“Gather your family or close friends, then ask them to answer this question for you:

‘When I walk into a room, what do I bring? What’s my essence?’”

That’s the assignment Steve, my friend’s life-coach, gave him.

Steve reached out to five of his life-long friends and asked them. This is some of what they said:

“You bring a quiet strength, a warmth that radiates from your heart and bursts into that beautiful smile on your face.”

“You teach others without making them feel inferior. You walk alongside people, listen, and by sharing your own story, bring them hope.”

“You often put yourself down, doubt your self-worth. That’s a growing edge for you.”

As Steve and I sat in spiritual direction reflecting on this exercise, he said, “My friends showed me my soul. They mirrored back who I am, my core.”

Tears of joy splashed on Steve’s face. “I guess that’s what I’ve been looking for all these years—my soul—my Being.”

Our Three-Legged Stool

As humans, we’re made up of mind, body, and soul. This trinity of our Being is like a three-legged stool. When all three legs are grounded, we experience balance, inner peace, and wholeness.

We spend countless hours flitting around our minds, letting thoughts scatter around our brains like autumn leaves on a windy day. We also focus on our bodies, watching what we eat, exercising, and listening to our aches and pains.

How much time do we spend discovering our souls? Do we even know what our soul is?

My teacher says we never lose our souls. We awaken to them.

He says our souls are our essence, the core of our Being. They connect us with the Divine Spark within us. They communicate with God, receive wisdom and guidance, and help us define our purpose, our path.

Our souls are created to be our boss. They’re our operating system. They work in relationship with the software of our mind and the hardware of our body.

Too often we let the mind be the boss. It’s as if our mind says, “Get out of the way. I’ve got this figured out.”

But do we? Can we figure everything out intellectually, or do we get lost in the thoughts that ping-pong around our brains?

Maybe it’s time to rediscover our souls, let them be boss again.

But how do we do that? Here are some suggestions.

Awaken

The first step is to become aware of your soul. Recognize it’s an essential part of your Being.

Awaken to the presence of the Inner Guide with which you’ve been gifted.

Enter Soul-Space

Next, take time each day to enter the quiet, still your mind, connect with your body, and listen to your soul as if it’s sitting in the room with you, in the middle of your heart.

In the quiet, you enter the soul-space—that place deep within your heart where you awaken—you come to know beyond your intellect you are in God and God is in you. The soul-space is where you can experience being One in Divine Love and Presence.

This is your soul-talk time. A time to be still and know God, and know yourself in God.

You might ask for the grace of emptiness, so the mind-chatter ceases for a bit. In the inner room of the soul, you can connect with your sacred heart. You create an inner space that allows you to hear the voice of God.

Talk and Listen

You might talk with your soul like you do with a good friend and listen to its wise advice.

“What wisdom do you have for me today?” you might ask.  “What are you and the Divine teaching me? Can you help me quiet my mind and still my body so I can listen to your wisdom?”

Connect with the Whole

Another practice to try is to focus for a moment on each part of your Being.

What’s your mind speaking to you right now? What do you sense in your body?  What does your soul say?

Then shift your focus and become aware of all three parts of your Being working together in you. What do you experience when you connect with the Whole of being one in mind, body, and soul?

Be Patient

At first, these daily times of quiet and other soul practices might seem awkward. Our thoughts try to grab control and keep us whirling as they try to figure things out.

When that happens, we can simply smile at our minds, perhaps place our hands on our hearts, and still our thoughts by refocusing on our breath or our feet planted on the ground. We recenter ourselves in the Present Moment.

Find Your Inner Oasis

With practice, our quiet time and soul practices become a place of rest and refuge—an oasis. We walk away from the noise of the world and become present to our souls. Soul-time becomes the best part of our day.

In the soul-space, we’re able to bring our questions and problems asking for Divine Wisdom to resolve a situation. We reconnect with the most vital part of our Being.

With daily practice of paying attention to our souls, we listen more often to our soul-talk instead of our mind-chatter. Our soul’s voice becomes familiar and we distinguish between it and the distracting clamor in and around us.

When our minds blare random thoughts at us, we pause and bring our focus back to the soul-space as often as needed. Our soul-talk—our conversation with the inner voice of wisdom and love—becomes our abiding friend.

What Do I Bring Into the Room?

Try Steve’s practice. Ask a close group of friends or family what they observe you bring into the room. This mirroring of our souls through loved ones reminds us of who we are, our purpose, and how we impact the world through the gift of our lives.

Find Your Soul—Find Happiness

One of my favorite songs when I was a child was Happy the Man. Here’s a link to the Ave Maria choir singing it: Happy the Man.

I hadn’t heard that song for years. The other day its words rose up in me: This man has found his own soul. I sang the tune to myself like a mantra. It was a God-nudge—an invitation from the Creator.

Can we really find our souls? I asked God as the words sang in my heart for several days.

Yes. I heard the response. Seek your soul and you shall find happiness.

What Are You Seeking?

Maybe, if we ask what our deepest desire is, we might realize what we’re seeking is our souls.

And if we awaken to them, if we pay attention to the wisdom our souls wish to speak to us, we can enter the soul-space as often as we like. We can connect with the core of our Being—our Essence. We can get on the soul-train to happiness.

Then we too might sing with joyful gratitude, “This man/woman has found their own soul.”

—brian j plachta

brianplachta.com

Dive Deeper

This week become aware of your soul.

Notice where you experience it in your body.

Where is your soul located?
Then take time each day to connect with your soul.

Let your soul become your best friend.

Listen to its wisdom.

Throughout the day, become aware of your soul-talk.

Have conversations with your soul.

Listen to the Happy the Man song.

Do you notice a shift in your perspective?

Is the journey to discovering your soul becoming fun?

Are you gaining more clarity about yourself, your life’s journey, and purpose?

Bit-by-bit are you awakening to your soul?