The following is the result of a late night and a racing mind. Enjoy - Jen x

 There is an irony in our lives that is unavoidable. Once you open your eyes to it and take in the truth of it, you can't help but see it everywhere. Or at least I can't.It is far from a new statement to say that we are beings of creation. Almost every world religion says this in one form or another, along with a thousand self-help books from the Law of Attraction to The Secret. Our thoughts are informed by the definition we give ourselves, and thus, we create our experience.We say we're tired, our eyelids sag a little more and what was once a thought is now a belief backed up with evidence.We can all acknowledge this and revel in the momentary enlightenment this knowledge gives us. Hand us a nice quote on our Instagram feed or a viral tweet and we all know exactly how to enjoy our four seconds of enlightenment. We can ooh and ahh and then scroll onward.This actions tells us that we know what it is to be inspired. How many of us listen to Ted Talks and podcasts that motivate us and drive us? We built memorials and plaques for the people who have inspired us and name them genius as easily as we tear down those who threaten our enlightened view of the world - whether they're a bot on Twitter or a politician running for president.In essence, know our souls and precisely what they need. Or at least that's how I see it.We know with absolute certainty what it takes to make our soul survive, thrive and enjoy living. We know how to inspire and receive inspiration - this is instinctual, unconscious.Yet, for most of us, the realities we create are far from conventionally inspiring.Instead we use the same mental power we should be using for our soul's evolvement and reaching this life's potential, to convince ourselves - most powerfully - of how comfortable we are in our lives. Yet it is comfort that smothers progress.The pain of unfulfilled dreams is palpable, despite our actions being the only variable in us achieving our goals. But sometimes, all of the time, sleep/Netflix/numbing ourselves is a better, safer option, where failure cannot find us.We are the victim of our own life, always on the stand, convincing the jury each and every day that we couldn't, we can't, we don't really want to achieve it that much, so why bother? We say that we're happy scrolling for inspiration then encountering it on the road that leads us straight out of the door of our comfort zones.How can we do this so easily? How can we acknowledge a definition of ourselves in one minute and act oppositely the next?For example, there is no Twitter account I love to scroll more than Humans of New York. With each new snapshot, we see a personality and get a story. Sometimes it's a story of triumph, others of pain. But always, the stories remind us of the power of each person we pass on the street, regardless of the superficiality of the world.But you know what I love almost as much as scrolling the HONY Twitter account? The comments section. It is probably one of the purest comment sections on the Internet as the most genuine forms of humanity meet and express only love, only gratitude and only awe.Yet with one click on a commentator's account, we can find them spewing hate to someone else in a different comment section. This is not so much even a rapid U-turn, but more like the plot-twist you never really wanted. The reveal you hoped just wouldn't be true, but does not, sadly, surprise you.How do we choose one path and not the other? In today's world of online typing wars, where the value of an insult is dropping faster then the value of the pound, choosing inspiration, choosing to refrain from the ping-pong wars of cruelty is the road much less traveled by.Is that all it takes, then? Choosing, whats right for our souls rather than our bodies?Maybe. But surely to do that, we have to be able to know exactly what's bad for us.I might not be the right person to answer this question, but here is my opinion and none of us can give more than that.We have to learn the power of words, whether we speak them or not and the emotions they evoke. I cannot emphasize this enough.For me, a prime example is when I am late for work in the morning. And I walk - which means I just got up late, I can't even blame Bus Éireann. I can't even blame foot traffic. When I'm late, it is as if every single person on the path that is even mildly in my way is doing so to personally irritate me.For some reason, this bothers me much more than actual traffic ever has. Give me ten tractors on the way to school, no problem. One cyclist swerving to avoid a puddle and crossing my path and my mind is filled with nasty words.I do this for the duration of my late walk, until I make it to my desk and breathlessly sit down. After several sips of water and realising that absolutely no one cared that I made it at 9:02 and not 9:00, I always think back on how I behaved.And I feel only shame.It could be worse, I could howl abuse at this people and shout and scream. That would be toxic.Or would it actually be any different?Thoughts hold the same power as words because they still involve an emotion taking hold of us. And mine, on that late walk, are cruel and densely negative.There is something pulsating about that kind of negative energy, how it radiates into the world while lingering in your bones simultaneously.Not only am I late, but the second I start to mentally insult those around, something I'm coming to admit honestly, I start to feel a headache come on.Five minutes more of these thoughts breathing out into the world and inhaling them back in and my lace has come on done.There is a knock-on effect of our negative thoughts that can be so imperceptibly small if we do not consider it. I challenge you to think on this and notice how the same is true in reverse for positive thoughts.I believe that this chain reaction of thoughts is what has immobilised so many of us. A single look at that inspiring Instagram post and a niggling thought creeps in, I could never do that.We've fallen off the first of a very tall, steep stairs here and before we know it we are sitting our couches rather than trying and failing and trying again and laughing all the while.Our challenge is this: Remembering our capability, our brilliance and inherent glorious nature that comes with humanity. This glory is what can spark us to shine, casting a glow on others. This is how we define a better world, not in reflection of another's achievements but in existence with them.But is this a challenge, really? Well, maybe only if we believe it so.Have a beautiful weekend, fellow humans, Jen x