Has someone ever come up to you and tucked the tag on the back of your collar into your shirt? Or pulled off something stuck on your back? Those helpful people are providing a service you can’t do for yourself because they see you from a perspective you can’t see for yourself.
Have you ever noticed that cows walking across a pasture travel over the same paths every time? We’re a bit like those cows. We get stuck in a groove and have trouble considering the possibilities that exist in the bigger field. Like with the shirt tag, we can’t even see the field of options.
When it comes to understanding our lives and making decisions on how to move forward, we can all use the help of another perspective. Sometimes it comes from a loved one who views our special essence, free of our self-critical viewpoint. Other times it comes from a trainer, coach or mentor who is guiding us methodically to bring forth our highest potential. Often it comes from something we read or hear.
I’d like to suggest there is an even loftier perspective available, one we’d do well to consult: the soul view. By soul, I mean the aspect of self that creates our juicy and distinctive stamp; the energy that animates us and attracts others to us. Soul shimmers out from a painting; rocks and wails from a song; and draws us to certain places, people and things.
Soul is also a consciousness extending out beyond our functional awareness. It connects us to memories, events, people and opportunities that we have consciously forgotten or don’t foresee. The soul takes in the whole field as well as the familiar path; the back and the blind sides as well as the parts clearly evident in front of us.
If you are feeling stuck, unable to move forward even though you believe you need to, despite the encouragement or prodding of people around you, then the soul perspective may be what you need. In my work with individuals, I have found that soul readings are very powerful. The feedback I get from clients is that images and stories they have received in the reading have stayed with them, spoken to their souls, helped them through difficult times and also helped them find the strength or path of forward motion.
You may be someone who would like that individual support, but if you are more of a self-helper, you can still benefit from soul imagery. There are numerous useful ways to access this imagery. Here is one technique you can use to explore your soul’s perspective.
Step One: Define your concern. Maybe you’re avoiding making the sales calls you know you need to make to be successful. Maybe you keep choosing partners or friends that drain your energy. Maybe you have a hole in your pocket and money drains out as fast as you fill it. Whatever the troubling situation, you have several key questions about it. You probably want to know why you’re stuck in this groove and how you can get unstuck. You also may want a clearer idea of what other possibilities are in the field.
Step Two: Once your concern is defined and you have posed the questions to your soul, sit in a relaxed position (not lying down ready for sleep) and focus on your breathing. Every so often remind yourself that you’re ready to receive a communication from your soul—a picture, a series of images, or a story that will illuminate both why you are in this situation and where to go from here. You can affirm “My soul is speaking to me now.”
Step Three: Be ready to catch the pictures and impressions that come to you by having a notebook ready. It’s important to note impressions without editing. The temptation to discount soul messages as whimsical, inaccurate, or irrelevant may be strong. Resist that tendency. Unless you already have a practice of communing with your soul, you may need time to get used to your soul’s style of speaking to you.
Step Four: Spend time with your messages. Think of them like a mysterious dream language. While they may be completely obvious to you, they are equally likely to seem strange. But if they are truly soul messages, there will be a quality to them that is haunting, resonant and provocative. As you keep focusing on the imagery, you will begin to gain clarity and ideas that will move you forward.
Step Five: Act on the ideas that flow from these soul messages. That’s the equivalent of stepping off the cow path and you may be very glad that you did.
I encourage you to find a way that works for you to get your soul’s input. I would love to hear from you about how this exercise worked if you try it. No matter how good things are now, your life still has so much more to offer because all of us are subject to following that bovine groove so we’re all ignoring some opportunities. Don’t you want to know how good it could get? Your soul is the part of you that has the answer!
Jane Meyers offers soul readings, hypnotherapy and counseling to help you change your perspective. www.janemeyers.com 541-388-2929; jane@janemeyers.com. She has been in business in Bend since 1993.
