Always listen to your soul and feel the purity of that moment.
~~Angie Karan
The voice within us wants to be heard. This voice speaks truth and wisdom every time we seek its guidance. This is true because the soul never lies. It only wants us to live a healthy and fulfilling life.
As a psychologist, I’m well aware that many “parts” exist within us. In the early 1980’s—just before I took my first psychology class in high school—Richard Schwartz created a theory in the field called Internal Family Systems. This theory assumes that each individual holds different aspects or parts of themselves—subpersonalities per se—that interact with one another. Each personality has a voice and type of reaction that formed as a result of difficult events or trauma. The more disrupted or distressed these parts are, the less integrated a person feels. When this is the case, people have difficulty listening within for their deepest part—the innermost self—to guide and ground them. Although Schwartz didn’t address the soul as one of the parts of our personality, it is the most vital aspect of our existence and must be acknowledged in order to experience whole person health.
The human condition is full of events that pull us off our center and create disruption in such a way that we either can’t hear our deepest voice within or simply forget that it is even there. Also, many religions teach us to listen and follow guidance outside of us rather than seeking the wisdom that each of us holds within, sometimes going as far as to claim that seeking the wisdom of the soul is a sin. Unfortunately, this has led many to feel confused and misaligned from their true path.
Now, more than ever, it is essential to go within—go to the soul to help us navigate the ever-changing human condition. The state of the world outside of us is stirred is such a way that we can easily become distracted, unsettled and thrown off our center altogether. For this reason, it is more important than ever to pause, listen and ascertain what the depths of who you really are is trying to say.
When we go inside the quiet place within, we can hear the wisdom of the soul. The essence of who we are yearns to guide us to navigate the many challenges of the human condition. I’ve likened the voice of the soul to a GPS system that both shows us the way and redirects us when we are heading off course. When our gut reaction—or the voice of our soul—speaks, it is important to listen.
How often do you stop to listen? Do you trust what your inner voice says—or do you disregard the inklings altogether?
A few months ago, I had a session with a therapy client who has long struggled with feeling good enough in life despite the fact that she is well educated and highly accomplished. For years, we’ve talked about the little girl part of her that emerges when she feels inadequate in some way. This part developed as a young child when her father became unhinged—someone who drank alcohol often and lost his temper toward she and her sibling. While she had become well acquainted with this young child part of her over the years as we worked to dissolve her reactions, she hadn’t accessed other parts of her that were more capable of managing her distress. During that session, I asked her, “What would the wise woman within you say to this?”
She paused and said, “Huh… I never thought of having a wise woman part of me.” After a few more moments, she was able to very clearly and strongly state what the wisest part of her would say and do in a similar circumstance in the future. She immediately noted how much different she felt as she came to these new conclusions. This client has since acknowledged that this newly discovered part of her has helped to navigate other stressors and challenges.
Our current circumstances are beckoning us to go deep within to access our inner wisdom as a way of moving forward. If only we paused more often to consult our deepest self, we’d likely be far less unsettled and feel far more capable of overcoming any obstacles or challenges ahead.
The soul is our biggest ally—IF we seek its wisdom. As I’ve said many times before, to know our soul is to know true health. Only when we acknowledge and come to know our innermost self will be really be able to fully align our lives.
Now is the time to resurrect our deepest self as the most important aspect of who we are. Its wisdom is invaluable.
For more information and for tips about how to deepen your relationship with the deepest you—your soul, take a look at the video below.
Katherine T. Kelly Ph.D., M.S.P.H.
With 35+ years of direct clinical experience, Dr. Kelly doesn’t just believe in helping others to heal; instead, her mission is to help them to evolve. Using her own integrative and trademarked framework—the Soul Health Model—Dr. Kelly approaches her work with clients from a “whole person” or “whole organization” perspective. She provides a uniquely progressive, yet down-to-earth approach and is well-known in therapeutic, medical and corporate communities. She thrives as she helps clients and organizations to reach what she calls “conscious evolution” through a variety of self-designed strategies. Her dedication to healing has been widely recognized as she was the recipient of the Provider of the Year Award by the regional Mental Health Association and was nominated as an Incredible Woman for a local community television network, which spotlights role models to inspire young women to pursue their own passions.