“To what service is my soul committed? Constantly ask yourself this and thoroughly examine yourself by seeing how you relate to that part called the ruling principle. Whose soul do I have now? Do I have that of a child, a youth… a tyrant, a pet, or a wild animal?”
MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 5.11
What is your soul committed to? What cause drives you?
Are your actions aligned with that commitment and what’s important to you? Or are you flailing aimlessly about?
If you get an uneasy feeling when faced with these questions, well… you’re not alone. And it means you’re human, so congratulations. It also means it’s likely that your soul is not aligned as it should be.
So here we are. Your soul feels unaligned, but surprise! It’s actually a good thing, this feeling is. Because it means you’ve realized it and are moving toward alignment, right this very moment.
You’re moving toward identifying your soul’s true purpose, its natural duty. And that’s going to be hard, and it’s going to require genuine effort and a whole lot of bravery. But in the end it will be worth it, to have your core aligned with what you already know in your heart to be true.
Impossible dream
God, I’m feeling exasperated today.
My day job is in digital advertising, and it’s high energy and high potential and dynamic and exciting and all those things (including high paying), but… it’s burning me out.
I’ve switched jobs several times these last few years, looking for “something”. I even came back to a previous job, which I swore I would never do, but I did it because I wanted to come back to a place where I felt part of something, where I felt that community and positive energy. No surprise, the energy has changed at this job. What hasn’t changed is the stress, and the anxiety, and the feeling that my soul isn’t aligned.
What do I do? My family is depending on my salary, and the stability it provides. The crazy part of me wants to move somewhere cheaper, maybe even overseas, and start over. Doing something that my soul aligns with. What is that, exactly? Yeah, I’m still working on that, haha.
But… I am working on it. And I’m not going to ignore the misalignment anymore. And I might just have to take a leap of faith.
