Inspiration

About inspiration

What it is, why it happens and what helps. Contents:

• What inspiration is
• What psychologists mean by inspiration
• Inspiration, motivation and creativity
• Why inspiration matters
• Where inspiration comes from
• Inspired by, and inspired to
• Awe as a doorway
• Nature, walking and fresh input
• Role models and possible selves
• Catching ideas before they fade
• Incubation, rest and useful boredom
• Visualisation and seeing what you want
• The Law of Attraction and inspired action
• When inspiration becomes flow
• When you feel uninspired
• A simple 30-day plan
• How self-help methods fit in
• FAQs

What inspiration is

Inspiration is a felt lift. Something outside your usual thoughts (a person, a place, a piece of music, an idea, a glimpse of a better way to live) touches you, and you feel moved to express it, follow it or become more like it. It can be quiet or dramatic. You might suddenly see how a project could work, feel a rush of love for a craft you had put down, or know, with unusual clarity, the kind of life you want to grow towards. Inspiration is available in ordinary days, not only in rare peak moments. You can explore related topics in our Wellness hub, including our guides to motivation, creativity and life purpose and meaning.

What psychologists mean by inspiration

Psychologists Todd Thrash and Andrew Elliot set out to describe inspiration carefully, rather than leaving it as a vague compliment. They found that the experience tends to have three qualities. [4]

• Evocation. Inspiration feels as if it is awakened in you. You can prepare for it and practise inviting it, but you cannot usually force the exact moment it arrives, in the way you can force yourself to answer an email.
• Transcendence. You see possibilities that are better, clearer or larger than the ones you were holding a moment before.
• Motivation. You feel drawn to act: to write, make, speak, help, practise or take a next step, rather than only to admire the feeling.

In a later paper they described two sides of the same experience: being inspired by something (you appreciate its beauty, skill or goodness) and being inspired to do something with it (you want to transmit, extend or express what you have received). [5] That second half is what turns a lovely moment into a change in your day.

Inspiration, motivation and creativity

These three words sit close together and are easy to mix up. Motivation is the energy to start and continue. It includes habits, goals, rewards and the decision to show up even when you do not feel like it. Our motivation guide covers that ground. Inspiration is more specific: a moment of being moved, often by something beyond your current routine, that makes a new action feel alive. You can be motivated without feeling inspired (you do the work anyway), and you can feel inspired without yet having a plan.

Creativity is what you make or invent with the spark. Inspiration often comes near the beginning of a creative cycle, and again whenever you need a fresh view. A review of inspiration in the creative process, led by Victoria Oleynick with Thrash and colleagues, describes inspiration as a bridge between a vivid idea and the work of bringing it into the world. [6] If you want tools for generating ideas and making things, our creativity guide is the next stop. Perseverance, covered in our guide to perseverance, is what helps you keep going after the first glow fades.

Why inspiration matters

Inspiration is more than a pleasant mood. In a set of studies, Thrash, Elliot, Laura Maruskin and Scott Cassidy found that people who experienced more inspiration also reported more positive feeling, life satisfaction, vitality and a sense of becoming who they wanted to be, including across a three-month stretch. Purpose in life and gratitude helped explain the link: inspiration seemed to feed a feeling that life is going somewhere, and a warmth towards what is already good. [7] The World Health Organization describes mental health as a state of well-being that lets people cope with life’s stresses, realise their abilities, learn and work well, and contribute to their community. [8] Inspiration supports several of those ingredients: it helps you notice what you are capable of, and it often moves you to offer something to other people.

That does not mean you should wait to feel inspired before you live. It means the moments of lift are worth taking seriously. They are information about what matters to you. Our guide to positivity explores related ways of noticing what is life-giving.

Where inspiration comes from

People point to many sources, and most of them are available in ordinary life:

• Other people. A teacher, a colleague, a performer, a friend who is quietly brave, or someone whose work you admire from afar.
• The natural world. Light on water, a long view, trees, weather, animals, night skies.
• Art and ideas. Books, films, music, design, conversations, talks and the sudden click when two thoughts meet.
• Skill done well. Watching someone cook, build, care, teach or solve a problem with care can awaken the wish to bring the same quality to your own work.
• Stillness and spirit. Prayer, meditation, time in a place of worship, or simply sitting without a screen. Many people describe inspiration as a sense of being met by something larger than their usual self.

You do not need a dramatic life in order to be inspired. You need contact with things that are alive, and enough quiet to notice them.

