Are You Inspired?

Are you somebody who gets flashes of inspiration that guide you on your path?  Do you get intuitive nudges and ideas that help you find solutions and identify answers to the big questions in your life?

I believe that we are all given intuitive nudges and guidance, throughout our lives and every day. But as Earl Nightengale said

“Ideas are like slippery fish. They seem to have a peculiar knack of getting away from us. Because of this, the creative person always has a pad and a pencil handy. When he gets an idea, he writes it down. He knows that many people have found their whole lives changed by a single great thought. By capturing ideas immediately, he doesn’t risk forgetting them”

Have you had that experience? – You’re dealing with something that has you feeling stumped, whether that be for hours, days, weeks or years.  And then one day when you’re taking a loo break or you’re out for a walk or just as you’re waking up you have an idea and you know it’s a great idea!  It’s the idea you’ve been waiting for.  It is perfect, it’s going to get you out of that bind or take you to the next level in terms of your career or personal growth.  You’re excited and delighted, you’re inspired!  And by the time you get to your desk it’s gone!  You’ve forgotten it.

I had that experience recently and it if isn’t too much information, I was on a loo break!  And this idea came to me like the proverbial bolt from the blue and I thought, “Yes!  That’d do it, it’s perfect.” 

And by the time I’d washed my hands, made a cup of coffee and got back to my desk, it was gone!  I had no idea what it was, only the lingering feeling that I’d let a big one get away from me!

And here’s the rub, that’s happening all the time!  Gandhi said the voice of our intuition is “as loud as our willingness to hear”.  It is constantly communicating with us and we just need to tune in!

So I wanted to share with you a tool for tuning in, so that you can be more intentional about tuning in to your intuition to access  the ideas, solutions and answers that will hasten you to create the results you would love in your life. 

This is a great exercise from Mark Waldman, that I teach on workshops and to my coaching clients.  It opens up an opportunity to receive intuitive insights and can be done in a few minutes (about 5!)

According to Waldman, from a neuroscientific perspective, it is essential to train our brains to both focus our full attention on an important task AND to also allow our minds to wander as our brain uses its creative imagination to solve problems. Throughout the day, our brains are constantly shifting between these two neurological states – between your “executive network” that allows you to make conscious decisions before taking action, and your “default-mode network” which is where our imagination and fantasies intermingle in a unique nonverbal way. 

Waldman explains that if you train yourself to watch this ever-changing landscape of seemingly random thoughts and feelings, you will discover that you can literally ask your intuition for insights, some of which can be quite profound. In this mindful state of relaxed awareness you are stimulating one of the most important areas in your brain called the “salience network.”  This is where your brain adds meaning and value to everything you do, and when you tap into this mindful state when talking with others, you’ll experience greater empathy, compassion, self-love and forgiveness. This is the spiritual centre of the brain.

Let’s try this together right now, using Waldman’s approach:

  • close your eyes and mindfully yawn and stretch for 60 seconds
  • then focus on your breathing, noticing how your chest and belly moves for another minute
  • then deliberately let your mind wander and daydream. You’ll see glimpses of positive and negative thoughts. You’ll feel moments of pleasure and pain in your body.
  • stay in this mindful state of awareness for another minute or two and
  • then ask your intuition to whisper to you something new about yourself, or the world, or reality, or something you want assistance with
  • savour whatever comes to mind, and ask your intuition for another insight. 

Congratulations!  You have approached enlightenment with this exercise!

And remember, those ideas that came, jot them down immediately or risk them getting lost.  And pay attention to additional ideas that will come throughout the day. 

We are constantly getting intuitive prompts and nudges, not just when we decide to meditate for a few minutes but 24/7.  Even in our dreamtime we are getting suggestions and solutions to the issues we are dealing with, the questions we are asking and the solutions we seek. 

So stay open and vigilant and engage with the ideas that come, making notes to capture them as Nightengale advised. Pay particular attention to ideas that come back repeatedly.  And then decide which ones to act on – they will be the ones that have a feeling about them that feels just right, they bring relief or get you excited.

Then serve those ideas with action!  In the immortal words of my great mentor Mary Morrissey,

“Inspiration without action is merely entertainment.  Act on your inspiration today”