Nourishing One's Soul

A soul is the immaterial essence, animating principle or actuating cause of an individual; the spiritual principle embodied in human beings and all rational and spiritual beings of the universe... a person's total self.

Nourish

To nourish is to feed or sustain one's self with substances necessary for life or growth.
To promote growth : to maintain or support : to nurture.

So how do we nourish the soul?

The soul, is the very essence of who and what we are; our life force and therefore, needs food on a regular basis to sustain us and prevent us from becoming stagnant and dissatisfied with life. The things that make you feel complete, alive, and one with the Universe are the structure of your soul food. This varies from individual to individual, as our souls are quite unique and complex, although many of us have some things in common. Some popular, prime sources of soul food are being at one with nature, music, deep, meaningful relationships, meditation or prayer, dancing, walking and many more.

My prime sources of soul food are nature, my family, my friends and my Craft. Within nature, I like to walk in the country, sit under trees and gaze at cloud formations, sit quietly beside running water and listening to its spirits, or walking on the beach, hearing the drag of the tide on the pebbles and feeling the sand between my toes. I like to feed and watch the birds in my garden and around the local mill ponds, where geese and swans nest and kingfishers dive from the trees to the water, watch the grasses and leaves ripple in the breeze, gaze at the Moon and stars, and walk in the woods and fields, and over the hills where Saxons once drove their pigs. Nature and history are to my mind, the greatest gift we have after life itself.. Nature rejuvenates me and teaches me the ongoing cycle of life; birth, death and rebirth, the never ending turn of the Wheel of The Year. It makes me feel alive, and connected to the Universe. There is nothing more satisfying to me than spending a day in the countryside and being at one with nature, especially in Spring, when new growth is pushing up through the countryside's floor, or Autumn, when the leaves are splashed with colour and laden with ripened fruits and nuts. Reading, writing, listening to music dancing in the rain, deep relationships and my Craft also make me whole, but most important of all these, are my family and friends, without whom, I would be lost. I love them all dearly, and they are the core of my soul's nourishment.

Find a quiet, sacred place, sit or stand alone and listen to the yearnings of your soul and to the voice deep down within it, and you will discover your soul food. Don't ignore or delay it once you understand what your soul's nourishment foods are... feed it on a regular basis, because if you neglect your soul it will become hungry and search all the wrong places for sustenance, weakening your life of the constant energy it needs, and becoming destructive to your life. Several years of this neglect disconnects a being from their soul and it gets lost. This, sadly leads many neglected souls to life destroying areas like drug addiction, violence, crime, depression, suicide, lack of compassion and respect for others, divorce, and destruction of our Planet Earth.

So, don't neglect your soul! Listen carefully to what it has to say, nourish it and nurture it every single day of your life. It is as important, if not moreso, as feeding your hungry stomach, which also talks to you in a rumbling voice, telling you of its need for food. If your soul has been neglected for any amount of time, it is never too late to begin again, as the soul has an amazing ability to recover and flourish all over again.