In order for you to live an authentic, meaningful life, which is the principal remedy for the depression creative people experience, you must feel that 1) the plan of your life is meaningful, 2) the work you do is meaningful, and 3) the way your spend your time is meaningful. These are three separate but related tasks, each with its own logic, demands, and obstacles.

It starts as tightness in the upper solar plexus. Then it starts to droop like the top of an ice cream cone on a hundred-degree day, eventually melting over everything to form a vague coating of ambivalence. Sometimes it matures into hopelessness and, for some, even depression. The "it" is the yearning for meaning. And it can swallow you whole.

By Laura Berman Fortgang. Human beings have often engaged in the search for meaning, but today's economic downturn has brought the subject to light in a new way. People are re-evaluating whether their financial power to accumulate possessions and wealth is the only determining factor of their happiness and success. Some are being forced to shrink their activities, their budgets and their ambitions and many report that it is not all bad. Sure, economic woes are scary and many are frightened of how long they may last, but those that can keep their wits about them are also re-discovering what really matters to them.

Uncovering your passion and purpose may require you to spend time alone. Your greatest thoughts and ideas will come in times of quiet reflection and stillness. Remember, your purpose is not something you can just think through and figure out. Instead, it is something that you feel and experience. It comes from deep inside you.

If we are to find meaning in life, we must pay as much mind to our limbic “hearts” as to our neocortical cognitions. Our positive emotions evoke thought-action tendencies in humans that broaden human attachment to others and to community service. From thence comes meaning and purpose.

The first step along the road to recovering your true Self is to recognize that you're not who you've thought you were. It's like you've gone through all your life thinking you were Bobbie Jones, the child of Mary and Bob Jones, then you find out on your sixteenth birthday that your real name is Dale Smith, and your parents are Cindy and Carl. But, in truth, the case of mistaken identity you've been living is even more dramatic than that.

After dreaming to be a veterinarian since I was 7-years old, I now had my own practice, was well respected in the community, my brother and I had recently purchased a piece of investment property in the elite College Hill area where I was now living and managing the other apartments. What's going on? Why aren't I happy? Why am I so bored with my life? That was over twenty years ago. I was 36 years of age, and what I didn't know was that I was on the verge of a midlife crisis.

Seeking your calling is a process of discovery that continues throughout your life, informed by your questions, your conflicts, and your deepest dreams. It is the journey known by many names, from Homer’s Odyssey to the pilgrimage in Dante’s Divine Comedy and the quests of the knights of the round table, to the vision quests of Native Americans, and the path of the Chinese sage, Lao Tzu. Abraham Maslow called it self-actualization. Joseph Campbell knew it as “the hero’s journey.”

You can make an assessment of your abilities in order to help uncover your purpose. These gifts can be a clue to your purpose; they can help you fulfill whatever it is you believe you are here to do.

You can make an assessment of your abilities in order to help uncover your purpose. These gifts can be a clue to your purpose; they can help you fulfill whatever it is you believe you are here to do. Talents might include athletic abilities, dexterity, musical talent, taste, artistic abilities, a sense of humor, comfort with numbers, and so on.