3 Tell Tale Signs You Are Inspired
The Neuroscience Of Being Inspired
In this article, I look at the tell-tale signs you are inspired, but first, a little about the neuroscience of inspiration. Inspiration is a complex cognitive and emotional state that involves the interplay of multiple brain regions and neurotransmitters. When someone experiences inspiration, the brain’s reward system, particularly the nucleus accumbens, becomes activated. This region is associated with the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to feelings of pleasure and motivation. The dopamine surge enhances the enthusiasm and drive that often accompanies inspiration.
Additionally, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for higher-order thinking and decision-making, plays a crucial role in inspiration. It helps synthesise and organise ideas, allowing the individual to connect disparate pieces of information in novel ways. This creative synthesis is often accompanied by a sense of clarity and purpose, which can lead to a burst of productivity. The interplay between these brain regions highlights how inspiration is a fleeting feeling and a neurobiological process that can lead to significant cognitive and emotional outcomes.
Are you Inspired?
If you are anything like me, you will understand what I mean when you sometimes feel like life’s like a roller coaster. You will understand the ups and downs and the thrills and the spills. When you put yourself “out there”, and I would imagine most of you do, you are, by the very nature of your lifestyle choice, living close to the edge, often. Often, you are navigating many ups and downs, and you get used to it. It’s challenging to tear oneself away long enough to assess whether you need a life filled with such drama. Or indeed, whether you are living a life where the signs you are inspired are clear.
Which ladder are you on?
Another analogy I like to talk to my clients about is putting one’s ladder against the wrong wall. When this is the case, it’s guaranteed you will emerge at the top in the wrong place. Firstly, I have to qualify this practice of trying many different things only to find out when it’s not what you want, expect, or envisage because that is how we learn. Learning what we don’t like is only a precursor to identifying what we want. But do we have to navigate up the wrong ladder so frequently?
Being on the right ladder
The times in your life when you have got on the right ladder or navigated more ups than downs are most likely when you have acted when inspired, whether you recognise it or not. When you are inspired, you are “in spirit”. This means the wise being, your collective consciousness, directs the show. You know when you are acting out of inspiration when:
1. You feel completely at peace with what you are doing
In this space, you act with any doubt lingering in your mind, not with passionate determination. You can let go of the outcome and be happy anyway. Your mind doesn’t overthink your actions; you are in the flow.
2. Feeling blessed, joyous, abundant and grateful is your natural state
You have an enhanced sense of well-being, and it’s all good. When you think about your journey or the outcome you want to achieve, you feel like the luckiest person in the world.
3. At no time do you pay attention to an inner or outer critic
Those negative detractors cease to matter. When someone questions whether you are on the right path, you don’t feel any burning emotion, either to hotly defend yourself or to feel intense fear in case they are right. You smile and say, “I don’t know, let’s see”, and you honestly mean it.
When you are inspired, you are never sure where you will end up, but in my experience, you always end up in a good or even better place.
So there you have my three inspired signs; what are yours?
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I help leaders develop self- mastery, helping them to become confident in their own inner guidance.
I collaborate with leadership experts, managers and HR professionals to help them get their own message and unique services and products to a wide audience.
