What to Do When You Are Feeling Lost and Uninspired

Inspiration cannot be forced, but it can be gently welcomed back.

I am someone who has always been deeply passionate about many things. I love trying new things, learning, and growing. I love diving into a craft and playing with my creative potential. I love the feeling of getting lost in an activity, when every part of me feels fired up with passion and purpose, time seems to stand still, and I truly feel I could keep doing this forever.

And yet, I haven’t felt that fire in so long that I sometimes fear I never will again. The more I try to reach for inspiration, the more it dances away from my outstretched fingers. The more I try to force it into being, the more it eludes me. Inspiration and forcing, it seems, don’t get along particularly well.

I graduated last May, just a couple months after the world shut down due to the pandemic. I had spent the last two months aggressively throwing myself into academics because it was solid and controllable. It was something to focus on that wasn’t the state of our world or the fact that I was apart from the closest people in my life for an unknowable amount of time. While I had schoolwork, I didn’t need to think about anything else because I could easily fill every waking hour with something outside of myself.

But as graduation came and went and I, for the first time in years, found myself with nothing that had to get done, I was faced with an expanse of hours just to be with myself and to fill as I chose.

In the past, this was a dream come true.

I’d always wished for ample time to focus on my personal projects and creative goals. I’d always imagined that when I finally got that opportunity to have total control of my day, I would then be free to be constantly creating. I would be endlessly inspired and energized because I’d be working on something for me.

And yet, I found the opposite to be true.

The more emptiness there was, the more lost I felt. The less I had to get done, the less inspired I felt to work on anything for myself.

Worst of all, I couldn’t muster up the energy to produce anything creative even if I tried. I felt as though I was…

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