Inspiration Comes When We Allow Ourselves to Be
Sitting here with the strains of Simon and Garfunkel playing softly in the background, meandering through my brain and tickling my subconscious, I ponder inspiration. There are times it hits me so fast and hard I can barely get notes down fast enough. (I’ve long since realized depending on memory to capture an idea is a losing proposition). Morning pages dotted with sticky notes and green highlighter, an idea jotted in one of the many spiral notebooks, both large and small which litter my desk, the journal someone gave me that I keep in my dance bag, and the Notes function on my phone. All are filled with ideas or fragments which came to me while doing something else, but ideas I knew needed to be captured for future reference.
Ideas come and go. Some never turn into a post or chapter. Others sit in a long-forgotten draft on my computer or website. Some come out of the air or from a spate of free writing. That’s how this post came into being. I hammered away at the keys, forcing myself to let the typos stay as I would ultimately erase the whole thing once inspiration came.
Because ideas don’t come when I’m searching for them any more than dreams return to our consciousness when we push our minds to chase them. The ideas for my stories, my blog posts, even my perfect life come when I relax and allow them to come in their own way; their own time.
To Chase or to Allow?
The same is true of the dreams we chase, the life we imagine ourselves living. If you’re like me, you 
imagine something so big, you can’t even conceive of how you’ll bring it to fruition. Like a red, helium-filled balloon, you admire it, then release it into the world where it can gather what it needs. When the time is right, it will re-appear to show you the way, then drift off to gather more experiences and ideas.
It’s up to us to follow the dimly lit path, maybe hack away at a few low-hanging branches to reveal the little-traveled road we’re meant to follow. Following those which are already cleared and worn will not lead us to the dream; to the life we imagine. They were someone else’s dream and led them where they needed to go. Others followed the path, and arrived at a dream not of their own making, or followed it for a time before heading off on their own adventure.
I’ve traveled the paths of others myself. I’ve played it safe, never risking myself, my livelihood. But that changed 5 years ago. The road I travel now is sometimes scary, but never boring. There is an air of mystery, and I love a good mystery, but these days I’m attracting more who are willing and able to give me a kick in the butt when I try to play it too safe. It’s easy enough to crawl back into my shell and insist I’m not ready for the next step.
We Go Farther When We Realize We Never Travel Alone
In truth, we’re rarely ready to take the step, or sometimes the leap which will take us closer to our goals. We see a deep, wide chasm and fear sets in. If we can’t make it to the other side in a single leap, we’ll perish. Or worse, we’ll fail and face the humiliation of that failure. We see the chasm, but don’t see the bridge across that chasm; the stepping stones across the raging river. We don’t see those willing to help us over the rough spots they’ve been through themselves.
And we don’t see how standing in one place will put us in the path of that raging river which will sweep us away if we stand firm in our indecisiveness. Choosing to avoid the scary stuff; to play it safe is a choice to allow ourselves to be tossed like the rest of the flotsam life’s river gathers as it rushes past, and flung at a random path or direction which isn’t likely to fulfill our dreams.
Sometimes, our best option really is to take the first step to cross what appears uncross-able, trusting that help or a clearer path will reveal itself a few steps in (and for me, it always does). It beats having our path determined by the whims of ebbs and flows which couldn’t care less what our dreams contain.
Believing in the Impossible
I’ve found that living my life with Lewis Carroll’s famous quote in mind:
Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
not only makes it more interesting, but keeps me from getting stuck not only for ideas to write about, but in a rut where I go nowhere until I’m tossed there by life’s storms after relinquishing control. By relinquishing control of the direction I take, I’m conceding my dreams are impossible. I’m giving up.
It doesn’t mean I’m guiding every footstep. The idea makes me laugh. In truth, I spend a lot of time watching and listening, then, when it feels right, I step in a direction trusting it’s the right one. If it turns out to be a side road, a cul-de-sac, or even a dead end, I can regroup, take what I’ve learned, listen to the messages I receive, and set forth once again, my feet guided both by the new lessons I’ve learned; the guidance I received.
While writing this I found a wonderful article by Anne K. Halsall entitled Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast which speaks to following your dreams and believing in yourself especially well.
Allowing Words to Flow, Ideas To Arrive
When I write a new post or add a chapter to one of my books, the process is much the same. The words fill the page, often of their own volition. I’m but the vessel to convert ideas to content. I go back and read what I wrote. Sometimes, no, often surprising myself by what came out and how, in a strange way it all makes sense, even as it gets to the point in much the same way I travel my life. There are switchbacks and wrong turns. There are places where it seems to make no sense until I get further along, to find it all ties together, perhaps with a heavy dose of magick or imagination.
What’s most important these days is keeping the child-like sense of wonder and curiosity I lost for so many years. The wonder; the suspending of disbelief while allowing the story to unfold brings unexpected gems into my life I’d never discover if I expected the world and the words flowing from my fingers to follow a structure; a restrictive set of rules.
Ideas have no rules. They’re ideas and where we take them is only limited by how wide or narrow we choose to allow the path to run. Life too is limited only by how much or how little we allow ourselves to believe; whether we see possibilities as infinite for finite. Which will you choose?
About the Author
Sheri Conaway is a writer, blogger, ghostwriter, and advocate for cats. Sheri believes in the Laws of Attraction, 
but only if you are a participant rather than just an observer. Her mission is to Make Vulnerable Beautiful and help entrepreneurs touch the souls of their readers and clients so they can increase their impact and their income. If you’d like to have her write for you, please visit her Hire Me page for more information. You can also find her on Facebook Sheri Levenstein-Conaway Author. And check out her new group, Putting Your Whole Heart Forward.
Be sure to watch this space for news of the upcoming release of “Life Torn Asunder: Rebuilding After Suicide”.
