Checking in on Your Soul
How is your soul doing?
Does it need a little tune up?
Sometimes you can sense you need something, but you may not be certain what it is.
New spark plugs?
Fresh filters?
Perhaps a thorough check for overall cracks, fraying, or wear.
You may sense that you’re not quite operating from your most expansive self. You wake up anxious in the middle of the night. Perhaps you are snippier and more impatient with your kids. Or you are showing more contempt and irritation with your spouse.
When I get this way, I know I need tuning up.
What does it look like to tune up your overall charging system?
Everyone’s needs are different, and a tune up requires a special approach designed just for you.
There are lots of ways to tune up your soul.
Go to church.
Reflect on your values.
Go out in nature.
Spend time with long-time friends.
I recently spent a few days with my college roommates. We are spread over a few states geographically and so we don’t get together as often as we would like.
But we had a blissful 24 hours together.
We sat for hours in sandy chairs on Narragansett Beach talking and catching up, went paddle boarding and kayaking, and ate pasta with fresh tomatoes at 10 pm.
Over this time together, we completed a full inventory of how each of our kids are doing: boyfriends and girlfriends on the scene, what everyone is doing for work, and the general lay of the land of our families.
But then we had to do our psychic catching up. How are we each doing overall? What is changing in our relationships and our lives? What’s happening on the spiritual front? How are our souls doing?
I realized in being with my besties that I long for these kinds of conversations.
Just connecting at a surface level has never been enough for me.
I don’t just want to know what’s transpiring in the transactional part of your life. I want to know how you are growing and learning and evolving.
What is changing in you?
Who are you becoming?
Honest conversations with trusted friends or mentors like these can mirror parts of yourself back to you that you might not be seeing clearly yet. They can sometimes see something in us that we aren’t noticing in ourselves.
But sometimes we don’t have the option of connecting with friends in this way. Our life might be so demanding that we can’t take 24 hours out in a particular time for a soul tune up with friends.
What are some other approaches when you desperately need a tune up? Here are some ideas:
Quiet reflection like prayer, meditation, or simply sitting in silence can help identify what might be stirring under the surface.
Bodywork such as yoga, martial arts, massage, or breathwork can reveal wisdom that your mind hasn’t caught up to yet.
Time in nature can be very grounding—a walk in the woods, sitting by a body of water, or viewing the landscape at the top of a mountain can help you feel more connected to who and where you are.
Checking in on your values is always useful. What values are you living into most right now? What values might others be violating that is impacting you?
Journaling can help you process thoughts and feelings and get you to a new place. You might capture a few things you are grateful for, or ask yourself things like, “What am I holding that no longer serves me?” or “What brings me genuine joy?”
Dance, music, or other forms of art can sometimes connect you to your most creative self and help you remember what matters most to you.
It’s important to note that what works for one person often doesn’t work for someone else. For an effective soul tune-up, you have to find the right recipe for you.
Poet Audre Lorde once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation.”
A soul tune up is oftentimes about preservation. To have the greatest impact in our brief moment on this planet, it’s important we preserve ourselves, so we have the energy and focus to do our work in the world.
What kind of loving care might your soul be asking for right now?
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