INSPIRATION

The word “inspiration” comes from the same root as “respiration.” To inspire has a number of definitions related to breathing, creativity, influence and aliveness. What we are all seeking is inspiration – to feel alive, energized, engaged in meaningful creative activity.
What Inspires You?
Inspiration I believe comes from something you love to do “passion.”
So why do so many of us do what we don’t love?
If you feel like you have no inspiration in your life, ask yourself, are you doing something that you love, something that will give you inspiration each and every day, and if you’re not, how do you start your creative juices flowing.

Inspiration:

1. Inspiration can come in the smallest form, in the most obvious places (places you’ve been, things you’ve seen, looking through old photos, your favourite song).

2. Connecting with other people with the same interests, passions and beliefs can also work to inspire one another.

3. Taking yourself back to a moment that inspired you in the past, what motivated you then, use it to help inspire you now.

4. Inspiration comes when you are open minded, being perceptive to new ideas ( being around new friends, new places of interest or just watching a movie you thought you would never watch before).

5. Solitude is also a place where we can find time for reflection and deep thinking.

Creativity:

1. Creativity comes from making something out of nothing, so the possibilities are seemingly endless, so what are your new ideas or concepts for your work, being creative in new and unique ways means finding new solutions to old problems and being imaginative to both old and new ones.

2. Start writing all your ideas down, carry a small notebook and pen around with you at all times so you can jot them all down, now remember not all your ideas will be great, but writing them all down lets you pick and choose and none will be forgotten.

3. Read as much as you can about everything possible, this will get your brain exercising and allow you to start making creative connections (brain storming).

4. Don’t delay, create your work you have in mind right now, don’t postpone it, there may not be a later time or you may not be able to go back to what you feel today, tomorrow.

Vision:

1. How clear is your vision? This defines how successful you will be in conveying your vision to others, it’s not just creating an idea but creating a story to the idea and sharing your ideas with an audience.
2. Think of all the things possible that might be possible in a given time frame.
3. Suggest as many ideas as you can, don’t try to please others, just please yourself.
4. Edit the list to what you are willing to commit to and where you want to go with it.
5. Create a step by step action plan. This will describe every step you take, how long each step will take and what should be achieved, you can better develop a cast iron action plan that increases the likeliness that your idea will be implemented effectively. And that is what turns a creative idea into an innovation.

Style:

1. A personal style is primarily achieved through your work. This work consists of developing the vision you obtained by following your inspiration and expressing your creativity.

2. You cannot force personal style into being because in many ways style finds us more than we find it. What you can do is work as hard as you can at expressing your vision.

3. A personal style is the expression of your vision. It is also the expression of your personal taste, of your personal choices. It should also be remembered that achieving a style is a journey more than a destination and that the most important asset during this journey is your willingness to work as hard as you can at developing your own style.

4. In order to develop a style you must do something different from what others have done before you. This means that you must take a chance or take a risk. Nothing-risked means nothing gained. You must attempt to go beyond what others have done so far, attempt to push the boundaries, or attempt to do something new. Do something that others did not think you would do. In other words, one has to try and see.

