An invitation to the soul journey
- Kaitlyn Steele
- Sep 1
- 4 min read
And you? When will you begin that
long journey into yourself?
Jalāl ad-Dīn Rumi
This blog is an invitation to that long journey into yourself of which Rumi, the 13th century mystic, spoke so long ago. it is for those of us who are seekers, who live with the conviction that 'there must be something more' to life and to ourselves. it is for those of us who feel drawn to turn inwards, to embark on a deeper journey of discovery. It is a journey that begins very early in our lives as our sense of self first begins to emerge. It becomes more pressing as we enter our mid-life years and it is never-ending. It is our search for soul and it is without doubt the most important journey we will ever make. For the soul is our best self. It is our deepest, truest and most fully human self. It is our intuitive, creative and most deeply loving self. It is our sacred, spiritual self and it is beyond beautiful. It is the self we long to be, the self we are meant to be. It is the self that has been calling us home from the day we were born.
We do not always call this deeper self by its oldest name. Some speak, for example, of our true or authentic self, of our higher or larger self, of our original nature or our inner light. But however we choose to name it, we are talking about the same phenomenon, the same fundamental reality that we all experience. We hear its voice whispering in our ear. We feel it stirring within us, sense its deeper longings, know its pain. It comes to us in our imaginings and in our dreams. It disturbs us, pursues us, haunts us until at last, we turn around to see what calls us.
What urges us to turn around is a profound sense of being severed from this innermost self. Too often, we sleepwalk through our days, living life ‘on the surface’, largely cut off from the very core of our being. We spend little time attending to soul, listening for its quiet voice, heeding its wisdom, responding to its call, We have, as the writer John O'Donohue put it, 'lost the habit of soul.' Preoccupied by the many demands and pressures of our everyday lives, we struggle to find the time and space to turn our attention to the inner landscape of our being. We no longer take time to wrestle with the most important questions we will ever ask ourselves, to explore ‘the who’ and ‘the why’ of ourselves. And the road that might lead us to the answers has become a ‘road less traveled by’ to draw on the words of the poet Robert Frost.
This loss of soul can cost us dear. We may continue to live our lives as we usually do but there is something amiss. Our nights are restless. Our days are grey and joyless. Our energy flags and our passion is gone. We try to distract ourselves from a gnawing ache that nothing seems to ease for long. We seek to fill the inner void with one more possession, one more experience, one more source of pleasure or excitement, but all to no avail. For we are searching in all the wrong places. We may not know it yet, but we are starving for soul. We are mourning its loss. We are hearing its voice calling us home again and again.
And it is when we find the path that will lead us there that we take the first step on our soul journey. This inner journey is not always an easy one. It is not without effort, nor without darkness, pain and loss. But the further along the path we travel, the more we become aware that something within us is changing, that a quiet revolution is slowly taking place. The change is radical. It touches every aspect of our being and penetrates to the very core of it. It strips away that which is false to allow that which is real and true to emerge. It makes us aware of that which limits and constricts us so that we might embrace our freedom. It invites us to leave the safety of the shallows behind us that we might come to dive deeper. If we give ourselves freely and unreservedly to it, this quiet revolution will transform us from the inside out. And it brings with it a deep-rootedness, a strong sense of ‘at home-ness’ and an inner reservoir of peace, joy and hope.
At some point in our lives, all of us will hear the song of soul whispering in our ear. Perhaps we will not heed it the first time it comes or even the first few times, for most of us need to hear it many times before the song seeps into our being. My hope is that when it does, this blog will cast some welcome light on the path ahead, that it will act as a companion along the way and that it will empower and resource you in finding your own way home to soul. For there is nothing more important, more freeing and more joyful than coming home to the person we are meant to be and finding the song we are meant to sing.
Kaitlyn Steele, writer, psychologist, therapist, spiritual accompanier
and a woman in search of soul.
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