Passion and Purpose are the panaceas to all disconnection - including depression. | Anisa Aven's Conscious Leadership & the Law of Attraction.

We were born with the unlimited potential to intentionally create (use the law of attraction) to manifest all of our heart's desires. Together, as Conscious Leaders guided by the Divine, we have the Mind Power necessary to co-create a sustainable, harmonious, peaceful, and prosperous world. And, we can do this while also attracting and creating a passionate, loving, rich, healthy life with all of our personal dreams fulfilled.

Purpose and Passion are the Panaceas to ALL disconnection including depression

I have a question that’s been bugging me. I
really love LOA, I do. It’s the thing that got me my current
husband, who is exactly the person I asked for, so I know it
works. The problem is all this happy stuff! I work
diligently at monitoring emotions and using positive
imagery, etc, and I feel great and purposeful for about a
week. But then, every time, I will completely fall off the
emotional scale, right down to the bottom. And it could be
something small that triggers it, but I can’t seem to pick
myself up for at least a day or two. The downfall seems to
be proportionate to the progress I make in my positive
thinking. Am I doing something wrong? Have you heard of
others going through the same thing? Any insight you have
would be a GREAT help, as I’m at my wits end! – S.

Dear S.

And, I do believe your Spirit is calling. I’ve experienced
this personally and understand how troubling it can be to
have ‘everything’ and yet still ‘fall off the emotional
scale’, as you put it so perfectly.

I have also witnessed the emotional roller-coaster of many
spiritual friends who I deeply admire as well as light-
workers and teachers who suffer from great highs and great
lows.

As a society, we’re often bewildered by gifted celebrities who
struggle with their inner demons. Steven Spielberg,
Robin Williams, contemporary singers, Mandy Moore and
Beyonce Knowles and Princess Leia – Carrie Fisher have all
admitted to feeling depressed (or some other label for
sadness) for no reason.

Legendary singer, Frank Sinatra, once said, “I am an 18-
carat manic depressive. I have an over-acute capacity for
sadness and elation.”

From afar we question their struggles with thoughts such as,
“But Marilyn Monroe had it all?! She had beauty, fame,
fortune, success, love, and the admiration of her country
and fans. What could have been so bad that she needed drugs
or to take her own life?”

Likewise, in our own community of spiritual teachers, Lynn
Grabhorn, the international best-selling author of “Excuse
me, your life is waiting” changed people’s lives in
wonderfully positive ways. She is still revered as one of
the most accessible and easy to understand writers of
conscious thought to have ever graced us with her work. She
committed suicide smack dab in the middle of her astounding
success.

I don’t get it. Perhaps, I never will. However, I do
believe that there’s meaning in our great capacity for both
‘sadness and elation’.

I believe there’s purpose in these feelings of
‘disconnection’ and ‘depression’. In fact, I believe it’s
disconnection (or sadness/negative emotions)
that often serves as our catalyst for change.

I have a theory that provides me with guidance and direction
when I too experience emotional swings ‘for no apparent
reason’.

I am open to sharing what I’ve come to believe as true for
me, as of today, on my personal, spiritual journey. What
I’d like to make clear is that this is only my theory. As
many of my ideas have evolved and changed drastically as I
gain greater knowledge and understanding about Spirit, I
must confess that if someone asks me tomorrow and I have new
data, this theory too may change.

I do not claim to be an expert in the psychological realm,
nor am I a trained therapist or qualified professional on
the matters of clinical depression. If you (anyone reading
this article) believe you are depressed, please seek
professional help.

I have a ‘theory’ about why so many of us {light-workers,
spiritual seekers and Truth sleuthhounds} as well as those
who seem to achieve great feats of success feel such
emotional turmoil.

Depression, boredom, sadness, bi-polar disorder, chronic
fatigue, weariness and any form of emotional or physical
isolation or disconnection from our natural state of JOY is
the consequence of being severed from our Divine Source.

We have to wonder why depression afflicts educated persons
within the richer nations far more often than the rest of
the world. In fact 75% of the population on this planet have
no time to entertain sadness as they are too busy simply
trying to survive.

Since basic survival is not what civilized societies worry
about, we stress over more materialistic goals; we stress
because we lead with our mind instead of our hearts; we
stress because we fear we cannot make a difference or that
we are living a meaningless existence. This stress creates
disconnection.

As we grow towards the light, we realize that only through
the unification and atonement with the Divine do we
transcend the grips of disconnection. The Happiness
Solution, therefore, lies in discovering and embracing the
Kingdom of Heaven within.

