The Soul’s Infinite Potential

 The Soul’s Infinite Potential

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.
~~Ferdinand Foch

Scientists pretty much agree that the human body has evolved about as much as it is going to. However, the soul’s potential to evolve is infinite.

While I’ve always loved spring, I didn’t realize until I began to write this article that the reason I love the season so much is that the potential of evolution is so evident in even the tiniest bud, leaf or insect. The sound of frogs singing their spring song in the lake behind my house and on the greenway where I often walk brings such joy to my heart and soul that I am absolutely beside myself each time I hear them. The energy of their beautiful and hopeful sounds resonate throughout me, energizing my own hope and anticipation of things to come. It is not just the sound that thrills me, it is the promise the sound holds. I told my best friend just the other day that if I ever become seriously ill, I want the sound of frogs played continuously for me because I know it would help me to either heal or make my final transition. To me, both are new beginnings.

Why is it that we avoid our highest potential? Why do we turn away from or even block who we are meant to be?

Years ago I came across a powerful quote by American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. He said, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” I laminated this quote and have it both near my desk at the office and at home.

Advancing confidently in the direction of your dreams, to me, means to not allow the human condition to permanently detour you from your soul’s path. Every human’s mission, whether conscious of it or not, is to find their truth and keep it. This relates directly to my concept of soul health. As we learn to align our lives—the ten key branches of the human condition—to match the desires and needs of our inner ally, —the essence of who we really are—, then we reach a state of radiant living which allows us to open the gates to our soul’s true potential. When we allow the human condition to overtake or diminish the essential nature of our soul, we fail to thrive. This is why I’m so committed to teaching others to “clean out” what isn’t serving them (healing old wounds and using discernment to determine what is meaningful and necessary) and to “fill up” with what does (by feeding your soul).

Thoreau goes on to say, “In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.” When reaching ultimate alignment with who you are at a deepest level—finding yourself wholly—life does become more simple, you never feel alone or poor and you gain ultimate confidence and strength in just being you.

Therefore, understanding and committing to your soul health inevitably helps you reach your path to infinite potential. I say path because once on it, only you know where the road will take you. I’m certain it is a beautiful destination.

It is the inherent potential of the first sign of a crocus or daffodil that pushes through the hard soil, even in the midst of a pending blizzard. And it is your soul’s determination to both survive and thrive that gets you through the toughest storms of the human condition. Every cycle of disappointment, heartache, grief or discomfort is driven and guided by the relentless force of your soul to move beyond it. And every time you’ve gotten to the other side you realize how much you’ve grown; you realize you handled a situation in a different way than the last, adding to your process the wisdom you’ve gathered along the way. Resilience has all to do with harnessing and embracing this inherent force and realizing that you will come out of a situation a stronger and sturdier soul.

Conscious evolution might sound like an intellectual process, but it is really an intentional journey of the soul. When we decide we are going to heal and evolve regardless of our circumstances, we beat the harsh game of life. With this conscious decision, we die to what no longer serves us and we thrive by stepping onto each higher path to our infinite potential. In other words, we have to grieve our old ways and selves manytimes in each lifetime (sometimes each day!) if we really want to grow and move beyond life’s endless obstacles. In essence, our soul must leave our old selves behind. Like the crocus or daffodil, we must push through the hard crust of the human condition, bloom fully, eventually wither as we let go of what no longer serves us, die so we can generate more growth, then rebloom when we’ve gained news strength, assimilated what we’ve learned and the time is right.

Pope John XXIII wrote, “Consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

If I focused on all of the ways I’ve messed up in life I’d be in a far different place—depressed, defeated, frustrated and negative about life. These failures have informed my soul’s evolution, helping me thrive and move up a step or two on my ladder of life. Clearly, I’m not at the top yet. But, I guess if evolution is infinite, I’ll never reach the end. There’s something comforting and humbling in that thought.

That’s a thought to help all of us evolve.

With the realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.
~~Dalai Lama