Feeding and Caring for the Soul

In our hurried and technologically overwrought society, it is critically important to learn to care for our soul. In our culture, much has been written about how to care for our bodies and our minds, but not enough attention has been given to the needs of the soul. Love, compassion, caring, sharing, creative expression, meaningful work, transcendence – all of these are staples of the soul’s diet. The soul longs for the experience of its own energy within the physical body and also for the feeling of connectedness with the source of Divine energy. It is ironic that we are so frequently caught up in thoughts and feelings generated by our personality and ego mind that we block the energies of our own soul and our connection to the Divine. Fear, hatred, intolerance, prejudice, greed, excessive pride, separateness, purposelessness, depression, addiction, festering anger, the desire to exercise power and control over others – these are all emotions and states of being which are toxic to the soul. Sometimes, it may seem to the human mind and the ego that it is “winning” in the game of survival of the fittest; however, the irony is that we are all inextricably interconnected, and we need each other to feel whole and to be whole. When we commit violence against another (whether physically, economically, emotionally or spiritually), we do damage to our own being. Every act that is not motivated by the wisdom of our soul, but by the needs or fears of our ego, has a karmic consequence, a debt that our soul will have to repay sooner or later. Because our personality self cannot see the workings of perfect justice on the spiritual plane, it can delude itself into acting in ways that harm others, mistakenly believing there is no consequence for such behaviour. Caring for our soul requires a conscious recognition of our spiritual nature and of the universal spiritual laws that govern our existence. If we wish to care for our soul, and not only for our physical body, then we must learn ways of being and doing that are in harmony with the energy and intention of our soul. We ought to learn the difference between what we “should” do as compared with what our soul tells us we are and wish to become. By learning to hear and follow the guidance of our inner voice, we can get back in touch with the needs of our soul, with what truly feeds us, brings us joy and allows our uniqueness and unique light to shine. Each soul has a desire to express itself and to fulfill its sacred purpose; thus we must allow ourselves the freedom and flexibility to discover and cultivate what genuinely nurtures and honors us as a unique expression of the one Divine Spirit.