From this discovery, we may still have moments of humanistic
quandaries about the ‘meaning of it all’ but we’ll handle
those quandaries more healthfully.

By living with the Truth that our Source and Supply is
internal, we more naturally relax into the flow of passion,
which like a swift and refreshing spring river, sweeps us
into the current of our life’s purpose.

“When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand.
It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get
to work on it.” - W. Clement Stone (1902-2002, best-
selling author and founder of Combined Insurance Co (now a
part of Aon Corp.)

My theory is that we must find and fulfill our passion and
our purpose to stay in the flow.

Most people (myself included) have been taught to pursue
life fulfillment through the acquisition of material
objects. This seemingly innocuous pursuit of our dreams has
taught us that we can temporarily alleviate distress by
obtaining an external or materialistic goal (i.e. a new car,
a new outfit, a new TV, etc. – oh… did I forget to mention
- new shoes. I do love new shoes.) And, the bottom line
is, it works, briefly.

Then, when materialism doesn’t have our tracking beam in its
grip, we co-dependently look towards our relationships to
provide the connection, happiness, and self-love
justification we desperately desire.

To compensate for our ‘Source Disconnection’ we seek out
surrogate activities that only provide an impermanent,
albeit comforting salve for the open wound created by this
spiritual separation in the first place.

When we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven Within, then all
things shall be added unto us. The Kingdom of Heaven is our
awareness of the Presence of God within and thus our direct
acknowledgment of our relationship to our spiritual mission
and personal destiny.

For me, I have many materialistic dreams and external goals.
And, it feels great when I accomplish them. However,
there’s also an inner grumbling. This inner call gets
louder when I attempt to ignore or postpone the pursuit of
more meaningful contribution.

You too may hear this grumbling. It’s the voice of our soul
saying, “I want to make a difference.”

For some, that purpose may be served entirely by
successfully parenting their children or creating
innovations that make life easier through technology or
producing works of art, song, or dance (to name just a few
expressions of purpose and passion.)

For others, it’s peacefully standing up for what’s right,
lending a hand to a friend (or a cause), or even leading
a cause that supports greater consciousness and light at
work, in the prisons, in foreign countries, etc., etc.,

Still for others, it’s simply about living INTENSELY in at
least ONE area of their life. Period.

We all hear that grumbling and nudge. It’s the inner guide
that is calling us to make our life meaningful, to feel
useful, and to fulfill the reason we chose to be born at
this time.

I believe this to be the reason so many light-workers and
seekers, who theoretically know JOY and LOVE are our natural
states, feel such great despair anyway.

We CHOSE to be here at a time on our planet when ALL life as
we know it is at risk. We CHOSE to be here because it’s a
part of our greater purpose; our soul’s calling, to make a
difference at a critical time in history.

For example, when our focus is materialistic we either lose
sight of more meaningful pursuits (altruism, for example) or
we remain on the path of mediocrity fearful of the change,
rejection, and sacrifice required to be different enough to
make an impact. Mediocrity leads to boredom which of course
exacerbates disconnection.

Instead of focusing on materialism we would be better served
by focusing on the essence of God – the love, joy, beauty,
prosperity and wholeness that is the Kingdom within. The
good news is that our materialistic desires will be
fulfilled as the Kingdom within is all-providing and
lavishly abundant.

For light-workers, when we look at the sheer magnitude of
social and environmental dysfunction, many of us feel
overwhelmed with sympathy and hopelessness.

Other light-workers will do the spiritual-bypass and pretend
that if they ignore it, it’ll just go away. (Yes, this is
still better than getting upset but not as optimal as
intentional creation.)

We begin to question whether or not we have the capacity to
make a difference; the strength and the time to stop this
train of violence and destruction and fulfill what we came
here to accomplish.

My personal opinion is that this is what happened to Lynn
Grabhorn, the author I mentioned earlier. She reported
feeling a ‘dark presence’ about her. I believe this dark
presence was the weight of her purpose on her ‘mental
shoulders’. Instead of surrendering to the ‘truth’ that she
already was making an important difference, the pain of ‘not
being able to eradicate all pain’ was too much to bear.

(And, I believe her choice was still aligned with a greater
purpose that I don’t have to understand. When we lose
leaders there’s an expansion effect that in and of itself is
perfect.)

It’s important to understand the distinction between
sympathizing with our world’s troubles and empathizing.

With sympathy, we take on the emotional suffering and misery
thus disconnecting from the solution. With empathy we act
with sensitivity and awareness while still remaining
connected to the Truth of our Being (as unlimited
potentiality.)

