The Soul Loves the Body

How is your soul today?

Meister Eckhart said it. “The soul loves the body.” Here lies one of life’s most beautiful, radical truths. Radical because 1) Soul is a completely accessible and profound guidance system for living freely, spontaneously, kindly, humbly, and in beloved connection. And 2) We don’t seem to speak of Soul in everyday conversation. For instance, “How is your soul today?” If the Soul is a primary operating system and we are not engaging it, I believe we are missing out on the power of Love dancing in and around us.

I am so grateful that I was born a dancer. I experience Soul as a neutral hum in my being. When I dance and move to music, I feel a surge in my body as my Soul coordinates and orchestrates the diverse systems in my being– my cognitive, instinctual, and creative pathways. A synergy happens. Time feels artful, rich, and alive. My consciousness seems to open like a flower, allowing me to listen for insights, instructions, and affirmation from the web of life.

Soul loves my body, even as I age and navigate ailments! I discover that I don’t have to perform or make a big deal out of my Soul if I can just play, dance, sing, write, make art, and enjoy Presence.

I believe that Body and Soul are needed today as never before. Unfortunatley, religion, education, and politics often promote myths about the Soul that hamper us. In the Art of Ensoulment, I debunk four soul myths that keep body and Soul separate.

1. Soul is hidden, mysteriously other, something we can’t see or feel.

2. Soul requires hard work.

3. Soul moves upward, distancing itself from the ordinary.

4. Soul is the domain of religious leaders.

If our Soul loves our body, I believe we can feel and orient to soul in body and that our creative birthrights are our most expedient means of reworking those unhelpful myths that desensitize Souls in our cultural bodies.

We need a big rework to love body and Soul TOGETHER! That’s why I believe ensouled artists, coaches, and creative teachers are needed for what lies ahead.

I get it if you are wary of soul investigation. We live in a world where body and Soul aren’t honored. Soul is core. It’s the deepest You of You. No one should be messing around with your Soul.

That is why the Art of Ensoulment begins with a sacred trust, the Sovereignty of Soul. Sovereignty of Soul is the guiding star that orients an ensouled life. Soul is pure YOU!

We thrive when we feel relatively free of other people’s energies. Conversely, in parent-child relations, marriages, religious life, recreation, work, and governmental systems that trample and disdain us in the flesh, we feel the effects of oppression.

Gratefully, our teachers remind us that our true Self continues unimpeded. I call this Soul. It’s the me of me and the you of you. Energy doesn’t die. You are blessed if you know this.

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” - Matthew 5:8

The Art of Ensoulment Playbook is brimming with creative prompts to help you jiggle and tinker around on the playground of body and Soul. One of the first prompts is this one:

Notice Soul in Your Body

Soul is basic. Her power is everything and in everything. She is the root of sacred life and all playful living.

Take time to slow down to the speed of soul. Dance with one hand to supportive music—Attune to your soul. Write down what you notice.

I love tracking what others say about Soul. The Dalai Lama says, “I call the high and light aspects of my being spirit and the dark and heavy aspects soul. Soul is at home in the deep, shaded valleys. Heavy torpid flowers saturated with black grow there. The rivers flow like warm syrup. They empty into huge oceans of soul. Spirit is the land of high, white peaks and glittering jewel-like lakes and flowers. Life is sparse and sounds travel great distances. There is soul music, soul food, and soul love... People need to climb the mountain not simply because it is there but because the soulful divinity needs to be mated with the spirit.”

Aretha Franklin says, “Soul is something creative, something active. Soul is honesty. I sing to people about what matters. I sing to the realists, people who accept it like it is. I express problems; there are tears when it’s sad and smiles when it’s happy. It seems simple to me, but to some, feelings take courage.”

Curiously, Stephen Jenkinson challenges us to call out a more expansive experience of Soul when he says,

“The self is something we lay claim to. The soul is what lays claim to us. Soulfulness is not a human quality. It is a quality that human beings partake in, a quality that can be found in how you move, how you see things, how you talk and ponder and eat and love.”

We have so much research to do. Yes? Fortunately, because Soul loves the body, it won’t be too hard or hidden, nor will it require gurus, massive systems, or dying to your body.

If you are curious, dip over into the introduction to The Art of Ensoulment: A Playbook on How to Create from Body and Soul here.

Any moment we will hit the publish button. As soon as I do, you’ll be the first to hear. I feel like an overdue pregnant grandma, believe me.

If you are interested in playing with me, I am super excited to offer live teaching this Fall in the Intro Workshop on Body and Soul: Sensitivity, Wisdom, and The Prime Directive followed by a nine-week 90-minute, weekly Zoom workshop on The Three Directives: How to create with Efficiency of Energy, Clarity of Vision and Courage to Live. The live workshops allow us to bring body and soul right into the room together, and that is where magic happens best.

I’d love playmates ready to not only practice but make art together as we learn to

• Dance Like a Shaman- Honoring big and little bodyspirit

• Dance Beyond Resistance

• Create from Golden, Neutral Energy

• Cultivate Soulsight

• Envision the Sacred Art of Time

• Navigate Worst Nightmares

• Co-Create with Sacred Connections

• and Play As If Life Depends On It!

Link here to check out the live teaching and register. If you are a praying person, please ask for special blessings for The Art of Ensoulment as a creative map, guidebook, and playground for our times.

Please share with friends and colleagues and potential playmates.

Thank you!