A Soulful Life

[Photo Credit: Hoach Le Dinh on Unsplash]

I've felt it while I've been at the laptop, writing. I've felt it when in the throes of turning out a podcast. I've felt it while I've stood before a live audience, telling tales or singing one of my songs. And almost always, I've felt it while having coffee with a friend, sharing stories of our travels along the Unknown Path. It's the deep contentment of living the life I'm supposed to be living.

The soulful life sneaks up on us. It begins when we take seriously the insistent voices whispering to us from the depths, or the synchronicities that magically open doors for us (or perhaps close them), or the yearnings of our heart that will not accept a substitute for the thing longed for. Then, it leads us by way of curiosity--"What if ...," we ask?--as we take a step in the direction of those mysterious promptings.

Then, one day, having allowed each step to deliver us to the next, we are surprised to find ourselves within sight of a destination, a possibility we could not have named, or even dreamed of. All the steps and all the roads suddenly make sense to us as we become the person we were always meant to be and as we take up the work that was always ours to take up. Finally, we have come home ... to ourselves, to our purpose, and to our unique place in the Universe. This is the soulful life.

The last conversation I recorded for this season of The Mystic Cave (there's still one more episode after that, focussing on my new book) is with Sandy Wiggins. Sandy followed the subtle call of Soul all the way from the boardrooms of property developers, who wanted to maximize profits, to the breathwork of spiritual seekers, who wanted a more meaningful life. There may have been signs early on that Sandy was destined to follow this trajectory, but those signs were not obvious to him at the time, showing up only when he stopped and looked back. That's how Soul works, giving us only what we need to take the next step.

The soulful life is not for the timid, but courage brings its own rewards, both for us and for others. Sandy, on the cusp of his own spiritual breakthrough, was once giving a presentation to a roomful of CEO's, something he had done dozens of times, laying out the business case for "green" development. Midway through, Inner Sandy began to nudge Outer Sandy aside. He wanted to speak from the heart. But how would that go over with these pragmatic, profit-minded people? Would it mark the beginning of his professional decline? Sandy felt compelled to find out. With his chest pounding, he took that one step in the direction of his destiny, abandoned his script, and ended up with what he calls a "conga line" of CEOs, all eager to talk with him afterward.

Soul is like that. It's infectious. Every soulful step we take is recognizable to anyone who is poised to take their next step. We become, in this way, leaders and encouragers to one another, not by telling anyone what they should do with their life--how would we know?--but by demonstrating what soulfulness looks like in our own. Our awakening to our place in the world becomes the catalyst for the awakening of others. However unique our individual callings, this, in the end, may be the only real purpose we've ever had: to awaken one another to the life we're supposed to be living.

To listen to my conversation with Sandy Wiggins, click on the Play button, below. To learn more about Sandy and about breathwork, follow the More Info button to the show notes.