Show up for inspiration to show up – Creativity is both a great magic and a great mystery. Magic because it results in the best books, poems, paintings, architecture and everything that amazes us about human culture. Mystery because it’s so elusive; leave alone people with average creativity, even super-creative people can’t summon creativity at their beck and call. 

Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (15.15) states that inspiration comes from the Divine within us. Just as we can’t control the Divine, we can’t control creativity either. That doesn’t mean we just passively wait for inspiration; we can actively court it. And if we all can become even slightly more creative, our life will become so much more exciting, fulfilling, magical 

To better cultivate creativity, consider four broad possibilities.

Inspiration doesn’t show up and neither do we: Our life goes largely in functional activities that don’t allow for significant creativity. What we do during other times determines what our life amounts to. 

Inspiration shows up, but we don’t: That’s the time of the greatest loss — it scripts the tragedies that cause people on their deathbeds great regret. Great ideas come when we aren’t ready, and the potential energy they embody never converts into kinetic energy. 

We show up and inspiration doesn’t show up: We still train ourselves in discipline and diligence, thereby preparing ourselves for future occasions when inspiration does show up. And even without inspiration, by sheer steady striving, we still do a decent job. 

We show up and inspiration shows up: That’s when magic happens, when we find ourselves in a flow. Eventually, we are ourselves thrilled and amazed by what comes out through us and manifests in the things we do. 

One-sentence summary:

If we keep showing up regularly in our creative endeavors, preparing ourselves for receiving inspiration, magic will sooner or later manifest through us. 

Think it over: 

  • How is creativity both magical and mysterious?
  • What are the four possibilities when we cultivate creativity?
  • In which areas of your life can you show up better for courting inspiration? 

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15.15: I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness. By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of Vedānta, and I am the knower of the Vedas.