Feel like something's missing in your life?

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jonathan ellerby inspiration deficit disorder vesely story winnipeg

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Kevin Anderson Photography Spiritual teacher Jonathan Ellerby.

Your life might look good on paper, but does it reflect who you really are?

Are you following your own script, or are you simply the lead actor in a drama based on other people's stories, expectations and beliefs?

In his first book, Return to the Sacred: Ancient Pathways to Spiritual Awakening (Hay House Publishing, 2009) Jonathan Ellerby introduced us to time-tested tools for reconnecting with the part of ourselves that knows the answers to those questions.

This time around, the former Winnipegger turned spiritual teacher and motivational speaker helps readers understand why and how that part may have gone to sleep in the first place.

Inspiration Deficit Disorder: The No-Pill Prescription to End High Stress, Low Energy and Bad Habits, won't hit store shelves until August, but Winnipeggers will get a sample dose this weekend when Ellerby gives the keynote address at the Healing With Spirit symposium.

The event, which runs Friday evening and Saturday at the Fort Garry Hotel, is being presented by the Learning Institute for Growth, Healing and Transformation (LIGHT).

Its goal is to provide a multidisciplinary, multi-faith forum for exploring the integral relationship between spirituality, health and healing, says organizer Doug Staley.

"We wanted to bridge the two worlds of conventional medicine and alternative and complementary medicine. We think they can learn a lot from each other," says Staley, a researcher and statistician in the department of psychiatry at St. Boniface General Hospital, who founded LIGHT in 2003.

Workshop presenters will represent traditional health care disciplines (psychology, nursing, pastoral care), alternative healing modalities (meditation, reiki, yoga, therapeutic touch, herbal medicine) and creative therapies (music, art, movement, dance).

Ellerby, 36, has walked in both worlds, travelling the globe to study with teachers and healers from some 40 different cultural traditions, and working in hospitals, prisons and corporate settings. He is the former director of organizational development and wellness for the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and currently serves as spiritual programs director for Canyon Ranch holistic health resort (famous for its celebrity clientele) in Tucson, Ariz.

While high stress and low energy have become the common cold of modern life -- manifesting as depression, addiction, job dissatisfaction, divorce, etc., rather than runny noses and sore throats -- Ellerby says they're just symptoms of a deeper underlying problem: Inspiration Deficit Disorder.

The first sign of IDD? A feeling that there's something missing in your life.

"The idea behind the book is that as long as you have the idea that there's a piece missing, stress will always resurface, bad habits will be inevitable and energy will always be difficult to manage," says Ellerby, "because the missing piece is typically you; a significant part of yourself that is not engaged."

Many of us make decisions, he says, from a place of woundedness and fear rather than from a place of intention and inspiration.

So we choose jobs and relationships for the security rather than dare to seek our heart's desire. We parent according to the expectations of others. Stress and fatigue show up to remind us we're living inauthentic, incongruent, uninspired lives.

The cure for IDD, says Ellerby, is to slow down and reconnect with the place deep within us that wants to be fed.

"You could be in a difficult job or relationship and not know what to do, but if you start filling up the rest of your time with what I call essence-boosting activities, eventually you'll become resilient and self-connected enough that you'll know the answers."

Ellerby will give his keynote address at 7 p.m. Friday and lead a workshop on the hows and whys of spiritual practice, drawn from Return to the Sacred, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets for the Healing with Spirit symposium are $20 for Friday evening, $100 for Saturday (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) or $120 for both. For more information, go to www.lightwinnipeg.org.

carolin.vesely@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 31, 2010 D5