What is truth really? Is it relative to each person? Is the fundamental truth of life a shifting force that never stays the same? Is it essentially changeable depending on who you are and what your perception is? I think perhaps it is both a yes and a no. We certainly have our own perceptions which shape the truths we see in the world. Yet, I think an immutable truth is not changeable. By its very nature a truth should be unshakable, fully stable. An infallible truth is a filament of what is and will always be.
And so I was thinking just now what "Be true to your soul." means outside of airy fairy idealism or ethereal concepts. What does it mean to not waver from what the soul wants or needs for that matter? What does it mean to bring the focus from outward approval and into being right with yourself?
I know from my own experience that it is so easy to look to the world around you for approval. It is as if someone else acknowledging you are there and have done something they appreciate makes you worthy of life some how. But I found myself seeking that kind of approval and then always needing more of it. It was like a cup that could not be filled. That approval might satisfy the need to feel worthy or right in the world for a moment or a day but the feeling of instability, of being out of place, of being undeserving would always return. And when it returned I found myself doing proverbial cartwheels to regain that sense of stability again. At some point I realized it wasn't stability at all. If I had to keep going back, if I never knew how long that need to feel better was going to be satiated for, it wasn't even kind of stable. There was no truth in trying to be okay in this way.
If there was no truth, no stability in it I thought to myself... That can't be the way to getting right with myself. That can't be the way I finally find the truth of who I am. That can't be the way I finally feel settled and ok in the world. In coming to this understanding, I realized it was more about ME. About me acknowledging myself and appreciating who I was and what I was doing in the world. When I started allowing myself to admit I thought it was hilarious when people laughed so hard they snorted, or that I find myself stopping to smell a coming rain (I can't help myself), the need for that approval from outside started to drop away. My appreciation of the truths of who I was, and who I was not, stabilized both my mind and my emotions. The cup seemed to stay full a little longer. The more I did this, the fuller the cup got over time. Eventually most (because I am the first to say I am not perfect) of that cup seemed full. Most of the time I was at ease with who I was. Most of the time I was in a place where my inner waters were smooth.
As I acknowledge what makes me light up, what makes me feel calm, what makes me angry, or sad, or laugh I allow the truth of who I am to rise to the top. With that truth at the surface I am able to move through life with the stability I never found trying to be who I thought I should be. In making decisions from this place I was able to '"Be true to your soul" in a real world way. I also did not find it as hard to be in the world. When I made choices from these truths I was suddenly okay with the outcome even if it wasn't what I wanted at the time because I KNEW I did the right thing for me. Doing the right thing for yourself was/is always the best anyone can do. And no one can expect you to do more than your best.
So with the airy fairy idealism of the notion to "Be true to your soul." as well as the grounded reality of it I find some stability. With both aspects I find that filament of what is and will always be regardless of the outside world or circumstance.
And so I was thinking just now what "Be true to your soul." means outside of airy fairy idealism or ethereal concepts. What does it mean to not waver from what the soul wants or needs for that matter? What does it mean to bring the focus from outward approval and into being right with yourself?
I know from my own experience that it is so easy to look to the world around you for approval. It is as if someone else acknowledging you are there and have done something they appreciate makes you worthy of life some how. But I found myself seeking that kind of approval and then always needing more of it. It was like a cup that could not be filled. That approval might satisfy the need to feel worthy or right in the world for a moment or a day but the feeling of instability, of being out of place, of being undeserving would always return. And when it returned I found myself doing proverbial cartwheels to regain that sense of stability again. At some point I realized it wasn't stability at all. If I had to keep going back, if I never knew how long that need to feel better was going to be satiated for, it wasn't even kind of stable. There was no truth in trying to be okay in this way.
If there was no truth, no stability in it I thought to myself... That can't be the way to getting right with myself. That can't be the way I finally find the truth of who I am. That can't be the way I finally feel settled and ok in the world. In coming to this understanding, I realized it was more about ME. About me acknowledging myself and appreciating who I was and what I was doing in the world. When I started allowing myself to admit I thought it was hilarious when people laughed so hard they snorted, or that I find myself stopping to smell a coming rain (I can't help myself), the need for that approval from outside started to drop away. My appreciation of the truths of who I was, and who I was not, stabilized both my mind and my emotions. The cup seemed to stay full a little longer. The more I did this, the fuller the cup got over time. Eventually most (because I am the first to say I am not perfect) of that cup seemed full. Most of the time I was at ease with who I was. Most of the time I was in a place where my inner waters were smooth.
As I acknowledge what makes me light up, what makes me feel calm, what makes me angry, or sad, or laugh I allow the truth of who I am to rise to the top. With that truth at the surface I am able to move through life with the stability I never found trying to be who I thought I should be. In making decisions from this place I was able to '"Be true to your soul" in a real world way. I also did not find it as hard to be in the world. When I made choices from these truths I was suddenly okay with the outcome even if it wasn't what I wanted at the time because I KNEW I did the right thing for me. Doing the right thing for yourself was/is always the best anyone can do. And no one can expect you to do more than your best.
So with the airy fairy idealism of the notion to "Be true to your soul." as well as the grounded reality of it I find some stability. With both aspects I find that filament of what is and will always be regardless of the outside world or circumstance.
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