Inspired by, and inspired to

Thrash and Elliot’s distinction is practical. [5] Being inspired by a concert, a landscape or a generous person is the receiving side. Being inspired to is the giving side: you write the paragraph, book the class, make the apology, start the sketch or change how you spend tomorrow morning. Both matter. If you only collect inspiring inputs, you can end up full of feeling and short of movement. If you only push for output, you can run dry.

A simple habit is to ask, whenever something moves you, “What is one small thing this is asking me to do?” The answer might be “text her”, “open the notebook” or “leave ten minutes earlier so I can walk”. Inspired action is often modest. It just has life in it.

Awe as a doorway

Awe is the feeling of meeting something vast that does not quite fit your usual categories: a night sky, a forest of tall trees, a piece of music that stops you, or a display of great skill or kindness. Melanie Rudd, Kathleen Vohs and Jennifer Aaker found that brief experiences of awe made time feel more ample and were linked with greater well-being and a little more willingness to give time to others. [2]

In research led by Paul Piff with Dacher Keltner and colleagues, awe was linked with a quieter focus on the small self and with more generous, helpful behaviour. In one of the studies, standing among towering trees, compared with a less awe-inspiring spot nearby, was enough to shift how people treated others. [9] You do not need a mountain expedition. A slow look at the sky on your street, a visit to a large tree, a choir, or a well-made film can all open the same door. Awe often precedes inspiration: first you are enlarged, then you know what you want to do with that feeling.

Nature, walking and fresh input

Nature is one of the most reliable ways to refill an empty well. A study by Ruth Ann Atchley, David Strayer and Paul Atchley found that people performed better on a creative-reasoning task after several days immersed in natural settings, away from the usual electronic buzz. [10] Even a shorter dose helps many people. A walk among trees or beside water can loosen the loop of repetitive thought. Work led by Gregory Bratman found that a walk in a natural setting, compared with a walk in a more built-up one, was linked with less rumination. [11]

Walking itself seems to help ideas arrive. Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz at Stanford asked people to complete creative-thinking tasks while walking or while sitting. Walking, including walking indoors on a treadmill, led to more creative ideas than sitting. [1] The World Health Organization also recommends regular physical activity for adults as part of staying well, so a daily walk serves more than one purpose. [12] If you feel stuck at a desk, the most practical first step is often to stand up and go around the block with no podcast playing, just to let your mind wander.

Role models and possible selves

Hazel Markus and Paula Nurius described “possible selves”: the pictures we hold of who we might become, hope to become or fear becoming. Those pictures help organise what we strive for. [13] Inspiration often works by lighting up a possible self. You meet someone who lives a quality you want (calm, craft, courage, kindness, freedom) and a version of you that includes that quality suddenly feels more real.

Not every impressive person inspires us. Penelope Lockwood and Ziva Kunda found that outstanding role models lifted people when the success felt relevant and attainable, and could leave people flatter when the success felt out of reach. [14] The practical lesson is friendly: choose models who are a few steps ahead, in a world that resembles yours, as well as the rare giants. A colleague who redesigned their week, a neighbour who learned an instrument in midlife, or a maker one level up from you may move you more than a distant celebrity. When you do admire someone far ahead, study their habits and values rather than their highlight reel, so the comparison stays useful.

Catching ideas before they fade

Inspiration is often brief. The line, image or next step arrives while you are washing up, falling asleep or walking, and it evaporates if there is nowhere for it to land. Keep a capture tool within reach: a small notebook, a notes app, a voice memo. Write the spark in the words it arrived in, without tidying it up. Review the collection once a week and mark anything that still has life in it.

Writer Julia Cameron popularised “morning pages”: three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing at the start of the day, as a way to clear mental clutter and make room for ideas. You do not have to adopt her full programme to borrow the principle. A few uncensored pages, or even ten honest minutes, can move stale thoughts out of the way so something fresher can come through. The point is not beautiful prose. The point is to show up on the page so inspiration has a place to land.

Incubation, rest and useful boredom

Some of the best ideas arrive when you have stepped away from the problem. Benjamin Baird and colleagues found that a pause filled with an undemanding task (the kind that lets your mind wander) helped people return to unsolved creative problems with better ideas than a pause filled with a heavier task, or no pause at all. [15] This is one reason showers, washing up, easy walks and looking out of train windows have such a good reputation.

Constant stimulation crowds that process out. If every spare minute is filled with a screen, there is less room for a wandering mind to connect ideas. Journalist Manoush Zomorodi explores this in her TED talk in Videos: small stretches of boredom give the brain a chance to make new links. Rest is part of inspiration too. Tiredness, hunger and non-stop input all make sparks harder to feel. Sleep, a proper meal and a little unscheduled time are not delays. They are part of the work. If exhaustion has become your normal state, our guides to burnout and energy and fatigue may help.

