"Great heart cannot be denied." -J.R.R. Tolkien
A long time ago while thinking about the nature of humans and our condition here on Earth (as is my wont), I decided that human willpower was the most powerful force in existence. My thinking, though different now, was more or less a conclusion drawn from the whole of civilization and how we as a species persevered through all manner of turmoil to arrive where we were as a species back in 2010 (the year I came to this conclusion) through sheer application of willpower on the world, and over each other for better or worse. I no longer believe that willpower is the strongest force we have available to us as people, but I'll get to that later.
For willpower still has its place in our psyche, and it is a high and mighty place. It is willpower that drives us from lofty dreams into tangible realities. But willpower, as strong as it is, cannot do one thing. It cannot cure suffering, it can only endure it. It is the sheer force of will that brings the depressed out of bed to traverse the gray, seemingly lifeless day ahead of them, and that same will that utters the words (perhaps stuttering) of the anxious woman's public speech. And ample willpower in the wrong hands can lead to terrible results, but the inverse is true, that a good person's will can accomplish great things.
I may be rambling at this point on thoughts already recognized, but let me make the point again. You cannot will your way to healing, believe me, I have tried. I still believe in willpower, in what it can accomplish in me, but willpower pales in comparison to love. Depression and Anxiety are practically the arch-nemesis to willpower in how they subdue and subvert willpower into a measly wish, rather than a force to be reckoned with. You've seen, read, or have experienced how depression drains the will, or how anxiety changes will's own "I can" to "I could never". It's all too easy for the arch-nemesis of our mind to subdue our self-efficacy and self-esteem. But love, actual sacrificial, unconditional love, cures these places in our psyches.
It may be a slow, even arduous, process, but this love assures our inmost mindset against depression and anxiety. It is Intimate, but not romantic; True, but not always affirmation; Caring, but not doting; Independent, but not aloof. This is how I've experienced the love that has and still is restoring me and bringing me up above the forces that would sap my willpower. From the position such love has given me, my willpower can truly do its work in my life and the lives of others, and that is the end to which we as a species must reach:
That our love may overflow into one another as we raise each other up above ourselves.
We can still do great things, but it cannot come from our willpower alone.
