January 15, 2025 • 28 mins
Can inspiration really fuel motivation, connection, and a sense of purpose? The simple answer is yes. Inspiration may seem like a special, rare occurrence, but, it is something that we can prepare for and open up to in a variety of different ways. And that process of preparing for inspiration is surprisingly... well, inspirational. Listen in as we dig into some scientific insights and practical tips on how to invite more inspiration into your life and make it a reliable partner in your journey toward joy.
Sources and Notes:
- Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
Please remember that this content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice and is not a replacement for advice and treatment from a medical professional. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health professional before beginning any diet change, supplement, or lifestyle program. Please see our terms for more information.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call the NAMI HelpLine: 1-800-950-6264 available Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., ET. OR text "HelpLine" to 62640 or email NAMI at helpline@nami.org. Visit NAMI for more. You can also call or text SAMHSA at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Joy Lab podcast,where we help you uncover and
(00:03):
foster your most joyful self.
Your hosts, Dr.
Henry Emmons and Dr.
Aimee Prasek, bring you the ideal mix ofsoulful and scientifically sound tools to
spark your joy, even when it feels dark.
When you're ready to experiment withmore joy, combine this podcast with the
full Joy Lab program over at JoyLab.coach
(00:27):
Hey everyone.
It's me, Aimee.
I'm just popping in here at the beginningof this Encore episode for two reasons.
First, I just want to let youknow that Joy Lab is open.
The program is ready for you.
So please come join us.
And then also, I just wanted to giveyou a little, what's to come for this
episode, because I think it's a really,kind of a great 101 on inspiration.
(00:51):
So that's our January Element.
So in this episode, we talk about whatinspiration is, how it fuels us and how
we can invite more of it into our lives.
I think a really important piece topull away from this is that inspiration
isn't just for artists or dreamers.
It is for everyone.
(01:11):
It can awaken new possibilitiesfor us, boost motivation, it
can deepen our sense of purpose.
So in this episode, we'll explorewhat makes inspiration so powerful.
Also its challenges and the ways that wecan cultivate it for meaningful change.
So grab a cozy spot, take a deepbreath, and let's explore how
(01:34):
inspiration can light up your life.
Hello, I'm Henry Emmonsand welcome to Joy Lab.
And I'm Aimee Prasek.
So here at Joy Lab, we infuse sciencewith soul to help you uncover joy.
To do that, we focus on building theelements of joy, the positive emotions
(01:55):
and inner states that become thebuilding blocks for a joyful life.
So, the Element for this episode isinspiration, as in being awakened
to new possibilities or feeling sodeeply passionate that you want to
do something out of that passion.
It's that sort of ephemeral quality thatI think we all know because we've all had
(02:18):
it at least once before, and I don't thinkit really needs much more, description.
You kind of know it when you feel it.
So, maybe you know someone that seems tosort of live in that state of inspiration
most of the time, but I think the majorityof us find it to be sort of fleeting.
And it can seem hard toget it back once it's gone.
(02:38):
So, Henry, I'm thinking, like,for the rest of this you could
just say inspiring things to us.
That we can soak
in.
Thanks a lot, Aimee.
As you know, it is kind ofhard to be inspiring on demand.
So here, I'll just toss this out.
Here's a quote, probably themost famous quote ever about
(03:00):
inspiration from Thomas Edison.
He said, "Genius is 1 percentinspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Now, I actually don't love that quote,by the way, but what do you think, Aimee?
Is it too late to changethe topic to perspiration?
No, let's do it.
I would love to see perspiration asone of our elements of joy, actually.
(03:24):
We could just do saunas for allthe experiments, or saunas, as my
husband says, and I think a lot of ourMinnesota, Minnesota friends might say.
Yes, but back to that quote, even ifit is true, where would we be though
without that 1 percent of inspiration?
So we'll dig into that.
And I actually want to bring inspirationsort of back into the activities of
(03:46):
daily life because I imagine folksare like, seriously, inspiration,
let's get back into the real world ofthings that will actually help me feel
better and help me get stuff done.
And I agree, and inspirationcan actually help you do that.
So, here's a, just a bit ofevidence that I think helps us
to sort of ground inspiration.
(04:07):
So, individuals who score higher onsomething called the Inspiration Scale.
And that's a tool that researchersTodd Thrash and Andrew Elliott created.
So, folks who score higher on this scalereport more absorption in tasks and
higher completion rates in tasks versusfolks who score lower on that scale.
(04:27):
And folks who score higher also have astronger drive to complete their work and
at the same time are less competitive,which is actually kind of a perfect combo
when it comes to doing your own work.
Additionally, there's folks whoscore higher on this scale are
more intrinsically motivated andless extrinsically motivated than
folks who score lower, meaningthey do things because it matters.
(04:50):
It matters to them.
They have that internal drive and purpose.
Folks who score higher on theinspiration scale also report
more self esteem and optimism.
So, I'll just stop therebecause I think those few things
are really pretty important.
Inspiration can act as this powerful fuelfor us to take action, not to impress
(05:12):
others, which I think is key, right?
But action that is meaningful to us andthat we engage in because it fills us.
And that's the type of meaningfulwork that produces the best results.
And I think that we really all crave.
Wow, that is, that is really interesting.
So, you know, for me, personally,inspiration has always been a
(05:33):
really important theme for me.
