The Care & Keeping of Your Soul

It needs to be cleansed regularly, but not necessarily with soap and water. Rain works. So does sweat.

Don’t forget to introduce it to other souls. It’s most effective if they resemble each other.

It needs to be fed often. You’ll know when it’s hungry.

A starved soul starts to ask you unanswerable questions like, ‘Why are we doing all of this?’

‘What is the point of anything?’

or ‘Who even am I?’

Sometimes it will become inexplicably sad. Something as simple as an old man eating a sandwich alone or something as vast as the sight of the ocean can trigger this. It doesn't make any sense but let it wallow. It needs these feelings more than you’d think.

Often, it reflects whatever those around you feel.

So compliment strangers, read affirmations aloud, tell your dad you love him, tell your mom she’s beautiful, tell a child they’re special, smile back at everybody, laugh for the sake of giving joy back to the world.

You can challenge your soul by going to parties filled with unsavory people, or by making empty love to someone temporary. You can engage with content or take substances that muffle its cries, or sedate it altogether. I get it. The soul can grow tiring to nurture.

But listen, it’s not too late to wake it up, to sit down with it, to learn exactly what it needs in order to be happy.

It's not as challenging as you may think—the care and keeping of souls—because their only purpose is to be alive.