When Julie Laipply was a child, she was a very big fan of animals. As a result, all she ever heard growing up was “Julie, you should be a vet.” So when she got to Ohio State University, she started studying to be a vet. In her senior year studying abroad in England, she thought, "Why am I so miserable? What am I doing? I don’t want to be a vet!" Julie then asked herself, "What is a job I would love so much that I’d do it for free but that I could actually get paid for?"

A significant way people take part in this ‘life not being denied’ is through our Self-expression when we get ourselves out of the way enough to allow the true Self (our Divinely Inspired Life Purpose Self) to be expressed. But what happens when we don’t? What happens when we suppress the urge to express?

Clarifying your life purpose is a team effort between the rational mind and the intuitive mind. The following exercise is an effective way to combine these two powerful resources to help you move forward along the pathway of a "life on purpose." For many people clarifying their life purpose becomes the key to unlocking their passion for life, which becomes the fuel that propels them forward.

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.

While anxiety is often viewed as a negative reaction, it has been determined that there are certain types of anxiety that are actually considered to be productive. One of the types of anxiety that is considered to be positive in one form or another is existential anxiety. Individuals that experience this form of anxiety often have a heightened awareness that they have personal freedoms. They know and understand that each decision that they make has both responsibilities as well as consequences. Therapists that discover that their patients have this condition often determine it to be positive to self-growth.

“What do I love?” People are waking up to the realization that - to the extent you are living your passion you’re happy and successful. I’m talking about being happy and successful in a balanced way. There are lots of so-called “successful” people who are not happy. They might be financially successful, and that’s all they’re able to focus on. The rest of their life drops away. To me that’s not real success.

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.