It's been ever present,really, throughout my life.
And it feels kind of like a, a sourceof new life to me or something that
can pull me out of when I get stagnantand it helps drive my creativity.
It helps me feel more alive.
(05:54):
It is an engine that kindof propels me forward.
So I really love when I can feelinspired by some vision or sense of
greater possibility and at variouspoints in my life it's, it's gotten
to where I yearn for it and I havelooked for it in various ways.
(06:18):
You know as far back as I can remember.
So when I was a young professional,unfortunately, I did not find a
lot of inspiration in traditionalmedicine or psychiatry.
I thought it was, it feltkind of dry or routine, even a
little lifeless, at least to me.
So, I just always had my eyesopen for what I thought were
(06:43):
interesting, out of the ordinarytypes of workshops and trainings.
And I found this organization prettyearly in my career that was called the
National Institute for the ClinicalApplication of Behavioral Medicine and
they called it for short, they justcalled it NICABM, which by the way is
not a very inspired name, I don't think..
(07:07):
But for several years NICABM had thisannual conference on Hilton Head Island
and they would bring in dozens of thesereally innovative, creative thinkers and
expert clinicians in mind body medicine.
Some people that you've probably heardof, like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Deepak Chopra,
(07:27):
Tara Brach, but also lots of less wellknown people that were equally on fire
with the work that they were doing.
And every year I'd go there for abouta week and I would leave just feeling
filled up with tons of inspirationand enthusiasm that, that carried me
along and propelled me for a while.
(07:49):
But then eventually the inspirationwould dry up and it was as if
I needed another dose of it.
I actually think at that point in mylife, I fell into some of the traps,
the possible traps of inspiration.
The pitfalls, if you will, because Irelied too much on other people to get it.
And in the end, that's just not avery reliable source of inspiration.
(08:14):
And then over time, I think there,there became kind of a grasping quality
to it where I just needed it too much.
And then if it wasn't there, Istarted to fear that it would
perhaps never come back again.
I can relate.
And I would guess mostof us can relate to it.
And we'll dig into more of thoseobstacles a bit in, in the podcast, but
(08:35):
more so in the, in the Joy Lab program.
But for now, I'm also really connecting,Henry, with your notion that there's
something like very fundamentaland necessary about inspiration.
And so sort of exploringthat for a moment.
It shows up in Greek mythology, ofcourse, with the muses, and then
just thinking of the word itself,the sort of literal use of the word.
(08:59):
Inspiration means to sort of, breathein, to take air into the lungs.
And then its Latin root is reallythe same as the root for spirit.
So we have all of these figurativedefinitions that describe
something like breathing inspirit, breathing in new life.
And we see that in the creation stories,in a bunch of wisdom traditions.
(09:22):
It's part of so many religious rituals.
All of these ideas of thatbreath being given to us, that we
receive what really animates us.
Um, what gives us purpose.
So the capacity to be inspired,really seems built into us.
(09:42):
We're wired for it, as we often sayhere, so we must need it, right?
Yeah, well, I wouldagree with that totally.
So I have a friend who's actually,for me, a really good model of, of
inspiration and what it can do for you.
So Sandy is a therapist, recentlyretired, but she's a therapist who
(10:05):
I've known for, for more than 30 years.
And she is, all this time thatI've known her, she's just always
reading, always learning new things.
She has a very curious mind.
But she also just repeatedly foundinspiration through learning new
things about her work, new theoriesof psychology or new techniques
(10:28):
that would help her patients.
And, you know, she was just sogood about that, and she retired a
couple years ago at the age of 70.
And her passion for new possibilities,as I observed, it continued all
the way up to her retirement.
She just never allowed her work tobecome stagnant or routine for very long.
(10:51):
Now, I'm not sure, really, whetherit becomes easier or harder to find
inspiration as we age, but I thinkit's probably varies for each person.
But I have so much respect for how Sandycontinued to inject New life right up to
the end of her career and beyond becausenow she's spending some of her time
(11:15):
writing poetry and she still gets inspiredby travel or new strategies for personal
growth, and I also felt that she didn'tJust dabble in things, maybe she did once
in a while, but she would also go deeply,into something that really jazzed her.
And I thought that too seemed likea really important aspect of this.
(11:39):
Yeah, I think in a lot of instances,that depth is so important.
So, maybe back to that idea thatyou mentioned earlier of craving
inspiration and it can sometimeslead us into excessive dabbling.
Actually, that's really somethingthat can derail true inspiration.
And it also is something that Iwas very, very good at in the past.
(12:01):
Um, but I think what I'vecome to understand, though, is
that inspiration is amplified.
When there's depth.
Like not a hundred percent of the time,but assuming that inspiration moves
us to action, and that's an importantaspect of inspiration, then we can, you
know, just get caught on the surfaceif we never stick with something.
You know, it becomes this cravingfor a quick hit of inspiration
(12:23):
to ease some discomfort.
Which leads to, you know, a newfoundpassion for a few months, and
then it wears off, and that pausegets interpreted as uncomfortable
boredom, fear, or an unreasonablegoal, right, hasn't been attained.
Then we start searchingfor inspiration again.
So I think it's really an exhaustingcycle that continues to pull us out of
(12:48):
our own wisdom, uh, and authenticity.
