Finding Inspiration In Everyday Life – Are You Looking In The Right Places?

Live your life. Switch off. Unplug. Experience things. This was the advice I read the other day from a writer.

I think about it every day. I look around during my commute to work in a crowded train and I see strangers with their heads down, plugged in. Smart phones, e-readers, iPods, tablets, a whole world of personal entertainment at hand. In reality, what I see is consumers, people using, addicts.

I am not a Buddhist monk meditating in the carriage though. I listen to music, but again, I have always had, since the days of the Walkman. I do not even read the free newspaper, the news do not bring anything positive to my life. It is just another form of intoxicating my brain, which I can easily live without.

The overflow of information bothers me. The other day I counted 3 pictures of suffering children during my tube journey to work. Two advertising posters and one in the newspaper the lady next to me was reading. Anywhere I look I am being bombarded with information. I did not ask for this information, I do not want it in my brain, I do not want to register in the latest dating website, I don’t want to sponsor a child, I do not need a new car insurance or rent a villa in Spain directly from the owner, but I have no choice – it is being force fed to me.

So, is there any positive side to this information overflow in our lives?

You can choose your source of inspiration , to a degree. Say you are a musician; to listen to new music and go see some live performances will inspire you. The same applies to the budding visual artist who goes to see an art exhibition. But what about the commute to work, the people around you, the places you travel, the food you eat? All these are part of life and you can get inspiration from them. In fact, you can pretty much be inspired by anything and everything in life. All you need to do is to be aware and have the drive to create.

Exposure triggers inspiration but action conveys it. Lets see, if I was not exposed to the environment described above, I would not be inspired to write about it. But what if I did not write about it? I simply would not create, and, by not creating, the inspiration would be meaningless. It doesn’t matter if you are the most talented writer in the world, if you do not write, your talent goes to waste. If all you do is to consume and not create you will not make full use of what your life gives you.

The mundane can be inspirational. It’s all about making the most of your daily life experience – the good and the bad. But remember, if you don’t create, you are not taking advantage of what life give you on a daily basis. Just draw inspiration from your environment. This will give you the raw materials to create. Live your life. Switch off. Unplug. Experience things.