The Progression of Inspiration

Legos Exhibit at
Columbus Museum of Art

At some point in time, inspiration has to come from within. It has to be self-sustaining; otherwise how else would you push yourself to keep moving toward your dream? However, until then, below you will find ways to manipulate inspiration.

Inspiration comes in many forms. It can be in the form of thoughts, actions, and other things. When I think of inspiration, I often think about the “Five Senses of Inspiration.” These senses consist of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hear. Sight consists of seeing with all three of your eyes; the eyes on your face and your third eye. Sometimes inspiration is sparked by seeing or being enlightened by something. How many times have you (Writer, Artist, creative soul, etc.) seen something, which sent your mind down a spiraling tunnel of emotionally packed stories, beautiful artistic sunsets, and into realms unbeknownst to those uninspired? Inspiration is sometimes brought forth by releasing our “Five Senses of Inspiration.”

The next sense is sparked by smelling. Have you ever walked in the kitchen of your grandmother’s house and smelled freshly baked cookies? What about ran through a forest, breathing in all the fresh aromas from the morning breeze? How did you feel? Did you feel inspired to eat a warm chocolate chip cookie, run a little faster than yesterday or creatively express how you felt about your environment? Smell can bring out the best memories and have us create everlasting ones.

The next sense is produced by touch. Touching various objects can bring forth many different feelings and emotions to create wonderful masterpieces. Poets, have you ever tried closing your eyes and caressing a wallpapered wall? How did you poetically explain what you found? Was it something like this? The smooth, wallpapered wall with small perforated pieces. Covering a perfectly plain, four-sided resting room. The wallpaper told stories of pierced pencil markings and uneven walls that plaster could not hide. Touch has the ability of allowing people to creatively express themselves in songs, poems, art, and other ways.   

The next sense is created by taste. Have you ever tasted something that left an impression on your mind and inspired you? In elementary school, I remember reading a book about chocolate and how it left an everlasting taste in your mouth. My teacher than told us to close our eyes and she put a single piece of chocolate in our hands. She then told us to eat the chocolate without opening our eyes and then tell the class how we felt about eating the chocolate. In eating that piece of chocolate, it felt like the taste would stay in my mouth forever. It was like wells of chocolate were being produced in my salivary glands. Now I want you to try that same technique; however use your craft to creatively express how you felt about eating the chocolate.

The next sense is created by hearing. Hearing can deal with hearing sounds and noises in nature, listening to the word of songs and poems, or just listening to the tones in people’s voices. How can you express what is taking place? After the few examples above, I am sure you will do a great job with expressing the word hearing by using your craft to do so.  

Inspiration is created in many forms. Some of these forms have not been listed above because many people have their own set of standards regarding what is inspiration. However you are inspired just know that being inspired should be a progression toward self-sustaining inspiration and inspiring yourself from within.

~Have you been inspired today?