Yes, you know, that's very descriptive ofmy earlier relationship with inspiration.
But, you know, I do think I'vematured in this relationship to
inspiration, and I suspect we both have.
(13:09):
And I still value it tremendously.
But I have learned to relate to it alittle differently, and I've learned
not to rely quite so much on gettingit from sources outside of myself,
like I could somehow just absorb it bybeing with great innovators or simply
(13:29):
being around people who are inspired.
So I really think now, I think thatit is something that happens within.
I think it's part of our inner life,and it doesn't happen just by chance,
just like so many of these, thesethings we talk about in Joy Lab.
We can do things to make it happen,or at least make it more likely that
(13:54):
inspiration will come back to us,or maybe will stay with us longer.
Yeah, I think that's reallyimportant that we can cultivate
inspiration or make it more likely.
Again, yeah, just like allthe other elements of joy
that we work with in Joy Lab.
Um, you know, we have this, thisimage maybe from mythology or
religion that inspiration comesonly through supernatural or divine
(14:17):
channels or that it's limited tojust the artists or creative types
or the highly spiritual folks.
And since it can seem to run dry,it's easy to think that there's
not much we can do about it.
We just sort of waitfor the muse to return.
It's outside of our control.
So, yes, absolutely.
I want to dig into what we can do,uh, not to force it, but maybe to
(14:41):
coax inspiration back into our lives.
Yeah, I like that wayof thinking about it.
It's coaxing it or, or staying open to it.
It reminds me of the way that ParkerPalmer likes to talk about the soul.
He compares it to an animal in the wild.
And you are not going to meet ananimal in the wild through coercion.
(15:06):
You have to be still and allow it tocome out when it's good and ready.
That's such a great imagefor, um, the inner life.
Be still and allow.
So, let's dive in.
We've come up with five qualitiesof inspiration, different aspects
of it that we can learn from andperhaps, make inspiration a more
(15:27):
reliable partner in our lives.
So let's do it.
Let's dive in.
Sounds great.
So the first quality is thatinspiration is invitational.
We cannot be inspiredwithout our permission.
We have to allow it to happen.
So, I came across a quote that I thinkgives a nice perspective on this.
(15:51):
It's, it's by the famousphilosopher and writer Anaïs Nin.
And she said, "You cannot save people.
You can just love them."
So I want to paraphrase that andsay you cannot inspire people.
You can just invite them.
(16:12):
So we have to be open in order toreceive the invitation to be inspired.
We cannot receive it unless we allownew life to be breathed into us.
Now this involves some risk becauseit means that we might be changed.
(16:32):
And as we all know, change can behard even if it's for the better.
Now, there's a flip side to thattoo, that we also have to let go
of the idea that we cannot change.
This notion that we are who we are.
We've settled into this comfortablehomeostasis for better or worse,
and that's just how it is.
(16:53):
Yet, inspiration can bypass that sortof stagnancy and it can speed things
up if we're looking to change or grow.
Now the research on this I believe it'sby the same researchers that you referred
to Aimee that it shows very clearly thatpeople with higher levels of inspiration
(17:15):
share a particular trait and that isthey are more open to new experiences.
No one can give us thattrait except ourselves.
And with that openness and the inspiredaction that can come from it, change
can actually happen fairly quickly.
(17:37):
We can create a new normal.
Um, yeah, those littlesteps, little shifts.
So, the next quality is thatInspiration has to be internalized.
So meaning we take it in and itbecomes part of our nature, our
framework, our motivation for action.
This quality has a lot to do with sortof keeping us out of that permanent
(18:01):
cycle, I think, of inspiration chasing.
And I, I get it, that on its face, thisquality then of inspiration doesn't
really sound like much fun, it justsounds like having less inspiring
moments, but actually there's some,there's some interesting research here.
So, when researchers look for factorsthat increase the likelihood of
folks experiencing inspiration, thereare three common ones that show up.
(18:24):
Uh, two of these make total sense.
I think.
The first openness to experience,which Henry just noted.
Another is positive affect, uh, whichwe work on here at the podcast a lot
and more so in the Joy Lab program.
You know, being open to positiveemotions, practicing them and making
them more part of our daily lives.
(18:45):
But the third one that increasesyour likelihood of experiencing
inspiration, it's pretty boring.
It's preparation.
So, I mean, kind of, uh, referencingback to our note of perspiration
from earlier, this factor can alsobe called "work mastery" and sort of
other seemingly sweaty terms for, um,you know, sticking with something.
(19:09):
And so along that road of preparation,acknowledging small wins is also
something that can boost inspiration.
Which again, I think is great as itsort of busts that myth that inspiration
is only tied to the lofty stuff.
So the idea here then with internalizinginspiration is that you apply that
(19:29):
energy into a depth of practice.
And you then gain asense of accomplishment.
An evolving mastery along the way.
And that can anchor someintrinsic motivation within you.
It's powerful fuel that can sustainyou during some of those dry spells.
And that it also puts you into thepath of receiving more inspiration.
(19:51):
Pretty surprising.
Yeah, Yeah.
Well, the third quality ofinspiration,is different again, and
it's that inspiration is unrestrained.
There is a sense of freedomthat comes with it, of being
unfettered or uninhibited.
It's kind of like you know, if youfill up a hot air balloon and then
(20:13):
you loosen its moorings, it just risesup on its own without much effort.
