Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

Some of us consider it our mission to raise the collective vibration by doing what we can to raise our own, and however often I’ve said what I’m about to say, I think the best way to avoid distraction or depression is to consistently embrace our creative and spiritual practices.

I’ve had trouble staying centered lately. It happens every now and then, but it seems to have gotten worse and I’ve watched myself get distracted and frustrated when I could be writing, playing music, meditating or doing anything else that helps me stay centered and fills me with the spirit.

I’m learning that our emotions might dip if we don’t stay dedicated to our passions. Emotion is a powerful tool that can be used positively or negatively, and those of us who are sensitive to the world’s harshness might suffer if we don’t keep our spiritual links strong. Not only could we suffer – our negativity could make the people around us suffer too.

I’m not saying we should look solely to things like music or meditation to solve our emotional problems, and when it comes down to it, we’ll have to take a serious, discerning look at ourselves to find out why our emotions are sometimes out of whack.

This is what I’ve done, and I’ve arrived at the conclusion that I haven’t been doing enough to keep my spirituality intact. I’ve let a lot of things distract me lately, and as much as I hate to admit it, the work has suffered.

I haven’t communicated with what I call the ‘higher self’ as much. I haven’t written as many articles. I haven’t played as much music, but that’s because of this endless sore throat that I imagine the harsh winter weather has caused.

Above all, I’ve noticed that I tend to blame my external reality for any unhappiness I feel. I’m only saying all of this in hopes that it helps those of you with similar issues, and it’s easy (and almost preferable) to blame the external for the things we go through or our unwillingness to do what we’re here to do.

My motivation has waned lately, and along with it has come selfishness, sensitivity and an increased chance of feeling low in any given moment. Only now that I’m getting back to full speed do I see that an absence of disciplined spiritual practice is partly responsible for this unhappiness.

I don’t know about any of you, but slacking on my spiritual work has caused me to have some pretty low days. Now, I’m realizing just why I’ve had so much trouble and I’m working to set things straight, but again, an absence of spiritual work isn’t the only thing that causes depression or general negativity.

No matter how hard we work or how often we meditate, we’ll still have to question a few things about ourselves if we get mad or depressed at the drop of a hat. Serious inner searching is in order for those who just can’t seem to escape negativity’s grip, but staying dedicated to spirit seems to help a lot.

I feel more alive; more aware; more willing to do things I would’ve rigidly rejected a short time ago. Staying open and disciplining myself in a few key areas is already enriching my life, and I’ve found the wholeness that seemed missing.

Life opens up for us when we open up to it, and when I say ‘life’, I don’t just mean our external reality. I mean our inner reality too, and I feel the effects when I close myself off from it, even for a short time. I feel the increased frustration and the intense wish that things were better, but it all goes away when I stay aligned and dedicated.

I don’t need or want anything when I stay aligned. I feel completely whole, and I know I’m loved and accepted in the eyes of our creator. My outgoingness stays strong, and I generally feel happier and more secure.

It seems that beyond striving to transcend the personal demons that have held us all back at one time or another, we’ll want to stay open, aware and receptive to the voice of spirit if we want to find any degree of lasting happiness or wholeness in life.

I’m sure some of you would disagree (no matter what’s said, there’s always someone somewhere who’ll disagree), but I only speak from personal experience. What applies to me might not apply to you, but it seems right to encourage us all to stay dedicated and maybe even discipline ourselves a little.

A little bit of discipline is always healthy, and while we don’t want to turn into human robots by overregulating ourselves, we’ll find that there are a lot of benefits to embracing discipline – especially if we can’t figure out why we’re so unhappy.

I’m confident that I’ve found the source of my recent dissatisfaction, and one thing I’ve realized through it all is that we have every reason to be unhappy. Think about it – so much happens here every day that could easily bring us down and keep us down, and whatever higher entities are helping us would probably understand if we all threw in the towel.

This is a tough job, and it almost makes sense to get depressed when we really think about how dark this world can be. We knew what we signed up for before we came here, however, and we were confident that we could achieve our goal anyway.

And for the most part, we are. As we stay diligent, stay disciplined and refuse to wane in favor of distraction or depression, we make a significant change. We help everyone open up, even if it’s only on a superficial or subconscious level, and we achieve our goal little by little.

To those of you who are struggling right now, know that you aren’t alone. I know what you’ve been through to an extent, because I’ve been through my own heartbreak. I lost a brother last year to one of the worst enemies out there, and so much else has happened that could easily be classified as ‘negative’.

I feel your pain, even though I haven’t experienced exactly what you have, and thousands of others have too. This is a time when we’ll want to stay strong, and it gets easier when we throw ourselves into our spiritual work without using it as an excuse to avoid our external reality.

Throughout all of the pain, suffering and heartbreak, I remain convinced that this world can be heavenly. It already is in its own way, and we’re uncovering its heavenliness with each determined effort we make to raise our vibration and keep it as high as we can, exploring our consciousness and helping others awaken in the process.

We aren’t on this mission alone. We’re given more help from the other side of the veil than we realize, but even if we weren’t given any, we have each other. We have each fellow seeker by our side, and we’re blessed with the ability to communicate as if we were face-to-face, even though some of us are seas apart.

If you start to feel as low as I have these past couple months, feel free to keep two things in mind: It’s understandable to feel the way you do, and yet, you can overcome it.

Bad moods are as real as we let them be, and as easily as we embraced them, we can transcend them. It isn’t always easy, and just because we feel like we’ve found a solution doesn’t mean we won’t get upset or face hard times, but we’ll just have to be diligent.

We’ll have to at least try to shine our inner light and help others shine theirs. We might have to work on ourselves or our emotions, but we’ll eventually get where we need to be. When we do, we’ll be glad we stayed diligent and made an effort to transcend the obstacles that have kept us from being who we truly are.

In essence, we’ll want to stay strong and devoted if we want to get through hard times or conquer our own emotions. Luckily, we aren’t the only ones on this wild earthly ride, and we can help each other by sharing our experiences and the things we’ve learned.

(Share this article freely.)

I’m a twenty-one year old writer, musician and blogger, and I created The Culture of Awareness daily news site.

The Culture of Awareness features daily spiritual and alternative news, articles I’ve written, and more. Its purpose is to awaken and uplift by providing material about the fall of the planetary elite and a new paradigm of unity and spirituality.

I can also be found on Facebook ( and ) and .