By: Emmanuelle Feria
It seems the world’s greatest authors and greatest writers have gotten a powerful strike of inspiration, an adrenaline-like rush of brilliant, impromptu ideas. This inspiration, culminated through long hours of muse and contemplation. Inspiration has been extremely important and has spurred on the writing of ground-breaking novels, artistic masterpieces, and scientific exploration, in a certain sense. People have been inspired by a certain aspect of our world, and have taken actions. Something has peaked their curiosity and profoundly intrigued them, causing them to manifest these feelings of wonder and intrigue into a creative activity. This has been occurring for centuries. Humanity has been inspired to do or feel things that they have never felt an urge to do or ponder about.
Inspiration, after all, is the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. Inspiration urges a soul on to accomplish something, something meaningful, impactful and worthwhile. Inspiration can strike any time, which is why we must be prepared to hold on to it, muse upon it, and consider its impact, or what we want to accomplish. When inspiration doesn’t strike an idea in a writer’s mind, it could be considered writer’s block. However, I feel that there is no moment where inspiration cannot be found, or doesn’t strike. Some people might view inspiration as a fickle thing, ever fleeting and hardly achievable. What if inspiration was always striking, always around the corner, a block away from the subconscious, patiently waiting to be found? What if inspiration is always there, hidden; tucked away in the subconscious of our minds?
In my eyes, we must not wait for inspiration to strike, for the obvious strike of inspiration occurs more rarely, but rather that we look for inspiration all around us, in unexpected places. We may not ever become creative geniuses, but it is worth the extra ideas, the creative madness, and the awakening of creative ideas. And anyway, if inspiration just doesn’t strike or you are feeling down, than you can always go to
google images and look up “inspirational quotes” to spur you on. It’s as easy as that, proving that inspiration is more common than most people think or imagine. “Inspiration” has a certain stigma about it. It seems that people often think that it only happens to certain people, that only “smart people” who have done amazing things in their life have experienced it. We also feel, that when the smallest bit of inspiration does strike in our brains, that it is simply an idea, and that it isn’t that important. We degrade it and brush it to the side. When you think about it, the “great” people in the world who are remembered have all had an idea, an inspiration. For instance, Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple and the infamous Iphone. At the time, it probably seemed insignificant and unimportant, but with the culmination of inspiration, ideas and occasional help from others over the years, they have created something incredible, they have created a legacy for themselves. As Pablo Picasso put it “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working”. We need to have the courage, the boldness and the nerve to express our inspiration, to express our creative ingenuity and train of thought. One idea could lead to something amazing, expressing ideas and inspiration can leave us feeling free and accomplished. We must not always keep these ideas, this inspiration, in our heads. Inspiration can also be transmitted to others and openly shared. Inspiration encourages innovation. It urges us to go the extra mile in our thinking, and in what we do.