And the same can happen to you, youknow, when you feel inspired, you
simply feel expansive, open hearted,and you just, you feel lifted up without
any particular effort on your part.
I actually think this dovetailsvery nicely with that first
(20:34):
quality of permission.
Because there's not much you needto do here once you're struck with
inspiration, other than to allowit to move in you and through you.
Now this also helps to counterone of the other roadblocks to
inspiration, which is the tendency tohave these overly high expectations.
(20:58):
Maybe even perfectionism.
Now, you know that the perfectis the enemy of the good.
Well, I think the perfect isalso the enemy of inspiration.
There's nothing here that youreally have to figure out.
You don't have to get it just right.
You can release whatever you feelis holding you back, release your
(21:19):
expectations of how things haveto go and allow inspiration to
kind of work its magic on you.
Oh, that is magic.
I love that.
It's, it's so enlivening tobe freed up from those, those
constraints and be transported.
For things to come together just rightso that you somehow rise above yourself
(21:42):
and create or accomplish somethingthat you never thought was in you.
And I think that happens moreoften than we realize, actually.
Uh, and it really describesa fourth of our qualities of
inspiration, which is transcendent.
So Elizabeth Gilbert has thisbeautiful TED talk called
Your Elusive Creative Genius.
And she describes the pressure shefelt after sort of nailing it with her
(22:06):
bestseller, "Eat, Pray, Love" and the fearthat she'd never be able to equal that.
But she really found comfort in theidea that inspiration doesn't come from
us, it's something that happens to us.
And so, um, you know, we might be struckby a moment of clarity or creativity or
skill that seems to come from beyond us.
(22:28):
That's transcendence.
And so maybe our genius, right,is on loan to us, not from us.
And I think so often we discount thattranscendence or that interconnectedness
and either take all all the blamewhen something doesn't work out or
take all the praise when it does.
Either way, we're sort of settingourselves up for things to be so
(22:50):
much more difficult next time around.
It's too much to hold, uh, too muchresponsibility and it's not how the
universe sort of functions, right?
We're not in a vacuum.
Actually, and on that, I had amentor that would tell me your
work is of the utmost consequenceand completely inconsequential.
So I, I had to sit with that for a while,um, after first being deflated by it,
(23:14):
but to really sit with it and get itand not dismiss it also as something
sort of woo woo, but it's true andit's freeing, or it was for me, it was
a reminder, like, I am not the centerof the universe, like not even close.
So my individual successes or failureswill not fix or break our universe.
That would be terrible if it were true.
(23:36):
But nonetheless, I can do someuniverse-shifting things, particularly
when I acknowledge my connectednesswith everything around me.
I like how ElizabethGilbert also describes it.
She says,
"That doesn't mean that you play nopart in it, but you can't force it.
Just continue to showup for your piece of it.
(23:58):
Do your job, whatever that is.
Do your dance anyhow.
Keep showing up."
I love the honesty that ElizabethGilbert had in that talk.
And you know, it, it can be hard toaccept that the magic doesn't last, which
(24:19):
is the final quality of inspiration.
It is cyclical.
It is impermanent.
You don't get to live in aninspired state all of the time.
But when it leaves you, that doesnot mean that it's gone forever, even
though it might really feel like it is.
(24:39):
I used to really struggle with this.
I just hate feeling stagnant.
I think it might be my leastfavorite internal state to be in.
So, I would get really impatientwith this and feel almost desperate
for that inspiration to return.
That is grasping.
(25:00):
But I'm a lot more accepting ofit these days when it goes away.
I try to take more lessonsfrom what I see in nature.
Right now where we live, it iswinter and nature has receded.
It's gone underground.
Clearly, this is a fallow time.
(25:21):
And I understand now that a lot canactually happen in the fallow times.
You can rest, for example.
You can restore yourself.
It's as if you can prepare yourselffor this next cycle of activity
and creativity that might getstarted with that inspiration.
(25:41):
So, there's this haiku poemthat I have just always loved.
It's very short, and I don'tactually know who wrote it.
I tried to find out, but couldn't.
I'll just read it to you.
" Spring comes, and thegrass grows by itself."
" Spring comes, and thegrass grows by itself."
(26:05):
Now I have always associated that imagewith resilience, that it's really your
nature to be resilient, and if youlose your resilience, it will come
back to you, if you can simply let it.
It will come back on its own,but I also think that this
image speaks to inspiration.
(26:25):
When you're in a dry spell, when youcycle into an inner winter, so to
speak, try to remember that inspirationand the inspired, meaningful
action that can follow it will comeagain as surely as the spring.
It's sort of coming to the, thatquality of, internalized thinking
(26:48):
about this fallow time as beinga time for storing and resting.
And I'm just picturing liketulips coming up in the spring,
but they needed that time.
So, what a sacred period.
Those fallow times.
So thank you so much everyone forlistening and for diving into these
qualities of inspiration with us.
We hope you'll also join us for theJoy Lab program where we guide you
(27:12):
week by week to develop the skillsyou need to live the Elements of Joy.
And to do your part in preparingfor that spring that is surely
coming so that whatever it is thatis within you can grow by itself.
Thank you for listeningto the Joy Lab podcast.
If you enjoy today's show, visitJoyLab.coach to learn more
(27:34):
about the full Joy Lab program.
