Blossom Your Awesome - Episode #2 - Staying Inspired - Finding Inspiration

One of the number one questions I get asked as a Mindfulness Trainer is - "How do I stay inspired?"

There are practical things you can do each and every single day to find inspiration and ways to always stay inspired.

I share with you exactly what I do to find inspiration every day.  And walk you through my own daily rituals for finding inspiration. 

Join me for episode #2 where I give you step by step instructions on leading an awesome and inspired life.

Let's Blossom Your Awesome!

Here's to your most awesome you. 

To check out my site Blossom Your Awesome click here.

Or for some of my other work check out Sues Blues.

Transcript

00:00:12
Hello There it is, the blossom, you're awesome podcast, Episode number two, I am your host, Sue Dylan and today we are talking about a topic I absolutely love and I think you're going to find it very helpful because this is one of the questions as a mindfulness trainer and teacher that I get asked more than any other question. And that question is how do I stay inspired? People tell me all the time. I have moments of inspiration, moments, I feel really excited and really motivated, Super driven, super ready to make things happen and it seems fleeting. It lasts for a day or two or a few days a week or two. And then that inspiration, that motivation is gone and they can't seem to stay with it.

00:01:21
Just stick with that feeling of inspiration. So what I want you to know as an energy worker, a reiki master, I say this all the time and there's different ways that we can apply this to life, but ultimately it all comes back to energy. That's what it boils down to. Okay, so staying inspired requires being inspired feeling inspired at all times. And how do you do that? You do that by constantly tapping in to that energy. That frequency, you do that by always looking for inspiration. And here's a little secret two leading an inspired life. I lead an inspired life.

00:02:33
I see inspiration everywhere. I see beauty and magic in the smallest details. I see it every day everywhere and that allows me to lead an inspired life I want to share with you what has helped me, you know, I'm there's great books, there's great teachers, there's great motivational speakers, there's all sorts of inspiration. We can be tapping into all the time. But what has helped me one of the things that will help you and solidify this feeling of leading an inspired life. Always being inspired is learning stillness, learning mindfulness. And this is something that we are going to be talking about throughout this particular episode.

00:03:43
And moving on, because this is what I do. I teach mindfulness not just as a practice for meditation, not just as a means of getting quiet and still and learning how to meditate, but as a means of living. Mindfulness is beyond sitting and quietude. It's beyond sitting in silence. It's beyond meditation. There is a way to live mindfully. And the more you practice mindfulness, the more you meditate, the more you are able to bring this to all of your encounters to every moment in life. That is the beauty and the power of mindfulness. So here's how it works and here's what I want you to consider. The more you sit in silence, there are a lot of myths around meditation.

00:04:53
The idea is not to turn your thoughts off, it's not to stop thinking. That is not possible. Even the greatest Yogis say, others who have spent decades meditating. They have moments glimpses of the state where the brain shuts off completely and but those are fleeting moments and that's after decades of practice. So really what we want to be doing is in meditation, we are allowing the thoughts to come and we're letting them go. We let thoughts come and we let them go. And the more we do this, the more in acceptance we are of the things that are outside of our control. Meditation is a means to learn to be at peace and in stillness with all that is, it's to bring present awareness to your being.

00:06:09
It's to learn to be completely with the moment just in total surrender, you are simply being that is the point of meditation and over time you will be able to slow the thoughts, you'll have less thoughts, you won't have as many racing thoughts and you're more calm, you're less reactive and you have greater awareness and you bring greater presence to each and every moment and each and every encounter. And by doing this over a period of time, you are more present.

00:07:14
So even when you step out of meditation, you're you've slowed down, you're more aware, you listen better and you're more in that moment, your mind is not drifting, you're more in acceptance of all that is through that meditative practice of allowing thoughts to come and letting them go. So when you come back, you are fully there in that moment with that loved one, you're able to hear in ways that you don't here without that mindfulness and it allows you to slow down and it allows you to start seeing things awakening to all of the magic and beauty that is all around us. So when I say I lead an inspired life and inspiration is everywhere for me, it's because I meditate, it's because I've spent time learning to slow down and just be and B in acceptance, which allows me to have greater presence, moment to moment.

