Hello, and welcome to episode 2 of 5 minute Friday’s, where I will spend 5 minutes discussing a mindset related or lifestyle medicine focused chit chat with you. My name is Dr. Amber Knott, I’m a naturopathic doctor and I have a passion for teaching mindset shifts to support you in creating a healthy lifestyle. SO, today im going to be talking about how to live an inspired life and how this can help you make lifestyle changes for your health.

inspiration can be a very tricky topic to talk about because I cannot give you inspiration directly, what inspires me is not exactly what will inspire you.

But instead, I’m going to teach you how to get into a place to allow inspiration to flow into your life.

And it’s all about, what you choose to focus on. You will not feel inspired by focusing on the impossibility of a task, your lack of creativity or absence of focus. Inspiration to do something will not come to you if you are not in a positive head space about the task.

So how can you get around this mindset blocks? A want to share a quote from Wolfgang Mozart, he said: “When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone, and of good cheer- say traveling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep- it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence and how they come, I know not, nor can I force then.”

Mozart has so much to teach us here, inspiration is not something we can force into our lives, anyone who takes time for creative or artistic projects knows this. Inspiration comes to us when we are open to receiving it. And the not-so-secret, secret for getting into this space of being open to inspiration comes from what you choose to focus your thoughts on where you are gong instead of the blocks that are standing in the way.

A closed mind or egoic mind will dwell on what is going wrong, on the lack of inspiration and will feel immense amounts of pressure to create inspired feelings. When we are closed off, and totally drowning in a single area of focus, we cut off our ability to seek alternative solutions.

Throw yourself a lifeline, sit with yourself and intentionally step outside your bubble, take the weight off and trust in your ability to guide yourself through the emotions you feel.

So how can you do this? Take a break from what you want to do but feel uninspired to do at this time, and do something that will help you to reset your outlook on the situation. Some examples of simple ways to reset your mind and be more open to inspiration include being in nature, being physically active, taking a shower, sitting in meditation with the intention of clearing your mind or reinforcing an affirmation.

Now in this quiet time, not only are you looking to reframe how you are seeing the situation at hand, but you also want to intentionally ask why these barriers are blocking your inspiration. Is this something you actually want to be doing? Do you believe in your ability to get the result you want? How does this task add value or purpose to your life? And why are you feeling resistance to taking action? And these questions may even result in a change in the activity or task.

So in a sense, being inspired translates to having an open mind and following what you feel called to do. Feeling joyful and excited are synonymous with feeling inspired to take action. So it is more about cultivating the ability to allow yourself to return to this space of mental clarity so that you know what makes you excited to take action.

So from a health perspective, what movement or exercise do you feel called to try? What recipes get you excited? What mindfulness practices do you feel will profoundly impact your life? If you are not sure, but you want to start making health changes, it is so important that you start asking yourself these questions. Allow yourself to try new things, put yourself out there and find what excites and motivated you, that is how to live an inspired life. That is how you can cultivate incredible changes in your health, and enjoy yourself while you do it.

So this is it for episode 2, next week I’ll be chatting about the joys and benefits of showing up imperfectly, and how this mindset shift can help you transform your health. Thank you so much for listening, I’ll see you next week J