Inspiration struck today – not with a flash of brilliance, but with a wave of exhaustion and tears. As I sat down to write, I found myself face-to-face with raw emotions and uncomfortable truths. But what if these moments of struggle are exactly where our most powerful inspirations hide?
I don’t want to start every entry with an explanation, but I have to start somewhere. I had set a goal for another post this week but had been putting it off as I didn’t really have anything to write about.
It’s funny how inspiration seems to work. There are times when it is dry and devoid of life like the desert, and there are times when there is so much that it is overflowing like the monsoon season. Sometimes it is “in your face” and tells you exactly what you need to know in order to create, and other times it appears more subtly. The secret is to recognize which form it is presenting itself in and listen to what it has to say.
Today, inspiration is showing up in the form of utter exhaustion and unhappiness. Usually, I know how I feel by listening to my thoughts. In this case, this is what I was hearing:
As I listened to this, tears started flowing. It was a hard experience to endure, but it was also cathartic to let the energy flow out of me.
It is natural to want to avoid feeling this way. To do anything in our power to remain happy. To push away those thoughts and bury those feelings. I am not a therapist, but I believe that is the worst thing we can do.
Keeping our emotions “in check” just causes them to build up. What starts out as small will grow into something undeniable. One way or the other, the stored energy of emotions will come out.
The secret, if there is one, is to let emotions flow through you. Do not attach to them, identify with them, or ignore them. They arrive to teach us something and leave when we have learned our lesson.
Now this does not mean that we have to react to them. In fact, by allowing emotions to flow through us, we are empowered to respond to them intentionally.
Note: It just occurred to me as I wrote this that this sounds a lot like “depression.” That is the power of doing the work.
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