants, eases me right into my heart. I feel focused and in the flow.

When I finish one project, I enjoy the results right away. Then I look around and the next project steps up and says, “Me next!” So, I’m inspired to keep going, doing the next thing.

It doesn’t have to be gardening. Any project that gets your juices flowing can be the same. It feels like channeling life energy, because that is exactly what it is.

I believe that as Creators, individual sparks of God, channeling life energy is what we came here to do, experiencing our creative life force in action. We do this whether we are conscious of it or not. It just happens, we can’t help but be the Creators we are. It can be a positive experience or a negative one. When we experience it positively, when we love as we create, it is blissful.

The positive experience looks like intuitive inspiration that sparks your energy and gets you moving on manifesting the inspired idea. It feels exciting. You feel enthusiastic about the idea. You love it. You want to do it. You find yourself daydreaming about it, what it looks like, how it would feel to manifest it, what life would be like if you created it.

That first intuitive inspiration, is like a newly planted seed. If it is given what it needs to grow, it will sprout, seek the sun and manifest into your life. But if it is uprooted by negative thoughts of, “I can’t do that. I’m not worthy of that. That’s too scary. I don’t have enough money for that.” It will be like the tiny seedling, uprooted and left to wither and die in the sun. It cannot thrive in that environment.

Intuitive inspiration needs gentle tending and nurturing like the new seedling it is. Then it can grow strong as it manifests in your life. 

 “When you free up the stuck energy in your home, you dramatically change the feeling of stuckness in your life, and new opportunities can come your way.”
 – Karen Kingston

For the past week, I’ve been in what my husband calls a cleaning frenzy. I call it Spring cleaning in January. The crazy thing is, I’ve been following my bliss. It all started in meditation last week.

In that meditation I saw myself clearing off a dirty dish-filled kitchen counter by sweeping my hand across and knocking everything off. I felt fine about doing it this way, seeing the dirty dishes as energy dissolving into the air. Along with this visual I felt the energetic benefit that I would experience from decluttering and cleaning my home.

Cleaning is sacred, spiritual practice. As we clear and clean away the ego debris of daily living, we raise the vibration in our homes and our inner being, freeing up energy, aligning ourselves and making space for God in our lives.

After that meditation, I walked around the house and realized how heavy it felt. I could feel the clutter and accumulation weighing me down energetically and emotionally.  It made me tired just thinking about all the cleaning and decluttering I had put off. That's when I realized that I had been feeling tired for days.

I thought back to how, in the evening, I want my kitchen cleared of dirty dishes before I go to bed. It is rare that I leave the dishes unwashed. When I get up the next morning, ready to start the day fresh, and walk out to see the kitchen filled with the debris of yesterday’s living, it feels like the plug is pulled on my energy. It drains right out of me as I look at the clutter and work to be done that should have been done the day before.

“Your home is the outer expression of your inner environment.”
- Shoshana Ortalia Aurora Rogers
 
The same is true of other areas in the house in need of clearing and cleaning. All these areas are the outer reflections of stuck energy in our lives. Places where the energy that should support our daily living is dammed up, stagnating and unable to flow. 

Several days ago, Peter and I received a wonderful gift from our daughter and son-in-law. In beautiful synchronicity, they had our car professionally deep cleaned and polished, inside and out. It really needed it because our much loved and fed grandchildren had been riding and snacking in it for many months. Driving the car home from the car wash I reveled in the clean look, the clean smell, the shine inside and out. Our car sparkled!

Arriving home that evening, I began dinner preparations and thought no more about the car. A short time later I realized that I felt really cheerful, upbeat and energized, noticeably more than usual. Driving in that sparkling, clean car had lifted my energy significantly.

I hadn’t realized how much driving around in our usual clutter and dirt was affecting my attitude and my energy.  

How much more does living in the accumulated clutter and dirt of daily living affect us in our homes?

“The stagnant energy that accumulates around clutter causes you to feel tired, but when you start clearing it, this frees up stuck energy in your home and also energizes you.”
 – Karen Kingston

Over the next few days, feeling inspired by that experience with our clean car, I went into cleaning mode. It felt great. I scheduled carpet cleaners to deep clean all our carpets.  I deep cleaned our bathroom, reorganizing and decluttering as I went, as well as our floors. In preparation for the arrival of the carpet cleaners, Peter and I moved everything off the carpets, shifting large amounts of stagnant energy as we did so.

The house feels different now, lighter. It feels like springtime, when the windows are thrown open and warm and fragrant breezes waft through the house, this despite the fact that it is January and the outside temp is in the single digits. The energy has lifted and most significantly for me, my energy right along with it. I experience this emotionally as happiness, physically as increased energy, and spiritually as renewed creative inspiration. I can feel my energy opening up and expanding outward.

Perhaps you too have been experiencing the winter doldrums, feeling tired and low on energy. If so, move stuff around in your home, rearrange, organize something, clean something out. You’ll be amazed at how starting small can lead to big results energetically and emotionally. Check out today’s Spiritual Toolbox for some ideas to get you started.

​ “For one minute, walk outside, stand there, in silence. Look up at the sky and contemplate how amazing life is.”
—Anonymous
 
In the months before we moved into our new house, I came across a home show on TV hosted by a loving and humorous couple from Texas.
 
There is much to love about the show, but what grabbed me was the decorating style. I loved the look, and studied everything I could find about it. By the time we moved into our new house I had incorporated those ideas into my own decorating style and had a wonderful time creating that look in our own home.
 
My home now inspires me as I walk from room to room and see the results of creating each room with love. Not because the rooms are fancy or elegant, I must admit they may not even be clean and neat, but the colors, the textures and the balance, still evoke a feeling of love within me.
 
Throughout this adventure I learned that decorating is fun and satisfying if you start with a look that inspires you. That inspiration gives you the colors, form and feeling that you want to convey in a room. It is like a master recipe from which to work, inspiring creativity.
             
The same may be true in creating our lives. We can live creatively, approaching life as an art form, creating each day rather than just surviving it. To do this we need to find our inspiration.
 
What would inspiration for your daily life look like? Here are a few ideas.
 
My life inspiration is that feeling of love and appreciation I feel when I lose myself in the night sky, or the fresh, deep green of my yard and woods with its symphony of birdsong, or the laughing delight of my grandchildren in play, the centeredness I feel when writing and meditating, that feeling of tuning in with a client, loving connections with family and soul family, the excitement of a new adventure, a new idea or understanding. All of that inspires me with love and appreciation.
 
What inspires you in your daily life?