What does it mean to live a soul-driven life? This question can leave us wondering or second guessing about how honest we are with ourselves and whether we are living our truth from the inside out. But the clues are there, ask yourself, to what degree are you aligned with your authentic truth when engaging others and the situations that arise in your life. Unsure? In order to get to our soul truth we may need to peel back some outer layers.

First there is the layer of what is acceptable or approved of in society. Then there is what our family wishes for us, what our partner counts on, what our kids want from us, our friends need from us, or what the community groups we belong to have come to expect from us. They all want something from us or for us that may or may not really be at the core of who we truly are. How to tell the difference? We know we’re living a soul-driven life when what we do, say, or want comes from our authentic motivation, what we dream of, what moves us, brings out our best, or ignites our passions and zest for life. When we are in contact with any or all of these we can be sure we are living from our soul.

The shedding of all our self-imposed limitations and societal overlays gets us to the nitty-gritty of what has the most heart for us in any given situation. How to do this is always the question and the answer comes down to spaciousness. We need room to think, mull, ponder, and just plain be in order to figure out what our soul longs for. Then we can begin recentering our lives around that. It helps to go out into nature to clear our heads or give ourselves an extra five minutes with our morning coffee, or just slow our roll in the day-to-day routines and activities. When we give our soul space to see, feel, and be the foundations of who we are become clearer.

Then we need to do something a little radical. We need to stop giving a damn about what anyone else thinks about us. Go ahead, choose to listen to the words your soul has to say and then be brave enough to act on them. It may sound easy, but make no mistake, this is a soulful battle cry. It demands us to be who we are on the inside, outside in our daily lives at every moment. And this is where it gets a little weird, we may be torn between being accepted and doing what resonates with us, which is often unexpected.

We all want to be liked, understood, and validated, but at what cost. This is where living from the soul gets tricky, we get caught between the known and the unknown, comfort and fear. But here’s the deal, to give up who we are for what someone else wants for or from us that stops us from living our authentic life, is to die. When we sacrifice what matters most to us to be accepted or liked or to keep the peace we are heading in the wrong direction. A direction that takes us farther away from who we really are instead of leading us home. Trust me when I tell you there will come a day of course correction, and that can get bumpy if we haven’t been paying attention to what we really need.

Now is the time to trust yourself, your intuition, your heart. You know what is right for you and what isn’t. Believe in that. Then it becomes easy to see where you’ve been faking it. Listen to the inner nudging that tells you to go for it or steer clear. Listen with everything you’ve got. When you get closer to your soul’s deepest desires you’ll feel it, there will an effortless flow and greater alignment with joy and peace.

Stop playing by everybody else’s rules and start playing by your own. What better gift to give yourself during this season of light.

Wishing you an authentically joy-filled holiday season.

kb