Daya.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman

Invisible

You don’t know me. I live in the upstairs apartment. I’m the one who never turns the music on too loud. You like that, but it’s one of those things you don’t notice. Like your heart. You don’t notice your heart until it malfunctions, until it seizes up trying to find the next beat, shoots pain through your body like an electric current. Or until it breaks. You notice your heart when it breaks.
You don’t know me because I am invisible. I look like everyone else who is invisible. Not like the homeless woman who sleeps under the tarp at back of Benny’s music shop. She’s not invisible. She’s homeless. You see her and look away. She makes you uncomfortable. She makes you wonder how it feels to sleep on a sidewalk under a tarp in February rain. Or else she makes you frantic, eager to fill your mind with other thoughts – your to-do list, your meeting tomorrow, and your kid’s soccer game in the morning.
Either way, looking at her, or looking away, you see her, the homeless woman. She’s not invisible.
But I’m not out there on the street. Invisible people live in houses and apartment buildings. We have beds and refrigerators and windows with blinds on them. We have mailboxes close enough to yours that every now and then you get our mail by mistake. Flipping through your stack, you come to an electric bill for me and what registers for you is not my name, but only how the letters don’t arrange themselves into yours.
You don’t know me. You don’t know that my car’s in the shop so I’ve been taking the bus. You pass me, there at the bus stop, every morning on your way to Starbucks. Yesterday I went to Starbucks too. I stood behind you in line.
I wanted to tell you about my car. Because we’re neighbors, and because it turns out I don’t really mind taking the bus so I’m thinking I’ll do it even after my car gets fixed. I think you’d like that. You seem like someone who cares about the planet.
You’d say, “Wow, that’s great,” and you’d mean it. Maybe we’d hug. People hug a lot now. I like it when that happens, spontaneous public affection. But when you’re invisible, certain things are hard, like saying, “Hey, I’m your neighbor,” to the person in front of you at Starbucks.
Yesterday, you ordered a non-fat vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso. I ordered coffee. I left before you. There’s no wait for plain coffee. I walked back to the bus stop and rode the bus to work. I’m not invisible at work, but it’s not the kind of place where people talk about the planet. Or hug.
You don’t know me. I live in the upstairs apartment. I’m quiet. I walk quietly, read, eat, and listen to NPR quietly. Every now and then, I feel an urge to break the quiet wide open. Turn up the music impossibly loud, dance, stomp, cry, and scream. I imagine you downstairs. Surprised. Suddenly aware of your upstairs neighbor.
“What the fuck?” you’d say, and maybe you’d bang on the ceiling, but I wouldn’t hear it because I’m doing so much banging of my own, splashing through my apartment that’s filling up with my tears and the words I never say, and me. Me.
And when the water started to leak through your ceiling, you’d come upstairs, knock, and then pound on my door to be heard. I’d open the door and you’d start to speak, “What the? “But the words would get stuck in your throat because there’d I’d be, breathless, hoarse, wet, reborn.
You’d recognize me. You’d see me. You’d know me then.

Judy Clement Wall is a writer for isca media. You can read more from Judy Clement Wall on her site Zebra Sounds.

Change

CHANGE…

Well as most of us can relate to not liking change, we all go through it, good or bad. We all get comfortable in our lives where we like where we live, where we work, and are content and don’t like the carpet being pulled out from under us.
Some of us change because the change is happening and we just go with it, some of us choose to change whether it is to move, change jobs, cities, or change relationships or friendships, these are things we all do but do we make the right choices for ourselves?
Change is not something we always have control over, sometimes we have no control at all but we do have a chance to change it later. How do we overcome the fear of change?
Change is good, change means we’re growing as individuals, change means we don’t get stuck in those ruts we all hate. Change means we are always learning and creating new ideas. Sometimes change is exciting, sometimes it’s sad and sometimes it just makes us so angry but it’s in all what we do with it. How do we handle change?
When change is thrown at you, what do you do to make it a positive thing for you or how do you shape it into something that will make you happy if it’s not change that you agree with or don’t like or want ,or is it change made by you and you made the wrong choice.
Change is fear of the unknown and none of us like walking around in the dark not knowing where we are going or what is next or right in front of us, so what do we need to do?
Assess your change and ask yourself these questions:
1. Is your change necessary for you, do you need it to help you grow personally?
2. Will this change make you more money or change you financially?
3. Will this change get you away from what wasn’t making you happy in the first place or will it make you happier?
4. Is this change only temporary or is it permanent?
5. Is this change hurting you or bettering you or maybe helping someone else?
6. Is this change happening to fast or not fast enough?
7. Do you let change take you over or do you take over change?
8. Is the change happening?
I have personally asked myself all this as well as I myself have gone through alot of changes myself in just about every aspect we’ve talked about, some of it has been quite the ride let me tell you but when you’re caught up all in the middle of change especially when it seems to be everything all at once not one after the other like how all of us would like it to happen it does teach us alot about ourselves and definitely what finally does make us happy when it all finally starts to settle.

Thank you all for reading TheHappySelf.com
Daya

« Previous Page — Next Page »