00:08:35
So I'm able to notice the trees, I see the leaves blowing in the wind, I catch the rays of sun beaming in at me. I take time for that, I allow it, I feel it, I'm more alert, it awakens us to life and a much more profound way we end up having a much deeper experience in this incarnation. I hear the birds, I see the butterflies and this is all by way of meditation. That is the beauty and magic of meditation. It's far greater than just what it is alluded to, right? We're told that it's there are all of these benefits, but the one thing that a lot of teachers and trainers leave out is what it does to your life, how it wakes you up to life, moment to moment.

00:09:52
It's not just the physiological benefits. So this is one of the greatest ways for you to learn to feel more inspired from moment to moment, Its energy and the more you are able to kind of do this exercise and learn to slow down, the more you're going to catch things and pick up on things and the inspiration that is all around you, it is everywhere. You will start to see things in ways that you would never seen before. And I do suggest a mindfulness learning to sit in silence is a great way to begin to awaken to the inspiration around you, you know, and I think a lot of times in this day and age with technology information overload and the way we are just inundated with so much at our fingertips. I think people want an easy fix, they want an easy answer, they want a one and done.

00:10:58
It's very possible. I assure you learning to lead an inspired dynamic life is yours for the taking with just a little effort. It's not even a lot of effort. It's just more about tapping into certain frequencies, certain energy and learning to direct your focus and your energy in that direction towards that intent towards that goal, That ambition, what is it that you want? Right? So it's just creating little habits, little rituals, making things routine, making rituals out of stuff and inevitably in short order. I mean we're not even talking a long process here, but within days, within weeks these things become habitual and you realize that wow, I am actually feeling more inspired.

00:12:04
So another way to do this and something I've relied on heavily aside from the mindfulness is looking to books, looking to inspirational leaders and teachers and gurus and SAGES, motivational speakers and tapping into that energy because again, it's all energy right. There's there's some kind of tactical things you can do, like like I'm suggesting the mindfulness to be able to kind of have bring greater presence and awareness. So you see the inspiration, you're able to slow down to see that it's everywhere. You'll pick up on more because it's not you're not just going, going, going all the time, but tapping into that energy of inspiration. So another thing I suggest you do and I do here shortly. I want to listen in on some of my favorite teachers and some of the people that have helped inspire me over the years, people I look to and rely on for inspiration and motivation and to kind of tap into their energy, you know, because we feel it when somebody is super excited when someone's really motivated, we pick up on that it's all energy right?

00:13:26
If somebody is kind of down and low energy where it brings us down. But when we've around someone who's really excited, really aunt, we feel their vibe and that is their energy. That's what we're picking up on. So another thing I suggest this is free. It's easy, I'd like you to commit 5-10 days of this. It's starting each morning 5 to 10 minutes. You don't have to watch. You can just listen but on youtube start with something inspirational every single morning do it while you're getting ready for work, you can listen to it in your car on you know, however with your air beds on the train, I know things are a little different with how we're you know working and all of that, but you can make time for this. I promise you you can make five minutes every morning To get excited about the day. Okay, so listening to something inspirational, start your day with that 5-10 minutes for 5 to 10 days and within a matter of days, Even less than five days you're going to begin to feel a shift in the way you think the way you approach your day and the thoughts that come and the thoughts that you're going to be able to let go of, you will feel that shift fairly instantaneously, it is all energy.

00:15:00
So the more you do this, the more you allow yourself to be inspired, the more you're going to be inspired, the more you start your day in this way your day is going to take on, it's gonna be different. Your day is going to look totally different when you start your day with something inspirational. So this is one of the easiest things to do and it's truly transformative. It really, really is. So if you can commit to this, you know, another thing I hear is oh I don't have time to meditate, it's too hard. I can't, I don't have time, you have time and here's the thing we can spend five less minutes on social media, we can spend five less minutes watching tv. We have time 5-10 minutes of mindfulness every single day ads so much productivity to your day.