Visualisation and seeing what you want

Inspiration often begins as an inner picture: the finished room, the calmer morning, the conversation going well, the project as you would love it to feel. Visualisation is the skill of staying with that picture long enough for it to become a guide. Laura King found that writing about your “best possible self”, a future in which everything has gone as well as it reasonably could, was linked with better mood. [3] A classic meta-analysis of mental practice found that imagining a performance can improve how you later do it, especially when combined with real practice. [16]

You can try this in a simple way. Sit comfortably, relax your shoulders and picture one scene from the life or work you want, in as much sensory detail as you can: what you see, hear, feel and do. Then write down the very next physical step that scene implies, and do that step the same day if you can. Our visualisation hub has more on building this skill, and Psycho-Cybernetics explores how the pictures you hold of yourself shape what feels possible.

The Law of Attraction and inspired action

Many people use the Law of Attraction as a way of working with inspiration. In this approach you clarify what you want, give it your attention and feeling, and then follow the ideas and openings that arise (often called inspired action) rather than forcing every step through willpower alone. Teachings associated with Abraham Hicks put a strong emphasis on feeling good first, so that action comes from a lighter place. Our Law of Attraction hub and Abraham Hicks hub gather those practices, talks and resources.

A helpful companion from goal research is to pair a clear wish with a when-then plan, so the inspired idea has a time and place to happen. A large meta-analysis of implementation intentions found that this kind of simple plan helps people follow through. [17] You might write: “If I feel a lift after my morning walk, then I will open the notebook before I open my email.” Visualisation, feeling and a small planned action sit together very naturally here.

When inspiration becomes flow

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi used the word “flow” for those stretches when you are fully absorbed, challenge and skill are well matched, and time seems to change shape. Inspiration often ushers you into flow: the spark shows you what is worth doing, and flow is what it feels like once you are inside the doing. His TED talk on this is in Videos.

You can make flow more likely by choosing a task that matters to you, matching the difficulty to your current skill (not so easy that you drift, not so hard that you freeze), removing interruptions and giving yourself a clear stretch of time. Our flow state hub explains the method in more depth. Edward Deci and Richard Ryan’s work on self-determination theory adds another piece: we tend to feel most alive when what we do has some autonomy, a chance to grow competence, and a sense of connection with others. [18] Inspiration often points towards activities that already hold those qualities.

When you feel uninspired

Dry spells are common. They do not mean your creative or purposeful life is over. They usually mean something in the system needs care:

• Empty input. You cannot keep producing from an empty well. Read, walk, visit, listen and talk to people who are making things.
• No capture. Sparks may already be arriving and leaving unnoticed. Start writing them down.
• Comparison. Other people’s polished work can flatten you if you treat it as a verdict on your beginnings. Switch from “I am behind” to “What can I learn from this?”
• Overwork and noise. Exhaustion and constant stimulation both mute inspiration. Rest and a little boredom are productive here.
• Fear of a messy start. Waiting to feel fully ready can become a long wait. A rough, private first version often restarts the feeling you were waiting for.

Be gentle with yourself in a dry spell. Gratitude, even in a small daily list of things that went well, has been shown to lift mood in research by Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, and it can reopen your attention to what is already nourishing. [19] If the emptiness comes with lasting low mood, loss of interest or exhaustion that rest does not touch, it is worth extra support. Our guides to depression and burnout explain more, and a doctor or counsellor can help you sort out what is going on.

A simple 30-day plan

Week 1: Fill the well. Each day, take a short walk without a podcast, and spend twenty minutes with something that usually lifts you: music, pages of a book, a gallery, a garden or a conversation. Write down one thing that moved you.

Week 2: Catch and sketch. Keep a capture tool with you. Once a day, turn one saved spark into a rough paragraph, sketch, voice note or tiny action. Do not polish it.

Week 3: See and feel. Practise a five-minute visualisation of your best-possible next chapter, then write a when-then plan for one inspired action. Use the visualisation or Law of Attraction hubs if you want more structure.

Week 4: Absorb and share. Give one meaningful task a quiet hour and aim for flow. Share one piece of work, or one idea, with a person who leaves you more alive. Notice what you want to repeat next month.

