Soul is a word with which we are all familiar, but what exactly is it? Mateo Sol calls it “a unique essence or essential life force” that is “ultimately trying to return back to the embrace of eternity; to remove the veil that makes us feel divided and experience the blissfulness of Unity once more.” The Cambridge Dictionary says the soul is “the spiritual part of a person that some people believe continues to exist in some form after their body has died, or the part of a person that is not physical and experiences deep feelings and emotions.” While everyone knows what the physical body is, it is the not physical part of the definition that complicates our understanding. We are so much better with what we can see and touch. We cannot do these things with the soul.

Contemporary shamanic teacher Christa Mackinnon writes that “it is our soul that provides us with a kind of inner voice, a moral compass and direction. It is our soul that we hear as this ‘little voice inside’ reminding us that there is more we can become, and it is our soul that suffers when we don’t nourish it by integrating a spiritual component into our lives and strive to give our lives meaning and purpose.” So how do we nourish our souls?

Just as we differ in how we nourish our bodies, so too will we differ on how we choose to nourish our souls. A few suggestions include meditation, mindfulness, or breath work; investigating your shadow self; spending time (however possible in this time of social distancing) with people who make you happy and distancing yourself from those who do not; connection with nature; cultivating gratitude; being creative; and reducing time spent with the news and social media . And just as we need to nourish our bodies on a daily basis, we need to nourish our souls with equal diligence. I received a tchotchke from one of my sisters that says “Take time to do what makes your soul happy” and I have another that says “It is well with my soul.” These are daily reminders for me of the importance of soul care.

Why take care of your soul? Because the soul is eternal. The body that you inhabit today will one day die, but your soul will not. Your soul will reincarnate again and again in order to grow, to learn lessons and hopefully to assist the growth of others by sharing lessons that you have already learned. There is a phrase that refers to someone who has spent many lifetimes learning and teaching, and you generally recognize such a person once you’ve gotten to know them. It is “old soul.” Perhaps you know one of them. Perhaps you are one.