Inspiration Begins with a Breath

When people say “no inspiration”, they are usually waiting for a muse — something external that will fly in and switch you on like a lamp. Look at the word itself instead: to inspire means, literally, to breathe in. The next second of your life is a new breath, and it happens in an instant you never even think about. You simply breathe. And you live because you breathe. And you breathe because you live. A continuous cycle in which no one knows what comes first — and inspiration stands at its very beginning.

Seen at the largest scale, the source of inspiration is life itself. Seen from inside the process of creation, it is the event your attention has stopped on. From the standpoint of mathematics — the next number in the sequence. From the standpoint of life on earth — light: while there is light outside, grass grows; in absolute darkness it cannot. Inspiration is not a rare guest. It is the beginning of everything: event, breath, consciousness, creation — one unbroken cycle.

Inspiration is the beginning of everything.

When you “can’t” — who are you right now?

It happens: a person was creating — and suddenly a dead end. No energy, no inspiration. Getting it back is simpler than it seems: understand who you are right now. The moment you understand who you are now, you immediately understand what you want to create. And if you are not the person who can create what you want, then one of two things is true: either this is not what you want, or right now you are not that person. Inspiration is a state of your mind for realising your spiritual state. Not the other way round.

How do you find out who you are now? Breathe — and place your attention on the in-breath. Try to catch the whole process: concentrate until you see that a single breath contains a countless number of the processes of life. The body tenses, the air enters — you do all of this unconsciously thousands of times a day. Do it once consciously. Just sit and hold your attention on the breath — and you will watch the thought that wants to break through into realisation being born in you. The body itself will show you who you are and what you want.

A breath is an instant, and the whole point is in that. Everything is born instantly. Love arises instantly. The realisation of an idea happens instantly: if you have an idea, you already have its realisation — you will only be finishing it. And if there is no realisation, there was no idea. Or it was not yours.

If you have breathed love in, it is already in you. One breath is enough.

What you breathe is what you produce

Sources of inspiration differ from person to person. One is filled by a beautiful landscape and sunlight, another by harsh music and footage of catastrophes. The difference is not a matter of taste. The point is that what a person breathes is what he produces, what he cultivates. You will always exhale what you inhale — and this applies to air, to information, to the people beside you, to everything. Pause for a second at the moment of the in-breath and examine what exactly you are taking in right now. Remove what is not needed — and you will begin to fill yourself more effectively.

And here the main thing opens up. Inspiration and filling are instruments of the conscious understanding that everything around exists for love — love as the state of the process of creation. The whole world, the whole universe exists in the material plane for love alone; without it a person exists rather than lives. People were given one distinguishing capacity — the ability to love and to create from that state. Progress is not the discovery of new elements and not the teleportation of objects. Progress is the creation of knowledge that helps people be in love. The universe is not interested in your technology. The universe is interested in whether you truly love — yourself and those around you. And what you lack, it will supply itself. Such is the regularity.

So the next time you say “no inspiration” — do not wait for a muse. Sit down. Take a breath. Ask yourself who you are right now. The answer comes faster than the exhale.

What you breathe is what you produce.

Cover work — “Inspiration” →

— Evgeny Fleysher