“Follow your soul. It knows the way.” ~ Anonymous

How do I hear the voice of my soul?

It’s a question that we don’t commonly ask ourselves unless something feels off in our life. When we feel disconnected from our authentic self and stuck in a way of being that doesn’t seem to serve us any longer.

This disconnect is often experienced as signs and/or symptoms that show up in our lives. In the post, The Call of Your Soul: 10 Signs Your Soul is Speaking to You, I explore ways that our soul attempts to get our attention.

For some, the signs are gradual and insidious and for others, they arise when something occurs in life that has us pause and rethink some of our core values and beliefs.

It’s not uncommon for people to enter a period of time often described as the “dark night of the soul.”

Ultimately these signs are a message from your soul that you are ready to embark on what for many of us is a new journey. A journey of awakening to uncover who you actually are before the world told you who you should be.

The challenge for many of us is that we have no idea how to go about our soul-searching journey. After all, there were no classes in soul-searching when I was in school.

We weren’t taught how to understand our inner worlds of thoughts, feelings, intuitive insights, connecting with an intelligent Universe or how to listen to our souls.

And yet, to be deeply happy and fulfilled we need to be able to connect with that part of ourselves that represents our essential self. Our core essence which includes a blueprint for our becoming. Much like an acorn will become an oak tree.

Over the past number of years, I have experimented with and played around with countless ways to create space for my shy soul to appear.

Here are a few suggestions that I hope are helpful:

View the symptoms in your life as messengers.

This is a mindset shift for many of us. In our fast-paced, fix-it approach to life, we primarily focus on the problem and relieving the symptom to get rid of the discomfort, rather than looking for a deeper cause and reason it arose in the first place.

There is a deeper meaning to what often feels like things that are out of our control. The soul is hungry for meaning and when things in the outer world manifest as health issues, relationship troubles and a life that lacks meaning, this is often a signal from the soul.

One of the most common “symptoms” I hear comes in the form of a question that I wrote about in the post, What Does it Mean if You Feel Something is Missing in Life?

Pay attention to what expands your energy and what constricts it.

We all have a life force energy that flows through us. This source of energy is a sign from our soul that helps us navigate the forces in our life- one force is fear/constriction and it drives us to remain the same and in our comfort zone. The other force is love/expansion which urges us to move through discomfort in order to become whole and in alignment.

When something aligns with our core essence, we’ll have energy that naturally flows. When something isn’t meant for us, our soul withdraws energy. This withdrawal of energy most often shows up in our relationships and our work. This is often a message that we are outgrowing our current situation and are meant to make some changes.

This energy withdrawal that may be mistaken for “depression” contains a great deal of wisdom about what is meant for us and what isn’t meant for us.

Establish regular practices that enable you to tune in to yourself.

The soul while resilient is very shy. We need to create space in our lives in order to connect with our inner wisdom and guidance system. Practices like meditation, mindfulness, prayer, journaling, and contemplation create such a space. (I’ve pulled together a list of resources that you may find helpful). I created A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation for those who want to establish a simple meditation practice.

If we already have these practices, it’s really important that we’re honest with ourselves about how consistent we are. For these practices to help us connect more deeply with ourselves they need to become a regular part of our life. Otherwise, they may just be another form of distraction or serve as spiritual entertainment.

Track synchronicities, coincidences and signs from the Universe.

For many years now I have kept a “signs from the Universe” journal. In this journal, I keep track of things that remind me that we live in a creative and intelligent Universe. When something curious happens as I’m going about my day, I take a few minutes before I go to sleep and make a quick note in my journal.

The soul often communicates through images, metaphors, dreams, intuitive hunches, ideas that seem to pop into our minds out of nowhere. The more playful and fun we can be the more this channel of communication will be open to us.

Get curious and ask a lot of questions.

Earlier on in our path, it is really common for people to be impatient to get the answers so that we can get rid of what are often confusing and uncomfortable feelings.

I know I sought out guidance from energy healers, mediums, psychotherapists, past life readers, astrologers, numerologists, angel card readers, spiritual teachers and the list goes on.

I was hoping to bypass the discomfort of not knowing and have someone give me the answers as to what my soul was asking of me.

Looking back, while I appreciated all of these experiences and people, I realized that the most helpful were those that empowered me to access my own inner wisdom rather than giving me the answers to my questions. Those people who were just a little further along the path and understand the process of awakening.

For example, seek out the meditation teacher that teaches you how to meditate rather than just guides you in a nice experience. The angel reader that teaches you how to look for your own signs. The spiritual teachers that help you expand your worldview without telling you what to believe. The psychotherapist who understands the awakening process and views depression and/or anxiety as a sign from the soul providing valuable insight. The medical doctor that knows you can’t separate the body from the soul.

This journey to connecting with our souls becomes the work of our life. To heal, grow, and evolve by living a life that aligns with who we are meant to become. When we do, we begin to feel vital, connected and like our lives matter.

What have you found helpful in connecting with your soul? Share a comment below to inspire others in our community.

(Original post-May 2015; Updated-May 2020)