We are all seekers. We seek connection, love, kindred spirits, and growth. We seek truth, beauty, answers, and the path to the best versions of ourselves.
It seems though, as soon as we find what we seek, we aren’t completely satisfied. We wanted to be fixed, but instead we discover we are more broken than we thought. We are empowered from the growth we experience, and the lessons we learn, but we want more.
The seeking begins to overshadow the seeing, because there is simply too much information coming in. The books, blogs, tweets, advice – it’s too much. It’s good, really good stuff, and it speaks to us, but it’s useless because there is no space to process it, embody it, or to put it to work in the world.
Sometimes your soul needs time to just hang out with your heart, and your truth.
Use these 8 simple ways to soothe your soul.
1. Take a personal development hiatus.
Call a time out from all incoming information. Set a time limit and free yourself. Everything will be waiting when you get back, and when you do, you’ll have more clarity on what matters.
2. Stop thinking about yourself.
Giving to others is an immediate soul soother. Find a cause, person, organization, or event that could use your expertise and dedication. Give it to them. You might think you will use up precious energy, but giving will only help you expand. The best personal development comes from helping someone else.
3. Regular digital sabbaticals.
Unplug for an hour or more a day, a full day or more a week, and consider one week every seven weeks.
4. Talk a walk.
Go outside for a walk. Leave your phone, the notifications, the podcasts, and even music behind and let your soul hear the world.
5. Read fiction before bed.
If you read before you fall asleep, trade the self-help books, and instructions that inspire your brain to churn all night with a light-hearted fiction read.
6. Put your hands on your heart.
Yes both of them, one over the other and seek from within. This has become a regular practice for me after meditation or yoga, or even when I just need to come back to me. You have more answers than you know. Trust your heart. It knows things.
7. Write what you know to be true.
You will learn to trust yourself when you start reading your own words. Write love letters to your soul and from your soul. No one ever needs to see them. Trust your soul. It knows things.
8. Let it be enough for today.
If you don’t learn or change one more thing today, if you don’t strive, or reach for one more thing today, let it be enough. It’s enough. You are enough.
Seek as we may, there isn’t one perfect, out of the box truth for everyone. Instead, we need to soothe our souls so we have the clarity to dissect our seeking. We need to make room for the answers, and time to marinate in why we seek, and what we’ll do with the answers.
Most of all though, we just need to know that if we don’t seek today, and instead turn to gratitude for exactly where we sit right now reading (or writing) these words, our souls will smile. That’s enough.
