Mind and Soul
When I first saw this quote this morning I was tempted to post just the picture and not any commentary. Then I started thinking about it. What does this actually mean?
These kinds of simple quotes are open to many interpretations; perhaps that is why they are so popular. I often observe and write about soul-related thoughts. The soul, in this context, is not necessarily the religious definition we are taught, but more of the undefined “thing” that guides our feelings. We often ‘feel’ something that is sad or confusing or depressing leading us to want to ‘heal’ our soul. This quote tells us our soul can heal itself … IF we don’t let thoughts get in the way.
The soul can be instinct. We act on how we feel. However, we can easily over-think our feelings and second-guess them by considering every possible option. Our mind shouts conflicting advice, clouding our decision process. We know how we feel, but the voice inside challenges our feelings, telling us we should or should not act in certain ways because of the expectations of other people or as a result of how we compare a current situation to a similar one in our past.
I am a classic over-thinker and have been trying to direct my decision-making more toward following feelings. I will always balance thought with feeling; it’s who I am and who I want to be. But sometimes the brain gets in the way of the soul and convinces me to deny myself opportunities I feel can have a good outcome because there might be some risk involved. To take this psychological anatomy metaphor a little further, my heart might want one thing but my brain throws up a road block. And I just cluttered this post with another metaphor.
Maybe what this quote really means is that it may be good to think things through and be mindful of the consequences of our decisions and actions in life, but sometimes we should just follow our soul.
These kinds of simple quotes are open to many interpretations; perhaps that is why they are so popular. I often observe and write about soul-related thoughts. The soul, in this context, is not necessarily the religious definition we are taught, but more of the undefined “thing” that guides our feelings. We often ‘feel’ something that is sad or confusing or depressing leading us to want to ‘heal’ our soul. This quote tells us our soul can heal itself … IF we don’t let thoughts get in the way.
The soul can be instinct. We act on how we feel. However, we can easily over-think our feelings and second-guess them by considering every possible option. Our mind shouts conflicting advice, clouding our decision process. We know how we feel, but the voice inside challenges our feelings, telling us we should or should not act in certain ways because of the expectations of other people or as a result of how we compare a current situation to a similar one in our past.
I am a classic over-thinker and have been trying to direct my decision-making more toward following feelings. I will always balance thought with feeling; it’s who I am and who I want to be. But sometimes the brain gets in the way of the soul and convinces me to deny myself opportunities I feel can have a good outcome because there might be some risk involved. To take this psychological anatomy metaphor a little further, my heart might want one thing but my brain throws up a road block. And I just cluttered this post with another metaphor.
Maybe what this quote really means is that it may be good to think things through and be mindful of the consequences of our decisions and actions in life, but sometimes we should just follow our soul.
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