Inspiration Porn
Our world has become filled with inspirational messages, articles, memes, videos, and conversations. If there is something we think can't be done, we can't do, we want to do but are unsure of, then there is an inspiration out there to help you think otherwise. Which is all to the good as far as it goes. If all of this inspiration is setting things in motion to heal, unfold, improve, and create a more positive life experience for us, then I'm for it.
Unfortunately, this is not often the case.
But first, it helps to understand what inspiration actually is. By dictionary definition, inspiration has three main aspects:
1. The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
2. A sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.
3. The drawing in of breath; inhalation.
Inspiration is an activating force, but not necessarily a positive or happy one. For example: to inspire, to draw in breath is necessary for our survival, pleasant when the air is infused with a nice scent, but also a relief when air has been withheld, and terrifying if the air is toxic. While common wisdom sees inspiration, whether breath or ideas, as positive, in reality it is neutral in and of itself, therefore allowing us to choose what we will do with it. Just as necessity is the mother of invention, hard times can trigger us to inspiration which is meant to remove our pain. On the other hand, seeing someone accomplish their dreams or give themselves permission to pursue them can inspire us to do the same.
Beyond this, inspiration is an indicator of our individual freedom, agency, and power to choose. If we look back even 300 years ago, inspiration was only available in the rarified atmosphere where poets, artists, scientists and others, patronized by the powerful, resided. If you lived an agrarian life where you made absolutely everything with your own hands (clothing, food, home) then inspiration not only wasn't necessary, but could be dangerous. Deviating from the ways in which things have always been done could lead to food poisoning, failure of crops, tools which are too fragile and break at exactly the wrong time, etc. Entire cultures, like Ancient Egypt, valued ancestral ways, processes which were time tested, and an identity which incorporated unchanging eternity into daily life.
In contrast, we now live in a world where inspiration is available to everyone, where new careers can be invented successfully, where we can choose what we do based on whether we feel inspired today, and follow our inspiration to a fulfilling life which is good for ourselves and those around us regardless of how things were done by our ancestors or throughout history.
However, as Hesiod wrote approximately 700 BC "...moderation is best in all things." Or put another way, too much of a good thing must have an alternative motive.
I don't think anyone hasn't noticed we are living in difficult times, which means the desire for positivity, hope, inspiration and peace/rest/quiet has increased to match. But the amount of inspirational messaging and communicating doesn't seem to be echoing this nor resolving it. It's not as if the more we read and watch inspiring things the better we feel. In fact it can have the reverse effect.
We can start to feel like a failure because we see someone doing the thing we want to do and being successful, but we can't seem to get started. Or they are successful but we're not getting the same results. We can feel like we're a failure because we think we should be inspired to do this/that/the other, but we aren't. In some cases it can feel as if inspiration is required to actually do the things we want to get done and so if we're not then we're not doing them right or aren't allowed to do them at all. Thus inspirational messages become a negative which keeps us from doing and being rather than spurring us on.
And the addition of social media has latched onto inspiration for its own benefit and ends. With the need for clicks, comments, likes, shares, and online buying, inspiration has become a commodity which drives the algorithm. The more inspirational messages being put out, the more "lessons we can learn from...", the more "wow's" we can express, the more is needed to feed the machine.
Being overwhelmed with what amounts to a firehose of inspirational messages at every turn has converted or transformed the process of being inspired into one of catharsis.
Catharsis is something best known in connection with the ancient Greeks and their plays. It is the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. It's why we cry along with characters in a tragedy, get engrossed in horror movies, and feel relief when justice is served at the end of a murder mystery. We are along for the ride which allows us to work through our emotions, release endorphins, and process complex issues all while still living the life we've already built.
Inspiration used for catharsis is what leads to what I've termed "inspiration porn". Rather than being inspired by events and messages, we have come instead to use them in order to release the difficulties of our lives for a moment. To feel briefly better, getting a jolt of good biochemistry, then going on with our day.
Like viewing sexual porn, this is not harmful in and of itself. We're all allowed and should engage in things which make us feel good as this provides a multitude of health benefits and allows us to be good to others in turn. However, also like sexual porn, harm comes when we objectify the object of our gaze. Which means we can be doing harm when we turn the people doing the inspiring thing into an object for our consumption.
Differently abled people have decried this for decades, pointing out the negative effects of their lives being used for inspirational messaging while ignoring their needs and often their humanity. Minorities struggle with this when exceptionalism is applied to certain members of the group, becoming a signal that those who aren't exceptional aren't trying hard enough and also that there is no need to change a biased system since the exceptional are able to navigate it successfully.
In spiritual community this has become a large problem for those dealing with physical or mental health issues. While spiritual community, in all its various forms and regional groups, intends and is meant to be a supportive place where people are able to be vulnerable and walk their spiritual path, some have found themselves converted into inspiration porn without their consent.
The person who is working through long covid, chronic Lyme, or a second round of cancer often finds they aren't able to do even the most casual or normal of activities without being confronted with someone, well meaning, who wants to tell them how inspirational they are. While this seems on the surface as if it would be a good thing, it's often at the inspirational person's expense. The communication takes energy away from them, requires them to attend to the person speaking which uses up valuable personal resources, tells them things which are nice, but not necessarily useful, and most crucially, makes their life and experiences about someone else. They become an object in someone else's story. On top of this, our social norms make them feel guilty for not wanting this attention, for feeling drained and depleted by it, and limits the ways in which they can set boundaries or say, "Please, No".
If everything is energy, if we're all made of Akasha and we're all interconnecting, manifesting energy out into the world, then objectifying people, even for inspirational reasons, is harmful as it pulls energy from them without giving in return. Inspiration porn is catharsis with a cost to those we are meaning to appreciate.
This isn't to say we shouldn't watch the videos or respond to the memes. Life is challenging at the moment, and we can use all the uplift and positivity we can get. But it does mean we should be discerning about how we consume this type of media and what we call it. In other words, when we talk about inspiration, we should do so in terms of what it made us do or be rather than how it made us feel. We should think of it in terms of what it caused us to breathe out rather than focusing on the fact we breathed in.
And we should consider whether something is actually inspirational to us, or if we even need more inspiration. If we are already running at top speed with our hair on fire, inspiration is probably the last thing we need. Instead we may want to talk about things in terms of catharsis, relief, and validation of who we are and who we're becoming. The more we are the change we want to see in ourselves and the world, the less inspiration we'll need.