00:16:08
It's like working out right? You work out you feel really strong, this is the same thing, it's like you take a little break for your mind, it's a relaxation. So you come out more dynamic but you're also entering a different state of consciousness. Okay when we're in a meditative state, when we turn off all the external stimuli, when we turn off our phones are ringers, we close our eyes. We don't have all this input coming in through all of the senses. And we just simply sit in silence. That state is called restful alertness. We're awake but we're alert And we go into a 4th level of consciousness. There's three levels of consciousness that everyone knows and practices waking sleeping, dreaming. Yes sleeping and dreaming are two different states of consciousness. They are not the same meditation.

00:17:19
Restful alertness, that is 1/4 state. You are taking your state of consciousness to a higher level. So by putting your mind in that state you come out more dynamic and you actually end up being more productive. You're more clear headed, you're more levelheaded. Like I said, you are less reactive, you listen better, you perform better and it's a beautiful thing. So we're going to get more into that in another future episode. I will be talking about mindfulness and meditation extensively and just leading a mindful life how we can awaken to life in the most powerful way. But for now I want to share with you someone who has motivated me and inspired me for many, many years in my life for decades.

00:18:29
This man is a legend and I encourage everyone to listen to him. Dedicate time to listen to the incredible and remarkable Jim Rome he is no longer with us, but he leaves a body of work and a legacy of inspiration and wisdom that is beyond words. So here are some really powerful words from teacher of mine, Jim Rohn, let's listen in. Yeah, Now here's the first lesson of economics. Everybody should learn it from the time. They're old enough to understand what a dollar means, how to earn one, how to get one, how to keep one, what to do with it. First lesson of economics, we primarily get paid for value.

00:19:36
That's less than one bringing value to the marketplace. That's how you get paid. You don't get paid for the time. I know it takes time to bring value to the marketplace, but you get paid for the value. Not the time. Now, since that's true, here's one of the key questions of the evening, is it possible to become twice as valuable at the marketplace and make twice as much money in the same time. Could you become three times as valuable? Make three times as much money in the same time. Is that possible? The answer is yes. If and it's always if right, life is known as the big if Harry Truman once said life is if he how true and here's the big, if we're going to consider it tonight, it's possible to do much better at the marketplace if you go to work primarily on yourself. And that's the theme of our seminar tonight, Learning to work primarily on yourself.

00:20:54
People have asked me for the last 24 years, how do you develop an above average income? And the answer is become an above average person, develop an above average handshake. Some people want to be successful. They don't even work on their handshake as easy as that would be to start on, they let it slide. They don't understand, develop an above average smile, develop an above average excitement, develop an above average interest in other people, develop an above average intensity to win. See that will change everything. Probably one of the most frustrating experiences in life is looking for an above average job with above average pay without becoming an above average person, it's called frustration and Mr shelf gave me probably the greatest clue he gave me when I first met him, he said jim If you want to be wealthy and happy the rest of your life? Just learn this lesson.

00:21:58
Well, he said, learn to work harder on yourself than you do on your job. Mhm. Then Mr Schultz gave me probably one of the most important clues among so many things he taught me. But this was in those early days. Mr shelf is very kind, but he was also very abrupt and he had these interesting questions to ask. I'm giving him a little rundown rundown one day on how things hadn't worked out for me, he said Mr and I've got the answer for you. If you will listen carefully and listen carefully, I did that day and for the next five years, if somebody is wealthy and happy, you've got a list. He said, Jim, I've only known you a short time, but he said, it's already my honest opinion that for things to change for you, you got to change. That wasn't quite the answer I was looking for. But that's the answer he gave me and I passed it along to you on this warm summer evening in Anaheim California 1981 for things to change for you, you've got to change, Otherwise it isn't gonna change.

00:23:28
So that was the remarkable jim Brown And again, I encourage you to take time out of your day in your morning. Start with some wisdom from this man, it is truly transformative. He was one of the greats, truly, truly inspirational, incredible human being. And you know the beauty of the wisdom that Jim Rohn shares with us. It's timeless. It's timeless. This is That was a speech from 1981 I believe. But that wisdom, those insights, it's timeless, It applies today in the same way it applied then. So this is wisdom for the ages that we can all be tapping into using to our benefit, we have access to technology, we have access to the internet, this is free inspiration, free guidance to doing better, being better in life.