Be sure to rate and review us whereveryou listen to your favorite podcasts.
Please remember that thiscontent is for informational
and educational purposes only.
It is not intended to provide medicaladvice and is not a replacement for advice
and treatment from a medical professional.
Please consult your doctor orother qualified health professional
(27:56):
before beginning any diet change,supplement, or lifestyle program.
Please see our terms for more information.
Welcome to the Joy Lab podcast,where we help you uncover and
(00:03):
foster your most joyful self.
Your hosts, Dr.
Henry Emmons and Dr.
Aimee Prasek, bring you the ideal mix ofsoulful and scientifically sound tools to
spark your joy, even when it feels dark.
When you're ready to experiment withmore joy, combine this podcast with the
full Joy Lab program over at JoyLab.coach
(00:27):
Hey everyone.
It's me, Aimee.
I'm just popping in here at the beginningof this Encore episode for two reasons.
First, I just want to let youknow that Joy Lab is open.
The program is ready for you.
So please come join us.
And then also, I just wanted to giveyou a little, what's to come for this
episode, because I think it's a really,kind of a great 101 on inspiration.
(00:51):
So that's our January Element.
So in this episode, we talk about whatinspiration is, how it fuels us and how
we can invite more of it into our lives.
I think a really important piece topull away from this is that inspiration
isn't just for artists or dreamers.
It is for everyone.
(01:11):
It can awaken new possibilitiesfor us, boost motivation, it
can deepen our sense of purpose.
So in this episode, we'll explorewhat makes inspiration so powerful.
Also its challenges and the ways that wecan cultivate it for meaningful change.
So grab a cozy spot, take a deepbreath, and let's explore how
(01:34):
inspiration can light up your life.
Hello, I'm Henry Emmonsand welcome to Joy Lab.
And I'm Aimee Prasek.
So here at Joy Lab, we infuse sciencewith soul to help you uncover joy.
To do that, we focus on building theelements of joy, the positive emotions
(01:55):
and inner states that become thebuilding blocks for a joyful life.
So, the Element for this episode isinspiration, as in being awakened
to new possibilities or feeling sodeeply passionate that you want to
do something out of that passion.
It's that sort of ephemeral quality thatI think we all know because we've all had
(02:18):
it at least once before, and I don't thinkit really needs much more, description.
You kind of know it when you feel it.
So, maybe you know someone that seems tosort of live in that state of inspiration
most of the time, but I think the majorityof us find it to be sort of fleeting.
And it can seem hard toget it back once it's gone.
(02:38):
So, Henry, I'm thinking, like,for the rest of this you could
just say inspiring things to us.
That we can soak
in.
Thanks a lot, Aimee.
As you know, it is kind ofhard to be inspiring on demand.
So here, I'll just toss this out.
Here's a quote, probably themost famous quote ever about
(03:00):
inspiration from Thomas Edison.
He said, "Genius is 1 percentinspiration and 99 percent perspiration."
Now, I actually don't love that quote,by the way, but what do you think, Aimee?
Is it too late to changethe topic to perspiration?
No, let's do it.
I would love to see perspiration asone of our elements of joy, actually.
(03:24):
We could just do saunas for allthe experiments, or saunas, as my
husband says, and I think a lot of ourMinnesota, Minnesota friends might say.
Yes, but back to that quote, even ifit is true, where would we be though
without that 1 percent of inspiration?
So we'll dig into that.
And I actually want to bring inspirationsort of back into the activities of
(03:46):
daily life because I imagine folksare like, seriously, inspiration,
let's get back into the real world ofthings that will actually help me feel
better and help me get stuff done.
And I agree, and inspirationcan actually help you do that.
So, here's a, just a bit ofevidence that I think helps us
to sort of ground inspiration.
(04:07):
So, individuals who score higher onsomething called the Inspiration Scale.
And that's a tool that researchersTodd Thrash and Andrew Elliott created.
So, folks who score higher on this scalereport more absorption in tasks and
higher completion rates in tasks versusfolks who score lower on that scale.
(04:27):
And folks who score higher also have astronger drive to complete their work and
at the same time are less competitive,which is actually kind of a perfect combo
when it comes to doing your own work.
Additionally, there's folks whoscore higher on this scale are
more intrinsically motivated andless extrinsically motivated than
folks who score lower, meaningthey do things because it matters.
(04:50):
It matters to them.
They have that internal drive and purpose.
Folks who score higher on theinspiration scale also report
more self esteem and optimism.
So, I'll just stop therebecause I think those few things
are really pretty important.
Inspiration can act as this powerful fuelfor us to take action, not to impress
(05:12):
others, which I think is key, right?
But action that is meaningful to us andthat we engage in because it fills us.
And that's the type of meaningfulwork that produces the best results.
And I think that we really all crave.
Wow, that is, that is really interesting.
So, you know, for me, personally,inspiration has always been a
(05:33):
really important theme for me.
It's been ever present,really, throughout my life.
And it feels kind of like a, a sourceof new life to me or something that
can pull me out of when I get stagnantand it helps drive my creativity.
It helps me feel more alive.
(05:54):
It is an engine that kindof propels me forward.
So I really love when I can feelinspired by some vision or sense of
greater possibility and at variouspoints in my life it's, it's gotten
to where I yearn for it and I havelooked for it in various ways.
