How Ione Butler Battles Her Depression by Uplifting Others

British born actor, host, voice-over artist, speaker, entrepreneur and founder of Uplifting Content Ione Butler seems to have it all.

With all her success, people assume that her entire life is actually a highlight reel. But Butler’s biggest achievements are a result of trying to rise up out of her lowest points.

When depression attempted to hold her down, Butler had other plans.

She moved to Los Angeles to jumpstart her acting career, but when that hustle seemed too overwhelming and she started to feel like her career choices weren’t aligning with her values, instead of completely giving up, Butler decided to take back control of her life and start living her purpose.

So after battling depression, she decided to use her hindrance to her advantage. She always knew life had more meaning when she was being of service to others so she decided to use her experience with her mental health to help others.

Thus, the birth of Uplifting Content, which is just that – uplifting content.

Her site is filled with blogs, stories, videos and more meant to help visitors find inspiration, support and encouragement to live happier and healthier lives.

“Uplifting Content is to remind you of all these fantastic, amazing humans who are making huge differences and doing things, big and small,” Butler said. “To remind everyone: this is your power. This is what you can do. There’s more of us wanting to make a positive impact than there are those wanting to drag everyone down.”

But choosing to one day find your purpose and live by it is easier said than done. Butler’s journey has been a cycle of trying new things, having it not work out and repeating until something finally stuck.

But what really helped her was the ikigai.

Ikigai is Japanese for finding your purpose at the “intersection of what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at, what you can get paid for and what makes the world mean more,” Butler said. 

Photo via Instagram/ionebutler

Now, Uplifting Content helps her get out of her lowest moments just as much as it helps her audience.

“(Uplifting Content) has given me back control,” Butler said. “It’s given me ownership. It’s given me a brand, tons of opportunities. Just the size of the audience has enabled me to really go out there, speak more, do more, meet more people and impact them.”

Most importantly, messages from fans of her site remind her that she’s made the right choice.

“People don’t realize that their one comment or message really keeps me going, in the same way, me doing this keeps them going,” Butler said. “So we’re all in it with each other and for each other. The comments mean everything.”

But depression isn’t easily cured. She still has her lows, but in these moments, she reminds herself that this too will pass and joy is just on the other side.

Most importantly, Butler chooses it to view her depressive state through a more positive lens.

“Instead of seeing (my depression) as this horrible thing, seeing it as ‘I’m going to work through this and then I’m going to use it to help other people,'” Butler said.

After amassing an entire audience with her brand, Butler hopes to see Uplifting Content to move toward becoming a movement of “uplifting people, so they can go out and share their gifts and make an impact and do what they really want.”

If you could like to support Butler’s mission in any way, you can donate to her patreon.