Inspiration is a feeling. A mental stimulus reinforced by the desire to do something different for yourself and for the world around you. No matter what kind of a person you are, the more you learn about things and living beings around you, the more your desire for inspiration to create something different increases. There are times when your engine of inspiration is running out of fuel and here is the list of 10 ways to keep your tank on full.

1. Establish the desire, the first step

You know that you’re out of fuel, the next thing to do is to get up to the gas station and get the tank on full. How do we do it? Simple! Take the vehicle to the gas station, get some petrol, pay and you’re good to go. Taking a real vehicle to the gas station is easy because we know where the station is and how to get liquid petrol for an exchange of money. The task of getting inspiration for an exchange of money no doubt sounds very lucrative for yourself but that is not possible right now.
In this context, our mind and body is the vehicle but, where is the station you may ask! Good thing, that we have established our desire to look for it. Now, we can go to the next steps which will help us find some inspiration quickly.

*The following steps can be embraced in combinations or by themselves. They are in no way to be followed in a particular fashion*

2. Ask yourself some questions, dig it out

Answer the questions: What am I feeling? Why am I feeling that? Why do I need to get inspired? When was the last time I felt inspired? With whom, where, doing what? Answers to such questions will give you an insight into your emotional state and will lay the groundwork required to get ideas. You may not even need to look outside, it is all inside you.
Knowing yourself as an individual human being with a unique thought process will allow you to think in a space with no boundaries. Introspect from time to time.

3. Play your tunes, turn the knob to nostalgia or imagination

We all know how music directly affects us in our daily life. Listening to your favorite tunes is relaxing and therapeutic and could easily become the best way to get some inspiration. We’re all so fortunate that music is boundless. There is everything for everyone and for every emotion. Pick something from your childhood, go back to the memories and reflect on where you have come today. Pay attention to each instrument playing in the composition. Use the entire experience to your advantage.

4. Take a shower, Gandhi was right!

Kind of an unconventional way but, yes, taking a shower can help in the flow of your creative juices. Get the water running at the right temperature and go inside it with a deep breath. Feel the water drops and their sound on your head and body and visualize them with your eyes closed. If it’s what you do, then sing in the shower. Be attentive this time and get that bathroom world tour running!

What could be better than a warm shower when you are feeling the water and at the same time paying attention to your present disposition? Dissolve your thoughts in the water, so new ones will form when you step out fresh!

5. Conversation with the plants

Take a cup of your favorite hot or cold beverage and take a stroll in your small garden. Can’t access greens? How about playing a video on youtube of your favorite natural beauty? Or sit near plants and flowers if there is no garden. Observation followed by a feeling of appreciation is what we will experience here.

Buddha once said, ‘Don’t look at the tree as tree rather look at the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the wind gushing through them, the details in the leaves, the texture, the lines, the shape, the edge where the leaf ends, the water droplet, the world inside water droplet, don’t look at just the tree.

The beauty of it all will be enough to kickstart your creative nerve. If it is possible, talk to the plants and try to understand their side of the story through a mental conversation.

6. De-clutter your room, Einstein!

A clean space can help in the creation of clean thoughts. Once in a while, clean the area where you do your creative work. Throw away the stuff that is not required. Arrange everything in the way that you like. De-cluttering can help you understand what is not required in your life and how the presence and absence of small things around us help us feel very different in the same space. Organisation also throws up surprises and you may find something that will inspire you to create something unique! How? See the next point. :)

7. Quick-doodle

See five things around you and quickly doodle them on paper. Mindless drawing sometimes helps in understanding what is mindful to you. Things which are not important also play a major role in figuring what is important for us and will help us partly lay the path in which one should do creative thinking. The doodles don’t need to be perfect and, it’s okay, embrace them like your handwriting. Add text, information, patterns, and colors to your doodles. Remember it's your doodle and it should come on paper as and how your mind looks at it.

8. Try a different line of thought

Challenge yourself to go against the flow of your thoughts. When your current thoughts are not inspiring enough for your next work, go against them. Think in the way a person who is totally opposite of you would. Maybe you’ll not be able to emulate the process in its entirety but it will open other dimensions in which you can explore your powerful thought machine. You are a mix of things outside and emotions inside. It's like a chemistry lab and your mind is the scientist in the white coat. Look forward to your next invention and surprise yourself!

9. Hello, creative neighbour!

Take a look at other creative disciplines other than than ones you’re familiar with. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Open up your favorite catalog or app (Instagram, Pinterest, Bēhance, etc.) and look for photography, fashion, tattoo artists, etc. Get a deep insight into the unfamiliar art territory and use the newly learned elements in your next piece. Cut, paste, copy but remember to stay true to your vision, there are hundreds of mediums but your thought is unique.

10. Sleep on it ..zzZZZ

Well, sometimes a good sleep can also affect the way we’re perceiving the world around us. If you know that you haven’t been having a good sleep for quite some time, you need to keep everything aside and just sleep on it. This time, don’t set an alarm and take that good long sleep. Waking up fresh for once will allow you to run your creative mind with new perspectives and determination.

Read a book to stimulate your thoughts and give your conscious mind some food for thought and trust it. Our mind is always awake, even when we are sleeping. In fact, some of the best solutions to problems are experienced by people in lucid- dreaming (google it). Our brain is like a machine, provide it input, let the subconscious work on it and boom you never know when you will wake up an idea that will change the world!

These are 10 very simple ways in which you can try to get inspired. Everyone is different so all of the steps may not be your cup of tea. However, when we take a look back, establishing the desire to get inspiration is a mini-inspiration process in itself as it opens up the innumerable possibilities having huge potential to stimulate your creative mind.

This was our small attempt to help you get inspired by the everyday things and actions around. Let us know on our Instagram @doodlekitproject if you liked it.

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Written By: Rahul Sharma

©2020 Doodle Kit Project

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