(06:18):
You know as far back as I can remember.
So when I was a young professional,unfortunately, I did not find a
lot of inspiration in traditionalmedicine or psychiatry.
I thought it was, it feltkind of dry or routine, even a
little lifeless, at least to me.
So, I just always had my eyesopen for what I thought were
(06:43):
interesting, out of the ordinarytypes of workshops and trainings.
And I found this organization prettyearly in my career that was called the
National Institute for the ClinicalApplication of Behavioral Medicine and
they called it for short, they justcalled it NICABM, which by the way is
not a very inspired name, I don't think..
(07:07):
But for several years NICABM had thisannual conference on Hilton Head Island
and they would bring in dozens of thesereally innovative, creative thinkers and
expert clinicians in mind body medicine.
Some people that you've probably heardof, like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Deepak Chopra,
(07:27):
Tara Brach, but also lots of less wellknown people that were equally on fire
with the work that they were doing.
And every year I'd go there for abouta week and I would leave just feeling
filled up with tons of inspirationand enthusiasm that, that carried me
along and propelled me for a while.
(07:49):
But then eventually the inspirationwould dry up and it was as if
I needed another dose of it.
I actually think at that point in mylife, I fell into some of the traps,
the possible traps of inspiration.
The pitfalls, if you will, because Irelied too much on other people to get it.
And in the end, that's just not avery reliable source of inspiration.
(08:14):
And then over time, I think there,there became kind of a grasping quality
to it where I just needed it too much.
And then if it wasn't there, Istarted to fear that it would
perhaps never come back again.
I can relate.
And I would guess mostof us can relate to it.
And we'll dig into more of thoseobstacles a bit in, in the podcast, but
(08:35):
more so in the, in the Joy Lab program.
But for now, I'm also really connecting,Henry, with your notion that there's
something like very fundamentaland necessary about inspiration.
And so sort of exploringthat for a moment.
It shows up in Greek mythology, ofcourse, with the muses, and then
just thinking of the word itself,the sort of literal use of the word.
(08:59):
Inspiration means to sort of, breathein, to take air into the lungs.
And then its Latin root is reallythe same as the root for spirit.
So we have all of these figurativedefinitions that describe
something like breathing inspirit, breathing in new life.
And we see that in the creation stories,in a bunch of wisdom traditions.
(09:22):
It's part of so many religious rituals.
All of these ideas of thatbreath being given to us, that we
receive what really animates us.
Um, what gives us purpose.
So the capacity to be inspired,really seems built into us.
(09:42):
We're wired for it, as we often sayhere, so we must need it, right?
Yeah, well, I wouldagree with that totally.
So I have a friend who's actually,for me, a really good model of, of
inspiration and what it can do for you.
So Sandy is a therapist, recentlyretired, but she's a therapist who
(10:05):
I've known for, for more than 30 years.
And she is, all this time thatI've known her, she's just always
reading, always learning new things.
She has a very curious mind.
But she also just repeatedly foundinspiration through learning new
things about her work, new theoriesof psychology or new techniques
(10:28):
that would help her patients.
And, you know, she was just sogood about that, and she retired a
couple years ago at the age of 70.
And her passion for new possibilities,as I observed, it continued all
the way up to her retirement.
She just never allowed her work tobecome stagnant or routine for very long.
(10:51):
Now, I'm not sure, really, whetherit becomes easier or harder to find
inspiration as we age, but I thinkit's probably varies for each person.
But I have so much respect for how Sandycontinued to inject New life right up to
the end of her career and beyond becausenow she's spending some of her time
(11:15):
writing poetry and she still gets inspiredby travel or new strategies for personal
growth, and I also felt that she didn'tJust dabble in things, maybe she did once
in a while, but she would also go deeply,into something that really jazzed her.
And I thought that too seemed likea really important aspect of this.
(11:39):
Yeah, I think in a lot of instances,that depth is so important.
So, maybe back to that idea thatyou mentioned earlier of craving
inspiration and it can sometimeslead us into excessive dabbling.
Actually, that's really somethingthat can derail true inspiration.
And it also is something that Iwas very, very good at in the past.
(12:01):
Um, but I think what I'vecome to understand, though, is
that inspiration is amplified.
When there's depth.
Like not a hundred percent of the time,but assuming that inspiration moves
us to action, and that's an importantaspect of inspiration, then we can, you
know, just get caught on the surfaceif we never stick with something.
You know, it becomes this cravingfor a quick hit of inspiration
(12:23):
to ease some discomfort.
Which leads to, you know, a newfoundpassion for a few months, and
then it wears off, and that pausegets interpreted as uncomfortable
boredom, fear, or an unreasonablegoal, right, hasn't been attained.
Then we start searchingfor inspiration again.
So I think it's really an exhaustingcycle that continues to pull us out of
(12:48):
our own wisdom, uh, and authenticity.
Yes, you know, that's very descriptive ofmy earlier relationship with inspiration.
But, you know, I do think I'vematured in this relationship to
inspiration, and I suspect we both have.
(13:09):
And I still value it tremendously.
But I have learned to relate to it alittle differently, and I've learned
not to rely quite so much on gettingit from sources outside of myself,
like I could somehow just absorb it bybeing with great innovators or simply
(13:29):
being around people who are inspired.
