What Inspires You?
Most of us have had experiences of being inspired, and delight in the feeling of being inspired.
Perhaps it’s a beautiful landscape, colours, a great teacher, a friend, sometimes a profound spiritual experience, or simply experiencing deep peace.
When we are inspired, we feel uplifted, moved, more alive, more connected, more awake. If we have been stuck in a situation, searching for answers, new ideas may emerge. New insights and possibilities enter our awareness, which often shape the future.
Yet we rarely stop to ask a deeper question: what exactly is inspiration?
It is a surprisingly rich and mysterious field.
What is Inspiration, actually?
The word inspiration comes from the Latin inspirare, meaning “to breathe into.” The root spirare means “to breathe,” and gives us words such as respire, expire, aspire, conspire. The expression is also related to **the word spirit.
Originally, the concept of “breathing into” referred to divine or supernatural intervention. People believed that divine ideas were literally “breathed into” or “blown into” our minds.
Similar ideas appear in other wisdom traditions. The Hebrew word ruach, the Greek pneuma, and the Sanskrit prāṇa can all mean breath, spirit, or life-force. Breath was not merely a biological process; it was understood as the vehicle of life itself. To be inspired was to be animated by a force greater than one’s ordinary self.
The word enthusiasm itself has an equally revealing origin, coming from the Greek entheos – “filled with a god” or “having the divine within.”
Perhaps inspiration and enthusiasm are two sides of the same mysterious coin: one describes what comes in, the other describes what shines out.
Plato’s Theory of Inspiration
The philosopher Plato developed one of the most influential theories of inspiration in the Western tradition. In his dialogue Phaedrus, he argues that the greatest blessings come through a form of “divine madness” (Theia Mania) – a state in which the soul is touched by a higher reality.
For Plato, inspiration is not something we produce or manufacture – it is a divine gift. He identifies four kinds of divine inspiration:
The first is prophetic inspiration, associated with Apollo. This is the inspiration of visionaries, seers, and those who seem to glimpse truths beyond ordinary understanding.
The second is ritual or mystical inspiration, associated with Dionysus. Through sacred rites, ecstasy, or profound transformation, the soul is liberated from its usual limitations and experiences a deeper reality.
The third is poetic inspiration, bestowed by the Muses. Plato believed that great artists and poets are not simply skilled technicians. Rather, they become channels through which something greater speaks. In another dialogue, Ion, he compares inspiration to a magnetic current passing from the gods to the poet, from the poet to the performer, and finally to the audience.
The fourth and highest form is the inspiration of love, associated with Eros. Here Plato uses the word “erotic” in a broad sense. Beauty awakens longing in the soul, and that longing can lead us beyond physical attraction toward wisdom, truth, and ultimately Unity itself. Love becomes a ladder by which the soul ascends.
Modern Interpretations
Over time, the breath-based concept broadened to its everyday contemporary meaning – an energy which animates, influences, or motivates someone with an idea or purpose. Modern interpretations are perhaps less spiritual, yet still retain the ancient insight into an altered state of consciousness.
Psychologists such as Carl Jung suggested that inspiration arises from the unconscious mind, the realm of archetypal images and symbols. Humanistic psychologists like Abraham Maslow spoke of “peak experiences” – moments of heightened awareness, wonder, and insight that can transform our understanding of ourselves and the world.
More recently, neuroscientists have explored the phenomenon of creative insight. They have found that many breakthroughs occur after periods of incubation, when the conscious mind relaxes and deeper cognitive processes continue working behind the scenes. The sudden “Aha!” moment often arrives unexpectedly during a walk, a shower, or a quiet moment of reflection.
Researchers such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi have also described the state of “flow,” also called “being in the zone”, in which self-consciousness recedes, time seems to disappear, and action unfolds effortlessly. Many artists, athletes, musicians, and scientists report experiencing their most inspired work in such states.
Yet despite these differing explanations, there is a common thread. Whether inspiration is understood as divine influence, unconscious creativity, peak experience, or neurological insight, the language of “receiving” rather than “producing” continues to be used.
Co-Creators in Life!
So when you feel inspired, take a moment to consider its source: what is “breathing life” into your soul, and how can it be used for the wider good?
The answer may be different for each of us. But wherever genuine inspiration is found – in nature, friendship, art, service, beauty, truth, goodness, or love – it reminds us that human beings are not merely producers, we are also receivers of meaning, and co-creators of the mysterious web of life.
And perhaps that is what inspiration has always been: the mysterious experience of being breathed into by life itself, for the benefit of all beings.
Coming soon
A future blog will explore the relationship between inspiration, and diverse arts, from the pragmatic to the mystical.
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If you would like to explore inspiration more deeply, and be inspired, we’d love to welcome you to our Summer School Retreat on Integral Art 23-26 July 2026 Summer School Retreat: The Art of Awakening
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