2. View from the soul
We are used to looking at our lives and the world from what our personalities want to see. This article presents an exercise that can help us to get in touch with how our soul sees the world.
In this exercise, we are trying to get a sense of the personality of the soul, because it is what drives all the experiences and lessons presented to us as personalities.
We endeavour to take ourselves out of the frame of mind of dealing with our daily worries and try to see the world from another perspective. It will not take long, but it does need that time to be free of distractions and disturbances.
Exercise△
Do each step for as long as required, depending upon your experience.
1. Relax
Close your eyes and breathe steadily and slowly as you release tensions and focus your mind on being at peace.
2. Visualise
See yourself upon a mountaintop, looking down towards the rest of the world, taking in the panorama of the world and all those upon it.
| # | Perspective | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Power, majesty | You feel in touch with the force/will that creates the world and drives all that happens |
| 2 | Joy, empathy, humanity | You embrace all of humanity and all living beings, and wish for all to feel the joy of creation |
| 3 | Flow of life | You see how life manifests in a series of steps, each building upon what has gone before |
| 4 | Beauty | You see the beauty in both the vast forces of nature as they rage against each other and the intricacies of the web of creativity that they have given rise to |
| 5 | Truth, reality | You peer into the reality behind all manifestation |
| 6 | Perfection | You see what all could be and wish for all to become that perfection |
| 7 | Order, symmetry | You sense how all things are connected and operate in tandem with each other |
4. Contemplate/meditate
Sit with the feelings arising within that focus and allow them to flow through you.
If having difficulty selecting one of the options at step 3, perhaps do the exercise by repeating step 3 for each option that appeals to you. Then go to step 4 with the one that feels the most natural.
What's next?△
This is not a one-off exercise, but an opportunity that can be taken at any time.
At first, this exercise might seem like something novel, with no lasting consequences beyond it. However, the feelings raised will seem eerily familiar, yet somehow apart from our everyday experience. This is because those feelings are what are really driving us, but we are so caught up in our personality life that we become oblivious to them. This exercise is one way to reconnect with our soul's thinking.
If you had difficulty picking one of the choices, it may be because some of them reflect some parts of your personality. Repeating the exercise over a few days will show which one is the perspective that really reflects your soul. The key is to not be invested in which one you think you should, but let it come naturally.
The soul builds each body of the personality – physical, emotional, mental – with a couple of these aspects, with one dominating, but not the same in each body. The learning is in being able to integrate them effectively enough to be able to focus upon our purpose, and not be distracted by internal conflicts. The soul's perspective is usually not what is dominant in the personality, again going with the meme of learning to integrate seeming disparities, so what we get in this exercise may seem strange to our thinking, but touches something deeper within us.
You may get strong feelings and images while doing this exercise. They come from the soul and may be different each time, or sometimes not at all. That is ok. Sometimes the silence is words that don't make a sound but which you still hear within.
Use this exercise whenever you want to re-centre yourself in what is truly important, especially when faced with a lot of external pressures. With practice, it may only take a few seconds to do to make a difference to the rest of your day. Over time, some feelings or images may come regularly. Those may become your doorway to your soul. You can try using those to meditate upon, perhaps making this exercise redundant for you, or you may alternate them.
None of this is conceptually in conflict with any religious beliefs, but what is perceived may give rise to questions about our beliefs, and what ones are really for us, or ones we have taken on of others. This exercise is to help us be focused upon what direction we are to take with our life, which may take us on a different path than what other practitioners of our religion might do. That may not mean leaving a religion, as most offer many paths, one of which might be more suitable for us.
Ultimately, our soul is our true path to the universal consciousness, as it is in the direct line of the hierarchy of consciousnesses to our personality. It is what all true religions are meant to lead us to. We live by its grace, and its light is our light on the path.
Life decisions△
When opportunities present themselves, we can get caught up in a variety of emotions and thoughts about what it might mean for us.
Left purely to our personality devices, we may get caught up in the glamour of what the opportunity means, like more money or feeding our idea of what a dream job or relationship is. Others may try to put their spin on it, depending upon what they perceive as being good for us. They may even be the ones offering us the opportunity, and that can layer in another set of emotions depending upon our relationship with them.
The reality of any path we take in life is that it is always full of conflicts and choices we have to make along the way, none of which we have really a clear idea about at the start, but having a chance to get a view from the planner of our life might be important!
Contemplate the future of that path in the exercise over a few days. If a path is truly for us, from the higher perspective it will seem like doors opening to our inner life. If not, it may seem like it is dragging us away from our soul. Perhaps view the choice as a split in a road, with one being the current path and the other the new opportunity. From the higher mountain-top view, where does each lead? Both choices may be alright, but one will lead to a higher path in life, but not necessarily easier as it will challenge our view of ourselves and what we think our life is about.
Sometimes it is about having the opportunity to practice seeing how important decisions in life can be made from a perspective other than personality indulgence. It not always easy to perceive what is the right course in life when an opportunity presents itself, but being practised at taking a short step back to get perspective can help avoid rash decisions or actioning choices that are not really fitting in with what really drives us.
Sometimes, we just have to take an opportunity and run with it, just because it may help us get to a place in ourselves where we need to be to be open to another better opportunity, but for which we may have not been open had we not taken that first step. These are where the choice is really up to the personality because it must be made from its own understanding. This exercising of free will is what really demonstrates to the soul what the personality is made of and thus what might be changed about its future opportunities and learning.