Care Of The Soul
The soul is the highly subjective, individual sense of wholeness and goodness. The soul strives for wholeness and goodness. A cared-for soul seeks to spread wholeness and goodness.
There are several forms of care for the soul. There is the care of the soul based on your convictions and your own spiritual ritual that comfort you daily, a self-care of the soul, and – when needed – spiritual care by a spiritual care provider.
In the case of Holistic Religion, the spiritual holistic values are clear, inspiring, empowering, and easy to embrace even by critical thinkers.
Your own spiritual “ritual” may sound pompous, but isn’t. Carving out ten minutes for meditation a day, goes a long way toward the care of the soul.
The practice of meditation raises your awareness of breathing and your total dependence on breathing. Life begins with an inhale and ends with an exhale. The act of breathing connects us to life and to all living beings. It helps us appreciate the essentials of life: ours and others.
Self-Care Of The Soul
What supports the care of the soul?
Being in Nature
Nature – be it a garden, park, mountain hike, walk on a beach, or forest – balances, comforts, and heals.
Being with beauty
Like Nature, beauty – as in a visit to a museum, art gallery, concert, etc. – also restores inner harmony.
Choosing your soul’s “diet” wisely
Feed your soul personal development, self-empowerment, and inspiration with a pinch of humility. (Since we have a propensity toward hubris, it’s good to keep it in check.)
Paying attention to your yearnings
No, I’m not referring to compulsive shopping or a relentless pursuit of a failed relationship. I’m referring to the recurring, powerful urge to go somewhere, visit someone, or do something that may – or may not – make immediate sense. If you have such a feeling ask yourself what you expect to happen if you follow this intense want. There are many suppressed longings inside you; the yearnings you pushed aside, ignored, and silenced. Listen to them: often, they hold more meaning than your logical thoughts!
How to care for your soul?
Make time for your soul care.
Create a space that reflects your soul. (Surround yourself with things that matter to you.)
Meditate.
Feel your feelings.
Reflect.
Do something good for another being.
Is the care of the soul a necessity or luxury?
Life is a process of becoming. Not becoming a better tool for some specific application, but becoming an increasingly better version of you, developing your spiritual identity.
Without the care of the soul, you’ll lose your uniqueness and become yet another – and eventually, dispensable – screw in the socioeconomic machine. Your value reduced to a function that enriches big businesses.
Your life isn’t a business. Your life is so much more than work. You have private thoughts, feelings, values, dreams, and hopes. If you don’t want to be stripped of your soul and individuality, the care of the soul is essential.
What are the benefits of the care of the soul?
You’ll feel good, calm, confident, and strong.
You’ll maintain the connection with the true you.
Your consciousness will expand.
Your empathy will grow.
You’ll feel compelled to share your essence.
You’ll fulfil your life and it will be a life well-lived.
(Even after you’re gone, your life will retain its value and produce a ripple effect of benefit to others.)
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It is my personal belief that our bodies die when our physical battery expires. The soul isn’t a physical entity, it’s energy. Energy doesn’t die. It transforms itself.
The Native American Duwamish Tribe says:
“There is no death, only a change of worlds.”
I happen to believe that every living being is born with a small shard of the universal soul. It is yours for a lifetime to customize and polish into the best you, a masterpiece. Once your body dies, your soul returns to the universal soul.
If you lived your life well, your soul enriches the universal soul. The consecutive shards that will be distributed after your passing will be better thanks to you: the life you created and lived, the things you learned and mastered, and the legacy of spiritual investments you made. Everything becomes better for you having lived.
That’s my personal belief. I’m not asking you – or anyone else – to share it.
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Spiritual care is another form of care of the soul
Spiritual care – which is often associated with religion – is needed, if and when, your life stops making sense. Life seizes to make sense when we are confronted by events that have no rational explanation. A death of a loved one, a divorce, an unexpected loss of any kind, or a diagnosis of a serious or terminal disease. If and when you need spiritual care, reach out for it. Spiritual care will help you find meaning and purpose even in extreme situations.
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Strive to create balance in your life. Once you have it, you’ll realize how damaging the lack of balance is. The more you live your balance the more you’ll become aware of the lack of balance elsewhere.
Just think of the horrific imbalance in systems that caused and accept homelessness, the extinction of many species essential to our ecosystem, and environmental damage so extensive that it plunged us into climate change.
Care of the soul matters. It creates balance. It conserves your life force. It empowers. In a world that screams for attention from many directions at once, be the fortress of calm, confidence, and optimism.
#CareOfTheSoul #ModernSpirituality #Spirituality
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