Having written a reflective diary after every lesson on my course over the last year, I miss writing already and it’s only been a few weeks. This is the first entry in a new series I’m going to try and do every week as part of my ongoing quest for greater self awareness and my continued personal and professional development. Basically, I pick a key word and write about it for a set amount of time. This may change a bit in the first few weeks while I find that sweet spot between insight and burnout. Feel free to leave a comment with a new word for me to investigate either on here or on Twitter (@Iain_D_Stewart).
This first week the key word is SOUL, and I’ll be writing for ten minutes.
GO!
So what is a soul then? A cloud of electrons? Does it live in your brain? Is it your spirituality? Or are we talking soul music? I like music with soul. Jazz. Freeform jazz, I love the collaborative improvisation of it, when three or four cool cats get together and create a unique soundscape that has never and will never exist exactly as it was again. Why is it called soul music? Because it is the soul of the person playing the instruments portrayed through the music, and it captures the imagination of those that hear it.
Back to my original question. What is a soul? These esoteric questions about abstractions always intrigue me, as the pervading authority of the time, science, can’t really answer this question. I’m beginning to fall out with science a little, as it seems to me that the results of all the scientific experiments that these scientists do can be skewed to prove anything. Especially in this day and age of fake news and conspiracy theories and a loss of traditional values.
I’m reading Deep Nutrition at the moment, it’s a great book, and it’s really opened my eyes with regards to traditions.
I mean, it should be obvious that there were good reasons why our ancestors did certain things in a certain way, right?
And again, I’ve avoided having a go at that first question. What is a soul? I don’t know. Is it you? Your conscience? Your consciousness? Your personality? The electrons? I like the idea that all consciousness is one, that we humans are just the universe expressing itself, or trying to understand itself. It broke its own consciousness into pieces when it created life intentionally, and we are the current end result.
So then. Is this my answer?
A soul is a piece of the universe, inhabiting a bag of flesh for a while, on a moist rock which is hurtling around a ball of fire that is slowly burning itself out.
What a way to end this first experiment.
[button size=”xs” type=”primary” href=”https://iaindstewart.net/what-is-free-writing/”]Want to know more about the concept of Free-writing? I’ve written a guide which you can find here.[/button]
