What Makes You Feel Inspired?

I really want to know: what do you do when you feel uninspired? 

Where do you go? What do you do to fill your cup? 

This blog is called Inspiration Location, but it’s not where I go. I come here to pressure myself to keep noticing my life, to keep looking for the magic, for what lights me up, and not drown in to-do lists and routines. I have to keep myself inspired to be happy. But it’s hard.

So I want to know:

Where do you go? What do you do when your inspiration cup is empty?  Where are your watering holes? 

Here are mine: 

Majestic mountains. Yosemite is my soul’s home, but any mountain range that invokes a gasp will do.

Ferny, woodland paths with streams. Add the songs of thrushes for bonus points.

Art Museums. Uncrowded, preferably, but I know how to be “alone together” with strangers viewing art.

Conversations. It is the rare person who can engage, spark ideas, and make me think I can do things I can’t. I depend on these conversations as I depend on food to live. When I am dying of hunger, I go to the conversation kitchens of these people, glom onto them, and dream of someday moving next door to them.

Books are by far the most accessible and most reliable source, though making time to read can be challenging, especially when scrolling is so easy and addictive. 

Travel. The farther and more exotic the better, but shorter trips are better than no trips at all. Getting out of town regularly is not an option; it’s a necessity. 

Alone Time. Deep and long alone time. Seven days or more with nothing but books and maybe a ferny path with a stream and thrushes. I’m thinking Springwater Center or Kripalu off-season here.

Even though it helps to know where inspiration can be found, it isn’t always easy to access. We must be strong enough to resist the siren song of our phones and iPads because there’s no inspiration there.

We have to recognize boredom as a symptom, not a state—a symptom of a lack of inspiration. It’s not boredom we feel, it’s thirst, it’s hunger for stim, and new ideas, and the encouragement to take risks.

So we must know where our inspiration kitchens are and go there to cook up our unique potions: the woods, the museum, or the airport.

So, reader, where do you go? Where are your inspiration locations?