Instead of sympathizing with our world’s problems, we could
empathize while following that courageous voice inside that
says, “Do something – it’s your destiny.”

By finding and following your mission (whether it’s to be a
great friend, an activist, a healer, teacher, innovator,
way-shower, insert-any-form-of-passionate-living, etc.),
while seeking the Kingdom of Heaven within, you will find a
storm of ever-increasing meaning elegantly supplying you
with an abundance of joy.

Again, I believe that Passion and Purpose are the panaceas
to all disconnection(s.)

I hold the vision of you and all light-workers finding,
embracing and fulfilling their passion and purpose.

7613 Comments2009-09-15+16%3A23%3A00Anisa »

I love you! Lol, can I say that? I’ll say it again – I love you, and the work that you do. You hit the nail SQUARE on the head, without me even telling you that I had ‘purpose’ issues! That was my other problem, and I didn’t even realize that the two were connected! I kind of came to the same conclusion that you did, although you fleshed it out way better, and gave me many points I hadn’t thought of. I decided to stop worrying about what my purpose is, what I can contribute, and decided to work on my spirituality, figuring that I will understand my purpose when it comes to me. Thank you, Anisa. Again, thank you. Please don’t ever think that what you do isn’t purposeful! As my husband would say, sometimes you can’t be the person who cures cancer or AIDS. But, you could be the person that ENCOURAGES that person to do it! I know what he means now.

Again, thank you for answering this for me! I am VERY honored to be featured, and, if this is as prevalent as it seems, you’ve touched MANY just with this one act!

Comment by ~S~ — September 15, 2009 @ 1:27 pm
WOW! This article touched me as none other has. Your theory makes alot of sense. It has helped me understand my emotional roller coaster… Thank you

Comment by ana — September 15, 2009 @ 1:28 pm
I have come to a similar conclusion after working with Manifesting for the past two years, both for myself and many of my clients. Even when we get really good at manifesting, and the material stuff shows up easily, it’s easy to get lost in the hamster wheel of needing to constantly be manifesting something new. That’s where the juice is usually, in the wanting and process of manifesting. However, I’ve realized that the state of joy-peace-freedom-love-gratitude is the true ultimate manifestation. Conjuring up all kinds of stuff may help us feel that state for some period of time, but whenever that state is connected to the attainment of some outer objective, the feeling will eventually disappear or wear off. So, better to go for what we really want in the first place: the feeling state (or the Kingdom of Heaven within), and then let things manifest naturally with no pressure of “needing” of things to manifest.

As respects what pulls us down, I’ve done much work and study in this area and there can be several types of energetic dynamics that can affect us. Everything from unresolved emotional energies created in our past that get triggered in the present moment, to the “pain-body”, to spirit attachments, to past life issues. It can be a lot deeper than one might think. My expertise has evolved into finding what is at the root level causing the problem and then removing it. In the process of doing that work, I’ve had to keep digging deeper to find the roots, and that is why the past life stuff comes up often. And, the attachments issue is much more common than most people realize, and there can be varying degrees of attachments that are influencing us in destructive or unproductive ways.

So, for S, who keeps falling off the emotional scale, there could be a few things going on that are causing that. It’s always good to identify the triggers. I recommend clients create a log and keep track of what triggers them into upset or low vibration. Then you can begin to identify the thinking or emotional patterns that are showing up on a regular basis.

Thanks for the article and giving me the chance to reply.

Comment by Paul Rarick — September 15, 2009 @ 8:28 pm
I think you are very astute in your perception of the reasons behind the depression and sadness experienced by individuals for what they feel there is no apparent reason. I tend to think, from my own personal experience and quest to understand, that there is usually an underlying problem or issue that one may either be blocking out or may think they have dealt with but perhaps only touched the surface. I had issues with my childhood, (my mother being an alcoholic and a single parent), that I thought I had dealt with and accepted when, in reality, I was ‘glossing over’ and had not truly dealt with. Sometimes it’s hard to accept that it’s okay to feel pain, anger, shame, etc. in a way that you would have felt it at the time the issue was occuring. I could go on and on but what I’m basically saying is that these feelings should be truly explored and accepted as valid feelings. I think that once validated and accepted you can truly forgive, confront, accept them as part of you.
I think that there are also physical reasons also. In my case, it was living in a home where black mold was inside the walls. I had no idea that the way this affected me physically also attributed to feelings of depression and hopelessness.
There are so many things to be explored and do vary from person to person. It taked time to truly sit back and ‘dig deep’ to see if perhaps there was something missed or not truly dealt with completely.
Just my take on the subject. Thanks for letting me share!!

