Soul, Is That You?

It has been said that, to identify your soul and distinguish it from what is simply 'you,' you just have to look in the mirror. Look into your eyes. This can feel uncomfortable for some, and the way to get past that discomfort is persistence. Keep looking. Maybe smile back at yourself. Keep staring directly into your eyes, and then beyond them.

Ask yourself, who is it looking back at me? I see a face, a nose, hair, and a body. Is that my soul?

Today, the person in the mirror has a mind full of your current thoughts. If you are an adult, it's thinking about bills you need to pay, things you wish you hadn't done, hopes for the future, what you’re going to make for dinner, and the well-being of your loved ones.

If you are a child, you might be thinking about how you don't like the mayonnaise on your sandwich, the girl who called you 'bugger face' at recess, asking questions like why can't you see the wind, what you're going to do after school, or why your dad gave you a funny haircut.

Now, while you’re staring into your eyes, ask yourself: has what’s staring back at you—what you can sense beyond your eyes—changed since you were a child? Can you feel that the child-you, staring into the mirror and beyond your eyes, saw the same thing you see now? Did the child-you stare so intently into the depths of your being that it didn’t notice the questions or concerns of its life? When you look into the mirror today, beyond your eyes, can you do it so that all the worries your mind thinks are important right now fade away? For just a second, did you have no thoughts, or perhaps only a love-filled connection with that which is staring back at you?

That thing staring back at you, the one you're looking deep into, is your soul. It’s the same thing that stared back at the child-you. It has never changed. It has always been there. It is no different now than it was then.

You see, our bodies, our minds, and our personalities come into this world closely aligned and aware of our souls. As we go through life, things happen to us. We see things and experience things that add layers of complexity and heaviness like a suit of armor. We keep piling on layers of armor as we go throughout our lives, but that thing that is wearing the armor is our soul. It has always been there and keeps getting buried deeper and deeper behind the layers.

That thing wearing the armor is the same thing that stared back at the child-you and is staring back at you in the mirror today. It is not the armor that is looking back at you. Not from deep beyond your eyes. It is your soul.