“What inspires you?”
That’s a question and a homework assignment I received recently from my spiritual teacher. What’s ironic with this question is how different my answers are to it today, as compared to what they were in all the previous years of my life.
As a young kid, the things that inspired me the most were reading, hiking, and probably math. Sadly, on some level, I guess you could say I was also inspired at that time to constantly please my dysfunctional family. By the time I left home and went off to college, the main things that inspired me for the next five years were alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes. When I finally came clean and found sobriety, I found other addiction-based inspirations to occupy my life for at least fifteen more years. Gambling, shopping, sex, and various other things were just some of them. Occasionally, I went through spiritual experiences though during some of those years where I was inspired to be less self-centered and more loving in life. During those brief moments, I discovered that meditation, numerology, seeking God on a much deeper level, and trying to help others were more of my inspiration than seeking any of those addictions. Unfortunately, none of them ever lasted because I always allowed my addictions to draw me back in.
For the last bunch of years though, all that has changed, and now I find myself navigating through uncharted territory and visiting places within me that I never knew existed. It’s led me to be inspired by many things that are vastly different than anything I could have ever imagined earlier in life. The following list shows all the ones I could think of when I sat down and pondered that initial question of what inspires me…
- Seeking God
- Learning from my spiritual teacher
- Writing daily about all of my life experiences in an uplifting way
- Motivationally speaking about all of my life experiences in an uplifting way
- Leading people to find their own connection to a Higher Power
- Doing my 12th Step work with those still suffering from addictions
- Being a spiritual teacher by example
- Guiding people through meditation
- Healing naturally
- Empowering others to believe in themselves
- Lifting people up when they are down
- Completing complex puzzles
- Anything that deals with superheroes who use their powers to help people every day
- Beautifying an outdoor garden
- Studying something new such as what I’m doing currently with Tarot reading
- Being out in some part of nature
- Showing compassion and understanding to everyone
- Watching movies and television shows where good triumphs over evil
- New Age and Ambient House music
- Gandhi, Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Ellen DeGeneres, and any other famous figure who has ever taken a stand for creating more equality, peace, love, and light on this plane
As I sit here and reflect on upon each of the things I’ve listed here, I realize that all of them are really just about creating more love both within and around me. It’s my hope that each of you has your own list though of things you find inspiring in life. If you don’t, then I encourage taking a moment, breathing, and spending some time to go inside to discover what they are. Hopefully you will find that your inspirations don’t revolve around any addictions or unhealthy behaviors and instead are just the many unique ways you bring your own love and light onto this planet.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
