I was struck by a moment of inspiration this last weekend. My jingly-appreciative-belly-dance-husband and I went to Sydney to see a concert as a part of the Vivid Festival at the Sydney Opera House.
While I let the music coming off the stage wash over me, with its complexities, I found myself daydreaming about how I could dance to this music.
I looked around the room and took in the full effect of the concert hall, how the room was setup for the optimal auditory experience from any seat. How the music was moving people to get up and dance in their seats. It struck me that inspiration is everywhere around us, but we often don’t see it.
Where do you find your inspiration?
I find mine in shapes and words. The shapes could be as simple as a perfectly formed bubble or as complex as all the intertwined shapes on the ceiling of the Concert Hall (shown above).
The words could be a memorable quote. A throw-away statement by a friend. Or even as simple as hearing my own name coming out of someone else’s mouth.
Yours could be colour. You could see a red car, followed by a child with a red balloon, then a red skirt on a person in front of you in the street. Maybe it’s a recurring theme that keeps coming up in your life. Or a little musical phrase that keeps playing in your head long after the original source has been forgotten.
How do I harness that idea?
Now here comes the hard part. It’s one thing to find your inspiration, but how do you pull it together into something … anything?
The path for developing an idea is as varied as the source of the inspiration. Here are a few of the ideas I’ve found helpful in my creative journeys.
- Write it down!
Writing down the idea or what has inspired you makes sure that you don’t lose it. - Daydream about it.
Daydream, meditate, dance it out, free write a page on it. Let ideas come up from your subconscious whatever way you need. Try different methods as you never know what will fall out. - Sit on it.
Some ideas need to ferment over time. Sometimes ideas need a bit longer to develop in you before it’s ready to come out. You may even find that you need another moment of inspiration to be the catalyst for the original one.
Don’t be scared of your ideas. The more ideas you have, the more likely it is that you’ll find the amazing one that will become something big.
If you’d like to see some of my inspiration in action, join me for a class or workshop. I love sharing little combos which have been inspired by the world around me in class.
