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Soul Caring and Yoga

© Janet (JJ) Gormley

Editor's Note: While surfing the Web, I came across this excellent article by yoga teacher, Janet Gormley and secured her permission to use it for "Caring for the Soul." Other essays and materials on spirituality, yoga and health are available on her web site, Sun and Moon Studio.

Dictionaries furnish little help in getting to the heart of "soul." Webster's tells us that soul is "the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life, or the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe." Perhaps an easier way to think about soul is to appreciate its negative side. When soul is missing, so too is meaning in all its various dimensions.

A quick glance at the shelves of self-help books in any Barnes & Noble reveals a long list of contemporary maladies–yearnings for self actualization, the meaning of life, the search for eternal values, the quest for spirituality. In short, the paradoxical nature of soul suggests that it is devilishly difficult to define and fully understand, but we all know when it's missing.

Tracy Kidder's 1981 Pulitzer prize-winning book, "The Soul of a New Machine," seems at first to have little to do with soul. Yet his trenchant story of the trials and errors of a young group of computer whiz kids not only foretold today's Internet business model but also captured the soulful character of an exhilarating collective quest that had just as much to do with creativity, ideas, as monetary reward.

Soul caring ought to be a daily feature of each of our lives. It needn't approximate Kidder's true-life story. In fact, it will likely be decidedly more mundane and far less financially rewarding, but nonetheless equally essential to our spiritual health.

Thomas Moore, in his 1994 best-selling book, "Care of the Soul: A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life," suggests that caring for the soul need not focus on the personality or relationships. Rather, he argues that "[T]ending the things around us and becoming sensitive to the importance of home, daily schedule, and maybe even the clothes we wear, are ways of caring for the soul."

How do I care for my soul? It shouldn't surprise anyone that my personal yoga practice plays a featured daily role. Yoga illuminates self-knowledge and self-acceptance. We define our physical limits and evolving potential each day in our asana practice. For me, soul is the glue that binds body and mind to some higher spiritual essence. Although you may choose to avoid any religious connotation, yoga nonetheless can enable a new-found discipline that's good for the soul.

The copyright of the article Soul Caring and Yoga in Care of the Soul is owned by Janet (JJ) Gormley. Permission to republish Soul Caring and Yoga in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.