Comment by Terri — September 15, 2009 @ 10:46 pm
Hi Anisa, Love your work. And today I want to add a thought to this topic.
Having experienced suicidal depression many times and lived through my father’s suicide when I was 7 yrs old. And studied metaphysics (LOA) since I was 16 (for 30 years now) I think I have found an attitude worth sharing as I no longer experience the rollercoastering I did until my mid thirties.

I believe that when we experience depression it is our Being, or our potential, guiding us to just be. To stop. To spend time on doing inner creativity. Doing the little things that make us feel good. To relate to our self.
Think of nature, it is either creating (growth) or disintegrating (dying). Yet even in dying/disintegrating, nature is creating something new ~ mulch to aid its growth.
When we are allowing and accepting a part of our self as dying (yet never the important part ~ Our Being), we can stop fighting the process and allow/know ourselves to be safe!
It is not wrong to allow part of ourselves to die … I just pruned some dead branches off my camelia bush today and yet it continues to bloom beautifully … just as we humans do.
I used as a mantra when I was depressed (in between the highs of helping clients do great things!) that “I am doing inner creativity now”. I stopped making depression a wrong or a bad experience!! And all I can say is it worked for me.
Thank You.

Comment by Marianne Thorne — September 15, 2009 @ 11:53 pm
Hi ~S~,

Thank you for your kind words… and I have to tell you – I LOVE you too! I recognize there are other factors for depression, but there was something about your question that triggered an intuitive knowing that we were really talking about ‘purpose’. Some of the comments below are very wise about digging deeper, learning to release attachment, and just learning to be and be okay with being. There’s great potential for growth in these acts and decisions. And, for you and I, there’s a knowingness that we must be intentional about our contribution. One thing that supports me more than any other is making sure that I have a least one area of my life where I can live intensely at all times. This area ebbs and flows with the moon as does my ‘intensity’ – one month it’s my family, the next it’s a creative project, the next it’s my work or my spiritual pursuits, the next it’s spiritual activism, and so on. I appreciate very much your husband’s wisdom…. reminds me of the ‘starfish story’ Thank you ~S~ for the honor of connecting and co-creating with you.

I hold the vision of your heart and soul fulfilled. love and light, Anisa

Comment by Anisa — September 16, 2009 @ 5:41 am
Thank you, Ana. I’m so pleased and honored to have this opportunity. Thank you also for taking a moment to share!
With love, Anisa

Comment by Anisa — September 16, 2009 @ 5:42 am
Hello Paul,
You are very wise. Thank you for sharing and for the advice. I agree and the issue with our pain-body is an important one to address and understand. I appreciate what you say about… “better to go for what we really want in the first place: the feeling state (or the Kingdom of Heaven withing), and let things manifest naturally”. It’s a hard lesson for many manifestors! I also appreciate your advice regarding keeping track of the triggers. My personal EFT work has been monumental in supporting my growth and by logging what triggers me, I’ve found opportunities for growth that previously I had been mindless to.
Thank you again! Love and light, Anisa

Comment by Anisa — September 16, 2009 @ 5:47 am
Hello Terri,
Thank you for sharing and for your wisdom. I understand about ‘glossing over’ and there have been times when I hadn’t realized I was doing this – or putting my head in the sand because I didn’t know what to do with those emotions. I just knew I didn’t want to feel them. Before I had personal growth tools such as meditation and EFT, digging deep was a challenge. I can remember in my 20′s being in a seminar with Jack Canfield. We were to bring a towel the next day because we were going to beat on a chair as we went through all of our emotions and thoughts regarding one person in our life that we needed to forgive. I woke up in a cold sweat so anxious that it was everything I could do to show up that day. Then, I stood up and asked, “Is there any other way to get through this WITHOUT having to feel all these emotions”????!!! There was about 500 other people there and they all laughed out-loud! I shrank but committed to the process anyway. It was cathartic and transformational but very difficult. Going deep is important if we are truly committed to growth. And, I’m so thankful to now know how to listen to my inner guidance and to have less-traumatic tools for growth.
Thank you again, Terri. love and light, Anisa

Comment by Anisa — September 16, 2009 @ 5:53 am
Hello Marianne,

Thank you for sharing and I especially appreciate you wisdom regarding daring to STOP having an opinion about depression one way or the other. I have found such peace in refusing to judge and refusing to have opinions about my ‘stuff’ of life.

