Intention vs. Inspiration – Do You Really Know the Difference?
Can you distinguish between intention and inspiration? Are you sure that you know if you are taking an inspired action or not?
Well, most of the people will answer yes based on their different beliefs about what an inspiration is.
I would have answered in a similar manner if someone asked me that question about a month ago because I have studied about this subject a lot and obviously I am regularly involved in various personal development activities, I have also made a post on how to differentiate ego’s voice from intuition based on the same kind of information.
However, last month when I was trying to learn the ancient Hawaiian Ho’oponopono process, my earlier understanding of what an inspiration truly is, changed. In fact, all the beliefs I had about it was altered within a few days.
Come on, I Know What an Inspired Action Is!
Anybody, would be pretty confident about what inspired action is because we are impost to certain kind of notions about inspired actions. Till now all I knew from various personal development materials that I have explored is, “If it makes you happy, that’s an inspired action”.
When you are filled with joy when you think about doing something, when you feel this is what will make you happy, when you believe in yourself and do something that you thought was impossible earlier, that’s what a true inspiration is! – I am sorry; I am not going to say that.
Yes, you are not going to hear that same talk which many self-help books talk about here because whatever holds true for “inspiration” also defines “intention”.
Dr. Wayne Dyer has beautifully talked about intentions in his book the power of intention and if you will read it, you may probably forget the meaning of “inspiration” and it will merge with the other.
The truth is, we all have had times when we had an incredible idea which we believed was an inspiration because we were too excited about it, however like any other idea (though it varies in intensity), it loses its power with time.
Some ideas do keep us motivated for a long time, still, if you have not found something in your life yet, that seems as if you were born to do it, you are not there yet, Period.
Just because something has made you a lot of money or gave you an identity does not mean that you have acted on a divine inspiration.
We often hear some great artists or successful people say “I did not do it, it just came to me”, you see, inspired actions are effortless!
Days, weeks, months or even years are not enough to find it, whereas sometimes just a moment is all it takes.
The problem is, people think that inspired action must be something “big”, there are so many beliefs acting in our subconscious mind which make our intention look like an inspiration, in truth an inspiration could be something as simple as baking cookies, how can that make someone successful?
Well, that is what actually binds us, all our beliefs about what a “divine inspiration” should be, creates a huge illusory wall.
What Is Inspiration and How Is It Different from Intentions?
Considering what we have discussed above, this question is very difficult to answer, but I will try to explain it from what I have come to learn.
Our mind receives billions of bits of data every second but our conscious mind can only perceive 50-400 bits per second, that’s right we can only see the tip of the iceberg.
Now, depending upon the beliefs present in our subconscious minds, which acts like a filter, we only have access to the thoughts that matches with our inner state.
Intentions are a result of the information that we have stored in this vast reservoir of our subconscious mind, in other words, almost every thought that makes us take action is an intention.
On the other hand, there is a higher source of information available to us all the time which is also called as the divine intelligence or super conscious mind, what we receive from this source is the inspiration and it remains hidden somewhere beneath this huge layer of other thoughts.
People also call inspiration as the divine inspiration.
I have just tried to explain this in as simple way as possible, it is my request to you to not get caught up with the concepts or labels.
Two Ways to Receive Inspiration
Since I have already explained that divine inspiration is lost somewhere in the sea of thoughts.
Let me give you an analogy, suppose I have hidden a diamond in a box and thrown it in a pile of thousands of boxes and you have to find it.
What will you do in that case? Obviously, you can look in each box one by one or you can burn all the boxes because then only diamond will be left, right? We are going to do exactly the same here.
1 – Take Actions
That’s the obvious way, checking each box. If you will act on every strong intention that seems right to you, after some time you will be able to know whether that decision keeps you motivated for a long time or not.
The problem is that most people never act on their strong positive intentions due to the fear of failure, whereas people who are into personal development activities get too attached to the term “inspiration” that they keep waiting for the perfect idea.
Trial and error works best for life, just because you have to act on one thing doesn’t mean you have to give up the other, people have so many excuses for why they cannot act on their ideas, however, all the “ifs” and “buts” are words we are using to kill our own true desires, everyone can at least take a small step towards their goals each day.
2 – Energy Clearing
This is my favorite method; it is like the analogy I used earlier about burning the boxes. There are many different ways to do this, it is a method using which you can clear all the information that has entered your system with or without your awareness.
You see, most of the beliefs that have been formed in our subconscious mind are the main factors that decide our mindset and the way of thinking, most such beliefs were formed in our childhood, by clearing these limiting beliefs using some good techniques like energy clearing or Ho’oponopono method, we get closer to the thoughts of higher nature.
Though it sounds easy, but doing this inner work is as difficult as the above step because you cannot get rid of all these beliefs in one day, it takes a lot of time to eliminate one deeply ingrained negative belief, but when that happens, the aspect of your life associated with that particular belief improves.
The reason why I love this method more is because in this process you keep getting better in all ways, in this process you are actually pulling out the weeds from your garden rather trying to find something special and in doing so, that special thing will reveal itself to you at the right time. That’s the best way I can put it.
However, while doing this, keep taking actions on any thought that seems right to you, if it is a reoccurring thought then there is a strong chance of it being an inspiration.
I love blogging; I love my website and sharing my thoughts and knowledge with people, is it a divine inspiration? Honestly, I don’t know, but I it was a powerful intention on which I acted and though I faced many difficulties, yet I am so happy that I acted on that intention and successfully created an online business that allowed me to earn money doing what I love.
I am not sure yet if it was a divine inspiration or not, but I do keep working on my inner world especially using energy clearing and that is really helping me to move up in the world, and I wish the same for you.
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