The next subject I’m writing about from the Word of the Week book, is inspiring, as it should be since it is the exact topic of Chapter 10. It reads: “Inspiration takes hold of us and directs us toward our desires.” In the past year alone, I have been driven by so much inspiration that it has become overwhelming because I cannot find the time to actually work on every single thing I am inspired to do. In fact, there are so many other things that I haven’t addressed at all that I wonder if I may have a bit of ADHD, which may be apparent through my blog looking at the last 60+ posts. I’ve written about astrology, technology, crystals, essential oils, Feng Shui, food and recipes, gadgets, volunteering, meditation, numerology, product reviews, various types of spiritual work, and books (namely this WOTW series, which is part of my spiritual work). Aside from that, there are several other things that I also feel inspired to do, but I am holding myself back because I have barely scratched the surface with the blog topics I mentioned with lots of drafts and planned future posts.
I think it was around my mid-20s when I started scrapbooking, that I became aware of the creative side to me. I don’t recall doing a lot of arts and crafts when I was child and don’t remember painting, drawing or coloring in coloring books. But when I got into making scrapbooks, I enjoyed it so much that I would spend hours after work or whole weekends on it. It was at that same time when I was digging myself out of credit card debt, working with a tight budget, renting as cheap of a room I could find in a good neighborhood, that I realized I needed a table for my room. Instead of buying one, I opted to make my own table and bench to save money and once again, my creative side reveled in the process of building something with my own two hands. The sheer act of creating brings me such joy and it does not seem to be limited to a specific type of creativity that I can tell.
This chapter mentions: “When we ignore inspiration, we trigger personal discomfort and create a disconnection within ourselves.” There is one area of creativity that I have been ignoring most of this year and is related to one of the three goals that I hope to achieve by the end of 2022 as mentioned in my WOTW: 8. Hope post, that is creating another podcast channel focused on my short story fiction writing. I have only worked on two short stories this entire year and it does not feel good at all because I’m sure there are many more stories in me waiting to come out! There is an underlying sense of frustration I feel inside because I haven’t tapped into that imaginative type of writing in a long time being so focused on writing my blog posts, which is such a different style of writing.
Then the author goes on to say, “When we are focused on what inspires us, we feel no need to impress, outshine, or belittle anyone else.” Whenever I am working on creating something with my two hands, I agree that there is no driver that is related to anyone else. Whether I am scrapbooking, creating furniture, painting, drawing, or making Essential Oil potions, all of these things are done for the sole reason of expressing my own inspired creativity in some tangible way. However, when I think of writing, I’m not so sure I can say that with complete confidence, because there is a side of me that keeps the reader in mind, trying to ensure the content is either useful or entertaining and well-written. That makes me wonder, am I not truly inspired when I write?
The next quote in this chapter also applies to my fictional writing. “Do you block the inspirational flow with doubt, rationalization or fear of failure? Or, do you invite it in with thought, “More of this, please.”” Aside from the fact that I am trying to reach my goal of writing 111 blog posts by the end of the year, a bigger reason why I haven’t dedicated time to writing fiction is because I have a lot of doubt and fear when it comes to short stories. I only tried my hand at fiction 2 years ago and I still feel unexperienced with it, which causes me to doubt my abilities, skills and talents in this area. My brain, or rather my ego self, tells me that there is no way I’m really good enough to pursue this seriously and that it is a waste of my time and energy. I worry that if I spend a ton of time on writing stories and try to submit to be published, that I will be rejected and I don’t handle that well at all. So with the negativity in my head, I allow it to deter me from making time to write new stories. I literally have blocked the inspiration with my negative thinking and busy myself with writing blog posts instead. As I dig deeper into my behavior, I know it is because I perceive blog posts as a safer area to focus my energy. As I said in my From GGibberish to Purpose post, the main reason I am blogging is for myself. I am not invested in what other people may think, with the goal being to find myself, passions and purpose in life.
This next one is something that I won’t personally elaborate on and would like to leave it out there simply to be pondered because it brought to mind so many things for myself that it would be untenable to write about all the various thoughts this quote inspired in me. The quote is from Paulo Coelho and says, “We are afraid to change because we think that, after much effort and sacrifice, we know our present world. And even though that world might not be the best of all worlds and even though we may not be entirely satisfied with it, at least it won’t give us any nasty surprises. We won’t go wrong. When necessary, we will make a few minor adjustments so that everything continues the same…But to those who believe that adventures are dangerous, I say, try routine: that kills you far more quickly.”
Lastly, this chapter ends with, “Connect others to a higher purpose. Encourage vulnerability…”. I am curious, since the impetus of all my recent blog posts is specifically to get to my own higher purpose, through purposely being open and feeling vulnerable doing that, if I have inspired even a single person who has been reading any of my posts to consider their own higher purpose or been encouraged to be vulnerable in any way or with any one. If I have, please do take a moment to let me know because it would mean the world to me to know that through my own process, I have in a sense, helped another person do what I have been trying to do for the past couple of months.
GGibberish 