I like your metaphor — ‘pruning our dead branches’ is important for our growth and actualization.

love and light,
Anisa

Comment by Anisa — September 16, 2009 @ 5:56 am
Hi Anita

Thanks for the brilliant and timely article about depression, pain, passion and purpose

Had recently been experiencing this after a huge burst of energy am now back on track nd looking forward to visiting Texas at end of this month more “yee Haa’ than Aaargh!

Hugs from across the Pond

Graham

Comment by Grahamtut — September 17, 2009 @ 3:49 am
I love the idea of a book on spiritual activism – its time has come! I look forward to seeing your ideas on that.

About the suicide/depression thing: I have some thoughts on why that happens, and have been interested to see these comments: what I have to say may just be the same thing in a different form. I got a clue from hearing a quote from the Dalai Lama; I have to paraphrase it, because I don’t remember where it came from, but I remember the gist, because it struck me strongly: “Life isn’t about happiness. It’s more complicated than that.”

Lately I keep coming face to face with how perfectionism gets in my way (and doesn’t exactly make me charming to be around, either). Don’t get me wrong: I believe that striving for an ideal makes us better. It’s just when we start insisting on it that things run amok. As Jane Austen puts it, “We can’t control our feelings, but we can our actions.” I used to focus more on the second half of that; now I’m taking a serious look at the first half.

Life on earth is a mystery. It includes much joy and beauty, but it is not universally happy. Pain and grief and anger are real, and to deny them (instead of allowing them to painfully and humiliatingly move through us the way they want to) is in a very real sense to hang on to them, to lock them up where they can’t move on as they’re meant to. Which means they fester.

There’s a sort of ethic in a lot of spiritual traditions about willing “bad” feelings into submission. Especially in the U.S., we are addicted to happy endings and feel it’s a sign of spiritual lack when we’re unhappy or deeply doubtful. I’d suggest that this is not only counterproductive; it’s actually dangerous.

Madeleine L’Engle quotes H.A Williams on this: “When I attempt to make myself virtuous, the me I can thus organize and discipline is no more than the me of which I am aware. And it is precisely the equation of my total self with this one small part of it which is the root cause of all sin. This is the fundamental mistake often made in exhortations to repentance and amendment. They attempt to confirm me in my lack of faith by getting me to organize the self I know against the self I do not know.”

While this is in Christian language, the meaning is easily translated to a broader spirituality. “Sin”, in its root meaning, simply means missing aim: when we do this, we are off track. Repentance means “to turn away from” – so when we turn away from messy emotions and try to do “better” than that (amendment), we are off track. When we try to force the mystery into our ideas of what’s right and what’s holy, we are off track.

Force is the key, here. I once read, in a book on child abuse, that sex entered into lovingly differs from forced sex in the way that a caress differs from a slap: same hand, same cheek – but very different feel.

So while techniques such as your own excellent version of EFT can really help us move in a better direction, it’s important to remember that some of that movement is really not up to us: it’s a bigger picture than that. What I’ve discovered is that trying to be happy and upbeat and deeply enlightened all the time strangles some of my deepest and most powerful and yes, spiritual feelings and connections. The mystery isn’t always comfortable, but it’s real. Feelings aren’t neat and pretty, but we control them at our peril – and believe me, I know this from personal experience, and run into this reality every day. If there’s a disparity between what we believe in our conscious minds and what we honestly feel, it leads to violence, or at least cruelty, against ourselves and others. How could all the atrocities of the world happen without denial of human feeling? And how can they stop without our changing how we express what we feel?

As the anonymous Zen saying goes, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” We may not always like the chore of feeling what we feel, but it’s as necessary to life as water (and washing the dishes). I am all for steering feeling in a better direction if and when we honestly can, but sometimes feelings we choose to label “bad” are really spirit, calling to us in its strange and painfully wonderful way.

I know this is not a popular point of view, but it is one that seems to work better in real life than forcefully pretending it’s possible for everything to be and feel wonderful all the time. As Marianne Thorne points out, in a way, it’s a kind of disrespect of the mystery of life, which flows on and is so much bigger than what we know.

That’s my take, anyway. I appreciate your raising this question on your blog, because I think it’s important, and it’s given me a chance to put my own thoughts on the subject into form.

Comment by Sunday Oliver — September 18, 2009 @ 2:18 pm
Is that the truth!!!!!!! It brings to my mind the passage that states something like the things i want to do i doeth not and the things i wish not to do are the things i do. If i could fing the way to live like that again life would be great.

Comment by angela — September 19, 2009 @ 2:52 am

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