In the fourth blog of this CHRISTMAS series, Val Mullally looks at Inspiration – how to breathe life into your passion.
What’s been your film of the year? For me, the film of the year has been the BBC documentary “Drowning in Plastic” presented by Wildlife biologist Liz Bonnin. We urgently need to do things differently.
I is for Inspiration
What about the mental pollution that we’re drowning in? Like the plastic in our lives, we initially think all this information and technology is useful, or fun, and we don’t realise how it’s seeping into every corner of our existence in ways that are toxic and destructive.
Like the seabirds that are swallowing rubbish, are we unaware what we are ingesting? We don’t recognise how it’s strangling us – mental pollution that leaves little space for the psychological nutrients we need to thrive. Like the seabird chicks with stomachs full of useless plastic instead of life-giving nutrients, are we gorged on negative news, useless trivia and manipulative advertising that screams we are not good enough.
It is as Kabat-Zinn says,
Not only does unawareness go with the territory, it is the territory.
What can a person do?
It’s time to stop the madness.
Become aware. Notice what inspires you – what fills you with hope and joy.
The root of the word inspire comes from the Latin inspirare – “to breathe or to blow into”.
What dreams do you want to blow life into?
Interestingly, in the paragraph above I accidentally typed “screams” instead of “dreams”. And it got me thinking – what is screaming in my life and how do I replace that with my dreams?
It’s time to clear the psychological clutter.
How do I substitute the mental pollutants with the things that inspire me?
Make space for the things that breathe life into your being
I know as a parenting author I have to deliberately and systematically create space and time to write. If I wait until I am inspired I would hardly ever write. It’s about getting my bum in the chair every day and beginning to write. Then Inspiration comes. Not only when I am writing, but, she whispers to me as I walk the dog. She nudges me as I iron a shirt or stir the soup. I’m attentive to hear her when I’ve given the first part of my day, while I’m at my freshest and best, to writing.
Whatever inspires you, whatever your passion, breathe life into it daily.
At a global level, we urgently need to do things differently. It’s not only about the supposed “big stuff”.
When we follow our passion we each find our unique way of contributing to the greater good.
My passion, my inspiration, is that we can raise a generation who will:
think more clearly,
connect more compassionately,
behave more response-ably
and live more joyfully.
Will you join me in breathing life into that dream?
This Christmas let’s slow down and become aware of what matters.
(More about this tomorrow).
So it’s over to you.
In what ways will you choose to cut the mental pollutants in your life?
Who and what inspires you?
What things breathe joy and hope into your daily life?
How can you bring more of these into your life in the year ahead?
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