Soul Caring by JJ Gormley
Dictionaries
furnish little help in getting to the heart of "soul." Webster's tells
us that soul is "the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating
cause of an individual life, or the spiritual principle embodied in human
beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe." Perhaps
an easier way to think about soul is to appreciate its negative side.
When soul is missing, so too is meaning in all its various dimensions.
A quick glance at the
shelves of self-help books in any Barnes & Noble reveals a long list
of contemporary maladies–yearnings for self actualization, the meaning
of life, the search for eternal values, the quest for spirituality. In
short, the paradoxical nature of soul suggests that it is devilishly
difficult to define and fully understand, but we all know when it's missing.
Tracy Kidder's 1981
Pulitzer prize-winning book, "The Soul of a New Machine," seems at first
to have little to do with soul. Yet his trenchant story of the trials
and errors of a young group of computer whiz kids not only foretold today's
Internet business model but also captured the soulful character of an
exhilarating collective quest that had just as much to do with creativity,
ideas, as monetary reward.
Soul caring ought to
be a daily feature of each of our lives. It needn't approximate Kidder's
true-life story. In fact, it will likely be decidedly more mundane and
far less financially rewarding, but nonetheless equally essential to
our spiritual health.
Thomas Moore, in his
1994 best-selling book, "Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth
and Sacredness in Everyday Life," suggests that caring for the soul need
not focus on the personality or relationships. Rather, he argues that
"[T]ending the things around us and becoming sensitive to the importance
of home, daily schedule, and maybe even the clothes we wear, are ways
of caring for the soul."
How do I care for my
soul? It shouldn't surprise anyone that my personal yoga practice plays
a featured daily role. Yoga illuminates self-knowledge and self-acceptance.
We define our physical limits and evolving potential each day in our
asana practice. For me, soul is the glue that binds body and mind to
some higher spiritual essence. Although you may choose to avoid any religious
connotation, yoga nonetheless can enable a new found discipline that's
good for the soul.
My practice also reminds
me of the importance of attending each day to routine matters. These
invariably include mundane chores requiring small decisions, but not
infrequently they involve major decisions and changes in my life that
affect those around me. Tending our garden each day, in essence, becomes
a surprisingly useful way to care for our soul. It furnishes depth and
gives value and substance to who we are, what we do, and how we attend
to doing it.
And, as Webster's definitional
reference to "spiritual principle embodied in the universe" implies,
how we each attend to our souls on a daily basis is inseparably linked
to the world's soul. Putting meaning, value, and heart into our daily
lives enhances our relatedness to all living things. This isn't so much
Pollyanna, as it is recognition of our universal interconnectedness.
Simply witness the impact of the Internet, telecommunications, and global
climate change. The world could use a bit of soulful reflection not just
over its growth opportunities but over its consequent wrinkles as well.
First and foremost,
however, we must care for our souls here at home. Attending to universal
quests will inevitably fail if those on the quest are devoid of soul.
I can't think of a better way of starting than using our yoga practice
as a soulful means of developing inner awareness, introspection, and
intimacy with self.