So I really think now, I think thatit is something that happens within.
I think it's part of our inner life,and it doesn't happen just by chance,
just like so many of these, thesethings we talk about in Joy Lab.
We can do things to make it happen,or at least make it more likely that
(13:54):
inspiration will come back to us,or maybe will stay with us longer.
Yeah, I think that's reallyimportant that we can cultivate
inspiration or make it more likely.
Again, yeah, just like allthe other elements of joy
that we work with in Joy Lab.
Um, you know, we have this, thisimage maybe from mythology or
religion that inspiration comesonly through supernatural or divine
(14:17):
channels or that it's limited tojust the artists or creative types
or the highly spiritual folks.
And since it can seem to run dry,it's easy to think that there's
not much we can do about it.
We just sort of waitfor the muse to return.
It's outside of our control.
So, yes, absolutely.
I want to dig into what we can do,uh, not to force it, but maybe to
(14:41):
coax inspiration back into our lives.
Yeah, I like that wayof thinking about it.
It's coaxing it or, or staying open to it.
It reminds me of the way that ParkerPalmer likes to talk about the soul.
He compares it to an animal in the wild.
And you are not going to meet ananimal in the wild through coercion.
(15:06):
You have to be still and allow it tocome out when it's good and ready.
That's such a great imagefor, um, the inner life.
Be still and allow.
So, let's dive in.
We've come up with five qualitiesof inspiration, different aspects
of it that we can learn from andperhaps, make inspiration a more
(15:27):
reliable partner in our lives.
So let's do it.
Let's dive in.
Sounds great.
So the first quality is thatinspiration is invitational.
We cannot be inspiredwithout our permission.
We have to allow it to happen.
So, I came across a quote that I thinkgives a nice perspective on this.
(15:51):
It's, it's by the famousphilosopher and writer Anaïs Nin.
And she said, "You cannot save people.
You can just love them."
So I want to paraphrase that andsay you cannot inspire people.
You can just invite them.
(16:12):
So we have to be open in order toreceive the invitation to be inspired.
We cannot receive it unless we allownew life to be breathed into us.
Now this involves some risk becauseit means that we might be changed.
(16:32):
And as we all know, change can behard even if it's for the better.
Now, there's a flip side to thattoo, that we also have to let go
of the idea that we cannot change.
This notion that we are who we are.
We've settled into this comfortablehomeostasis for better or worse,
and that's just how it is.
(16:53):
Yet, inspiration can bypass that sortof stagnancy and it can speed things
up if we're looking to change or grow.
Now the research on this I believe it'sby the same researchers that you referred
to Aimee that it shows very clearly thatpeople with higher levels of inspiration
(17:15):
share a particular trait and that isthey are more open to new experiences.
No one can give us thattrait except ourselves.
And with that openness and the inspiredaction that can come from it, change
can actually happen fairly quickly.
(17:37):
We can create a new normal.
Um, yeah, those littlesteps, little shifts.
So, the next quality is thatInspiration has to be internalized.
So meaning we take it in and itbecomes part of our nature, our
framework, our motivation for action.
This quality has a lot to do with sortof keeping us out of that permanent
(18:01):
cycle, I think, of inspiration chasing.
And I, I get it, that on its face, thisquality then of inspiration doesn't
really sound like much fun, it justsounds like having less inspiring
moments, but actually there's some,there's some interesting research here.
So, when researchers look for factorsthat increase the likelihood of
folks experiencing inspiration, thereare three common ones that show up.
(18:24):
Uh, two of these make total sense.
I think.
The first openness to experience,which Henry just noted.
Another is positive affect, uh, whichwe work on here at the podcast a lot
and more so in the Joy Lab program.
You know, being open to positiveemotions, practicing them and making
them more part of our daily lives.
(18:45):
But the third one that increasesyour likelihood of experiencing
inspiration, it's pretty boring.
It's preparation.
So, I mean, kind of, uh, referencingback to our note of perspiration
from earlier, this factor can alsobe called "work mastery" and sort of
other seemingly sweaty terms for, um,you know, sticking with something.
(19:09):
And so along that road of preparation,acknowledging small wins is also
something that can boost inspiration.
Which again, I think is great as itsort of busts that myth that inspiration
is only tied to the lofty stuff.
So the idea here then with internalizinginspiration is that you apply that
(19:29):
energy into a depth of practice.
And you then gain asense of accomplishment.
An evolving mastery along the way.
And that can anchor someintrinsic motivation within you.
It's powerful fuel that can sustainyou during some of those dry spells.
And that it also puts you into thepath of receiving more inspiration.
(19:51):
Pretty surprising.
Yeah, Yeah.
Well, the third quality ofinspiration,is different again, and
it's that inspiration is unrestrained.
There is a sense of freedomthat comes with it, of being
unfettered or uninhibited.
It's kind of like you know, if youfill up a hot air balloon and then
(20:13):
you loosen its moorings, it just risesup on its own without much effort.
And the same can happen to you, youknow, when you feel inspired, you
simply feel expansive, open hearted,and you just, you feel lifted up without
any particular effort on your part.
I actually think this dovetailsvery nicely with that first
(20:34):
quality of permission.
Because there's not much you needto do here once you're struck with
inspiration, other than to allowit to move in you and through you.
