Introducing Your Soul’s Land

Do you know the feeling when you recognize some fundamental preference of yours and finally accept it? It might be the moment an introvert finally turns down his friend’s invitation to a bar crawl and stays home and writes instead. It might be the moment that an extrovert decides to leave the solitary work of accounting and move into a field that gives her exposure to way more people on a daily basis.

It could be the moment when a man finally declares he does (or doesn’t) want children, or a woman admits to herself that she’d rather date for a while before settling down with someone serious.

If you have had one of these moments, you know it feels like coming home to yourself. It’s a feeling of relief, of putting down the burden of trying to be someone you are not.

In that moment you claimed a piece of what I call your soul’s land.

Your soul’s land is the part of you that is unchanging, inherent – the very fundamentals of your personality, preferences and loves that remain stable throughout your life.

Each person’s soul’s land is unique and contains the blueprint for who they are and what they love in this life.

Exploring your soul’s land and embracing all of its facets is a lifelong journey (luckily it’s a fun one!)

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.  -Carl Jung

Today I’m inviting you to explore the idea of your soul’s land by imagining what your soul’s land might be like if it existed in reality.  We’ll be looking more at building on your land in later articles, but for the moment, we want to explore the land itself.

One person’s soul’s land might look like this:

For that person, it might represent an adventurous spirit, a love for space, time alone and openness, a desire to explore and a love of challenge.

For a contrasting example, this might be someone else’s soul’s land, representing a love of culture, art, history, travel, and being in the center of the excitement.

These are of course just tiny elements of the whole of your soul’s land, but it can be illuminating to see what true land speaks to you. When you have an idea of what your soul’s land is, it’s fun to explore the various elements of it and what they represent in you.

To get you started on discovering elements of your soul’s land, try these questions:

1. What is the general climate of your soul’s land? (Tropical? Desert? Seasonal? Etc.)
2. What are the dimensions of your soul’s land (in acres, km, miles, etc.)?
3. What shape is your soul’s land?
4. Where is it located?
5. What is the topography of your soul’s land? (Hills, canyons, plains, lakes, ponds, etc.)
6. What is the vegetation on your soul’s land? (Lush rain forest, Joshua tree-filled sand, etc.)
7. What’s bordering your soul’s land in all directions?
8. What scents do you notice on your soul’s land?
9. What sounds do you hear?
10. What textures do you feel as you wander your soul’s land?
11. What tastes exist on your soul’s land?
12. What sights do you see on your soul’s land?
13. How do you feel (emotionally) on your soul’s land?
14. What sensations do you experience in your body as you explore your soul’s land?
15. When you first imagined your soul’s land, what time of day was it?

We’ll be exploring this in more depth next week. To continue your exploration, notice throughout the week what elements of different geographies appeal to you – notice where you feel at home. (If you are on Pinterest, it might be fun to start a board to collect images of different land and see how each resonates with you!)

Interested in exploring your soul’s land further? Check out this 50 page guide with over 20 ways to explore and get to know yourself better – you can click here to get your copy.