Year of sheltering in place, staying home, and restricting my in-person interactions left me hungry to be around people again. As spring arrived in Seattle, I reached out to several professional women I'd meet online throughout year to see if they'd like to meet in person. We all had two things in common, we loved horses, and we worked in healing professions (counseling, therapy, energy, medicine, coaching). I asked if they'd want to start a monthly group that met at our barn, where we could sit in the pasture with the horses, and explore topics related to our inner wellbeing and mental health.
The first meeting, we had a great time simply getting to know each other, learning about each other's practices, and talking about the world that was developing post pandemic. In that meeting, we decided to name the group, something fun and almost secret society. We landed on the name HHPF: Horses + Holistic Practitioners and Facilitators (yes, it was inspired by The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society to some degree).
During our second meeting this month, we explored “soul” this month, and explored two questions in the Cultivating Conversations Card Deck. The first question served as the initial invitation to get the conversation started. The second question invited us to dive deeper into how we supported “soul”. Here’s what we co-created in order to answer the questions.
What Does Soul Mean to You?
- Soul is an authentic expression of self.
- Soul is the eternal cultivation of ourselves. Soul is a place within where we connect with light, and that light illuminates the path we’re supposed to walk.
- Soul is my connection to my higher self. It’s the soul that calls us on a journey to experience to learn, grow and connect beyond ego to others.
- The soul leads emotion and connection; feeling and empathy.
- Soul is hard to articulate. It’s the essential self - how the experiences I have and identify with manifest to connect me with my soul present.
- Soul is a form of experience.
- Soul is our untainted spiritual core.
What Is A Daily Practice That You Can Integrate To Fill Your Soul?
- I breathe. Breathwork is how I connect with my soul.
- I talk to my soul - Inner dialogues through prayer, self-introspection, and journaling.
- Working with energy. Specifically connecting the body and me (as a being) to the earth.
The exploration of ideas around soul, the essence of what incarnates and keeps our physical body alive, was something that we all needed to discuss. Why? Because in a time of illness (the pandemic is still going), inflation, war, gun violence and death, it reminded us of our humanity. It reminds us that the breath in our bodies signified we all had a purpose, even if that purpose may not always be the easiest to see in dark times. It reminded us that our souls connected us to one another. And no matter how different our lives were, we were one as a whole, not standing alone in difficult times.