Now this also helps to counterone of the other roadblocks to
inspiration, which is the tendency tohave these overly high expectations.
(20:58):
Maybe even perfectionism.
Now, you know that the perfectis the enemy of the good.
Well, I think the perfect isalso the enemy of inspiration.
There's nothing here that youreally have to figure out.
You don't have to get it just right.
You can release whatever you feelis holding you back, release your
(21:19):
expectations of how things haveto go and allow inspiration to
kind of work its magic on you.
Oh, that is magic.
I love that.
It's, it's so enlivening tobe freed up from those, those
constraints and be transported.
For things to come together just rightso that you somehow rise above yourself
(21:42):
and create or accomplish somethingthat you never thought was in you.
And I think that happens moreoften than we realize, actually.
Uh, and it really describesa fourth of our qualities of
inspiration, which is transcendent.
So Elizabeth Gilbert has thisbeautiful TED talk called
Your Elusive Creative Genius.
And she describes the pressure shefelt after sort of nailing it with her
(22:06):
bestseller, "Eat, Pray, Love" and the fearthat she'd never be able to equal that.
But she really found comfort in theidea that inspiration doesn't come from
us, it's something that happens to us.
And so, um, you know, we might be struckby a moment of clarity or creativity or
skill that seems to come from beyond us.
(22:28):
That's transcendence.
And so maybe our genius, right,is on loan to us, not from us.
And I think so often we discount thattranscendence or that interconnectedness
and either take all all the blamewhen something doesn't work out or
take all the praise when it does.
Either way, we're sort of settingourselves up for things to be so
(22:50):
much more difficult next time around.
It's too much to hold, uh, too muchresponsibility and it's not how the
universe sort of functions, right?
We're not in a vacuum.
Actually, and on that, I had amentor that would tell me your
work is of the utmost consequenceand completely inconsequential.
So I, I had to sit with that for a while,um, after first being deflated by it,
(23:14):
but to really sit with it and get itand not dismiss it also as something
sort of woo woo, but it's true andit's freeing, or it was for me, it was
a reminder, like, I am not the centerof the universe, like not even close.
So my individual successes or failureswill not fix or break our universe.
That would be terrible if it were true.
(23:36):
But nonetheless, I can do someuniverse-shifting things, particularly
when I acknowledge my connectednesswith everything around me.
I like how ElizabethGilbert also describes it.
She says,
"That doesn't mean that you play nopart in it, but you can't force it.
Just continue to showup for your piece of it.
(23:58):
Do your job, whatever that is.
Do your dance anyhow.
Keep showing up."
I love the honesty that ElizabethGilbert had in that talk.
And you know, it, it can be hard toaccept that the magic doesn't last, which
(24:19):
is the final quality of inspiration.
It is cyclical.
It is impermanent.
You don't get to live in aninspired state all of the time.
But when it leaves you, that doesnot mean that it's gone forever, even
though it might really feel like it is.
(24:39):
I used to really struggle with this.
I just hate feeling stagnant.
I think it might be my leastfavorite internal state to be in.
So, I would get really impatientwith this and feel almost desperate
for that inspiration to return.
That is grasping.
(25:00):
But I'm a lot more accepting ofit these days when it goes away.
I try to take more lessonsfrom what I see in nature.
Right now where we live, it iswinter and nature has receded.
It's gone underground.
Clearly, this is a fallow time.
(25:21):
And I understand now that a lot canactually happen in the fallow times.
You can rest, for example.
You can restore yourself.
It's as if you can prepare yourselffor this next cycle of activity
and creativity that might getstarted with that inspiration.
(25:41):
So, there's this haiku poemthat I have just always loved.
It's very short, and I don'tactually know who wrote it.
I tried to find out, but couldn't.
I'll just read it to you.
" Spring comes, and thegrass grows by itself."
" Spring comes, and thegrass grows by itself."
(26:05):
Now I have always associated that imagewith resilience, that it's really your
nature to be resilient, and if youlose your resilience, it will come
back to you, if you can simply let it.
It will come back on its own,but I also think that this
image speaks to inspiration.
(26:25):
When you're in a dry spell, when youcycle into an inner winter, so to
speak, try to remember that inspirationand the inspired, meaningful
action that can follow it will comeagain as surely as the spring.
It's sort of coming to the, thatquality of, internalized thinking
(26:48):
about this fallow time as beinga time for storing and resting.
And I'm just picturing liketulips coming up in the spring,
but they needed that time.
So, what a sacred period.
Those fallow times.
So thank you so much everyone forlistening and for diving into these
qualities of inspiration with us.
We hope you'll also join us for theJoy Lab program where we guide you
(27:12):
week by week to develop the skillsyou need to live the Elements of Joy.
And to do your part in preparingfor that spring that is surely
coming so that whatever it is thatis within you can grow by itself.
Thank you for listeningto the Joy Lab podcast.
If you enjoy today's show, visitJoyLab.coach to learn more
(27:34):
about the full Joy Lab program.
Be sure to rate and review us whereveryou listen to your favorite podcasts.
Please remember that thiscontent is for informational
and educational purposes only.
It is not intended to provide medicaladvice and is not a replacement for advice
and treatment from a medical professional.
Please consult your doctor orother qualified health professional
(27:56):
before beginning any diet change,supplement, or lifestyle program.
Please see our terms for more information.
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