What inspires you – I mean, really turns your crank? If you don’t have a least one solid answer that immediately springs to mind, it’s time to meditate on that subject for a while. And when something dawns on you, make a leap towards it. Let your heart guide you.
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the Toronto Yoga Conference and Show and, as I walked with a dear friend around the retail floor, we discussed how, after 20 years in the yoga community and 15+ years teaching, we’re a little jaded and hard to impress. While we still love our jobs and continue to practice and teach joyfully, we are definitely “over” the sparkly baubles. We are more discriminating and we need to dig a little deeper plant new seeds on already-cultivated paths. It’s not so unusual that when you’ve trod the same path repeatedly, you get used to the grooves and, often not unhappily, settle into them. Nevertheless, there are stretches of time when we plateau or suffer some ennui. At those times, we must draw to ourselves new sources of inspiration in order to refill the creative well.
At the Show, I was fortunate enough to take a few classes with a teacher whose integration of yoga and psychology seemed to give shape and a vocabulary to so much of what has captivated me in my studies and reading. The classes lit me up in a fresh way and confirmed that I am ready to take the next steps in evolving myself and my teaching. The little nudge I got in just a few short hours will help to motivate me and drive me forward.
I have other teachers who inspire me. My children inspire me. Great writing, Albert Einstein. Friends and students who may be struggling but show up, day after day, to fight the good fight. And LOVE; I meditate on that a lot! These are the prime motivators I turn to when I’m coming up a bit dry. Do you have something or someone that fills your creative well? Inspires you to live in harmony with your best possible Self? If not – seek it out; if so- embrace it! Look for the powerful wind beneath your wings and then soar.
