The Story of SOULutions' Logo

Spirit and Soul: The Story of the SOULutions Logo

My first spiritual teacher, or guru, although I didn’t recognize her as such until a few years ago, was Mother Nature. On this morning, as I meandered down the river path near my home, I saw the exuberant expressions of fall and recalled the previous spring. I sat on my back porch allowing my eyes to play with the dogwoods, azaleas, and purple wisteria. Every year it is the same cycle of growth, dormancy and rebirth. I listened very carefully on this morning to hear the message Mother Nature whispered to me through the cool autumn breeze:

“With the fall equinox, I prepare myself to go inward, deeper toward the center of the earth. There, I do the soul work of deepening my roots—pushing through the dirt that keeps me from my Source. I deepen my roots so that when the spring equinox arrives, I am ready to allow Spirit to express itself through me in all of its unique, abundant manifestations. You, Michael, are a unique incarnation of Spirit, also. Tend to your soul as I tend to my roots and Spirit will express itself through you.”

Every year, Mother Nature wisely takes the time to go deep inward to do her soul work. Her roots will be doing the dirty work of pushing through the ground and reaching toward the center of the earth from which she was born. Nature abounds with examples of going inward in preparation for Spirit to outwardly express itself for all to enjoy. The Oak tree grows new branches that reach towards the heavens only after deepening its roots. We too, like nature, are vessels for Spirit to be expressed in a way that is unique to each of us. Without our soul work, Spirit can only express itself with limited depth and possibility.

What is Soul Work? It is the work of making peace with, and honoring our past, accepting our humanness with all of its joy and limitations. It is developing authentic compassion by examining our shadows or deepest fears that humble our egos. It is confronting our lower self, our dark side and asking to be integrated. Soul work is staying when we want to run. It's experiencing our feelings of hurt rather than lashing out in anger. It's asking, "How am I like that?" when we encounter someone we don’t like. Sometimes it's choosing to be silent if we have nothing valuable to say. It's a continuous inquiry into the question "How do I avoid relationships?" Soul work is always inviting ourselves to feel everything, resist nothing and live more and more in an undefended way. The Soul is always asking to go deeper.

I am not suggesting that we settle for our emotional limitations while wallowing in the past. That would be analogous to the Oak tree continuing to grow deeper and deeper roots without ever sprouting from the ground. However, without the Oak tree's root work, the Spirit could never express itself as the mighty Oak it was meant to be. Mother Nature’s truth is that the greater the depth of the roots, the greater the possibility for Spirit to be expressed. So it is with us.

Most of my adult life has been a "spirited" attempt to run away from my own painful feelings of shame, anger and unworthiness that originated, like most of us, in childhood. I have been like an "Oak tree wannabe", enthusiastically reaching for the sky with both hands waving wildly, while never taking the time to deepen my roots. The past few years, I have begun to do my own soul work and it's made all of the difference in my life. The tree that I am today has and continues to deepen its roots. It is now able to withstand a strong breeze and even a fierce storm. Maybe one day I will become a mighty Oak.

The yellow in the logo symbolizes the light of consciousness shinning down from above into the roots that are below conscious awareness. Just as the health and growth of the tree is determined by the health and depth of the root system, we too are emotionally and spiritually healthy to the degree that our soul/essence is healthy. Spirit can only express through us, impacting Life with our gifts to the extent that we have the depth to support this expansion.

What are Soul-Based Therapies?

I specialize in soul-based therapies in my private practice and when I design transformational workshops. Soul-based therapies differ from the ego-strengthening therapies of modern psychology by focusing more on helping clients live more deeply, meaningfully, and purposefully and spiritually by connecting with the whole of life. Or to put it another way, find the peace, passion, purpose, power and presence of Radical Wholeness.

Soul-based therapies are rooted in the spiritual practices, but also include standard psychology of Jungian analysis, dream analysis, inner-child work, root-cause hypnotherapy, and Enneagram study. Add to that conscious breath therapy, Logotherapy, rebirthing and regression therapies. Of course, my own contribution is the work of facing our Core Wounds to find our Core Purpose and Radical Wholeness.