How self-help methods fit in

Several methods on this site sit naturally beside inspiration. Visualisation helps you see and feel a direction clearly. The Law of Attraction and Abraham Hicks teachings focus on alignment, feeling and inspired action. Flow is how deep, absorbing work often feels once you begin. Psycho-Cybernetics looks at the inner picture you have of yourself. Meditation and mindfulness quiet enough space for a spark to be noticed, and the Silva Method combines relaxation with mental imagery. You can see every method we cover in the full list above.

Frequently asked questions

What is inspiration?

A felt lift in which something evokes a bigger or clearer possibility in you, and you feel moved to express it or act on it. Psychologists describe evocation, transcendence and motivation as its core qualities. [4]

What is the difference between inspiration and motivation?

Motivation is the broader energy to start and continue, including habits and goals. Inspiration is a more specific experience of being moved, often by something beyond your usual routine, that makes a new action feel alive.

Can you make yourself feel inspired?

You cannot always force the exact moment, but you can invite it: walk, seek awe, change your input, leave room for boredom, visualise what you want and catch ideas when they appear.

Why do I feel uninspired?

Common reasons include empty input, no way to capture ideas, harsh comparison, exhaustion and waiting to feel perfectly ready. Rest, fresh input and a messy first step often help.

Does walking really help with ideas?

Yes. A Stanford study found that people generated more creative ideas while walking than while sitting, including when they walked indoors. [1]

What is awe, and how does it help?

Awe is the feeling of meeting something vast, such as nature, music or great skill. Brief experiences of awe have been linked with a fuller sense of time, greater well-being and more generous behaviour. [2] [9]

How do visualisation and the Law of Attraction fit in?

Both give a spark somewhere to go. Visualisation helps you see and feel a next chapter; the Law of Attraction emphasises feeling and inspired action. Writing about your best possible self has also been linked with better mood. [3]

The best videos on inspiration

Hand-picked and checked one by one: Elizabeth Gilbert, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, David Kelley, Manoush Zomorodi, Pico Iyer and Tim Harford.

Understanding inspiration

Confidence, space and ideas

Books on inspiration

Free resources

Experts to follow

Get help

If a long stretch without inspiration comes with low mood, exhaustion or a loss of interest in things you usually enjoy, your doctor or a counsellor can help.

Find a therapist or counsellor

• US and Canada: Psychology Today (US) and (Canada) directories.
• UK: BACP therapist directory.
• Australia: APS Find a Psychologist, and Relationships Australia for couple and family services.
• Elsewhere, including Europe and India: ask your doctor or local health service for a referral, and check that anyone you see is registered or accredited where you live.

This hub is for information, not a substitute for medical or psychological care.

Sources

1. Oppezzo & Schwartz (2014), Give your ideas some legs: the positive effect of walking on creative thinking, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 40(4):1142-1152
2. Rudd, Vohs & Aaker (2012), Awe expands people’s perception of time, alters decision making, and enhances well-being, Psychological Science 23(10):1130-1136
3. King (2001), The health benefits of writing about life goals, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27(7):798-807
4. Thrash & Elliot (2003), Inspiration as a psychological construct, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4):871-889
5. Thrash & Elliot (2004), Inspiration: core characteristics, component processes, antecedents, and function, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87(6):957-973
6. Oleynick et al. (2014), The scientific study of inspiration in the creative process: challenges and opportunities, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8:436
7. Thrash, Elliot, Maruskin & Cassidy (2010), Inspiration and the promotion of well-being: tests of causality and mediation, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98(3):488-506
8. World Health Organization, Mental health: strengthening our response
9. Piff, Dietze, Feinberg, Stancato & Keltner (2015), Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 108(6):883-899
10. Atchley, Strayer & Atchley (2012), Creativity in the wild: improving creative reasoning through immersion in natural settings, PLoS ONE 7(12):e51474
11. Bratman et al. (2015), Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation, PNAS 112(28):8567-8572
12. World Health Organization, Physical activity fact sheet
13. Markus & Nurius (1986), Possible selves, American Psychologist 41(9):954-969
14. Lockwood & Kunda (1997), Superstars and me: predicting the impact of role models on the self, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 73(1):91-103
15. Baird et al. (2012), Inspired by distraction: mind wandering facilitates creative incubation, Psychological Science 23(10):1117-1122
16. Driskell, Copper & Moran (1994), Does mental practice enhance performance? Journal of Applied Psychology 79(4):481-491
17. Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38:69-119
18. Ryan & Deci (2000), Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being, American Psychologist 55(1):68-78
19. Emmons & McCullough (2003), Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(2):377-389

Written by Saj Ali. Last updated 5 November 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will fix it.