00:24:45
And that's part of tapping into that inspiration. I want you to tap into your own energy, sit in silence um spend a few moments on self inquiry, ask yourself what it is you want out of life because there is greatness inside of you that I assure you, you are not tapping into and we all our only tapping into a fraction of what we're capable of. So I don't say that in any sort of condescending way, I'm sure there's a lot of amazing parts of yourself that you're tapping into, but we're leaving a lot on the table. So there's more and I want all of us to be able to do better, want better, demand more of ourselves, that's how we begin to move in that direction of inspiration and leading an inspired life and now I want to listen to another one of my favorites, this man is on fire.

00:25:57
You want to talk about inspiration and motivation. This guy is his energy is just like nothing I have ever seen before and he is one of the top motivational speakers, he has been a great teacher of mine, I have learned from this man and um I want to listen in here to the very dynamic, very energetic, super, always hiked Brendan Bouchard on how he stays inspired, never lose hope that that that you have a single breath within your body right now and that you are alive in this moment is hope, that you can see all these people walking on the streets, smiling is hope that all these entrepreneurs are posting their art online every single day. Now there is hope there, that there is a single person out in this world whose soul is still burning alive with love is hope, you know, it's so easy during these days when sometimes there's darkness when you see all these negative media coverage or maybe you have a series of bad days or a series of bad weeks or you're, you're lucky break just isn't coming or you've been fighting for that dream, you just don't sense any of that progress that you just so need to feel still enliven and engaged and enthusiastic about something or somebody breaks up with you or you lose your job or something happens with your health.

00:27:29
Look that's part of life is, there's gonna be so many struggles and disappointments and challenges, setbacks, dark days and part of sustaining and making through all of that is maintaining hope and that hope isn't something that just you know some airy fairy concept. It is a psychological need to believe that we can endure. A psychological need to believe that we can not only endure but we can succeed and we can thrive and we can have our way in the world so that we can accomplish our dreams so that we can make influence, we can make our own difference. So have hope. But even as I say that, let me reconfigure that statement and that phrase because too many people say, well you have hope or you can lose hope but hope isn't something actually you have or that you lose. Even though we say that phrase at such a popular level. You know, years ago a metaphor came into my life that changed my life forever. It changed my attitude and my actions and how I thought about life and frankly how I felt every single moment of the day.

00:28:36
It was something that lifted me the whole level of joy and vibrancy in life. And it was just very simple metaphor that the power plant doesn't have energy. It transforms and generates energy. Let me say that again. The power plant doesn't have energy. It transforms and generates energy at the same level. We don't quote unquote have hope. We transform the energy around us. We generate hope. We don't have happiness. We generate happiness simply. We don't have sadness or fatigue. We don't have those, those feelings that so many people think are negative that just land on them, that we are in our own actions, our own thoughts, our own interpretations, the very thoughts that we are feeding our our psyche. Those very things, those are generating an emotion and hope is something that is generated by us. When it feels like it is gone, that becomes a to do list for us to generate it once more.

00:29:38
Just like when your phone is dying, you plug it in to charge it up. Well, when your hope is dying, it's time to generate it and charge it up again. Same thing with happiness and a liveliness and enthusiasm. Those are things when they're going down. You gotta get focused, you gotta plug back in to your passions, to your dreams, to tomorrow to charge yourself back up again. And it begins with first and foremost, keeping perspective. So what I'm gonna leave you with is just give these things a try. A few days, I promise you, I promise you, you are going to feel a shift, you're gonna feel better, you're gonna feel more inspired, You're gonna start feeling the energy within you, shifting and moving you towards greater inspiration and it's very real. If you just take some of this guidance, go with it, do the soul work. Always be stretching, always be growing, always be pushing yourself, there is greatness inside of you and remember you are here to be your most awesome You okay ciao for now.