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Merriam-Webster defines the soul as “the immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life.” It’s that part of you that drives you for life.
So having a sleeping soul is like sitting in a car with no gas, no steering wheel, and flat tires. You aren’t really going anywhere. Here’s how to determine if you’re in desperate need of a spiritual awakening.
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Authority. People with dormant souls don’t really believe they have much reason to question authority figures or the people in charge. They trust their parents, their teachers, people who give them advice, implicitly. Lifestyle blog Power of Positivity explains that an awakened soul “takes nothing as truth until [they’ve] looked into it and decided on it for yourself.”
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Trends. People with awakened souls don’t just go along with what everyone thinks is cool, the music everyone likes, the ideas everyone accepts. They forge their own way. If you find yourself following trends, your inner soul may still be sleeping. Power of Positivity elaborates, “You stand strong in your truth even if you only represent a handful of people who know what you do,” when your soul is awakened.
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Change. People with awakened souls have accepted that change is coming whether they want it to or not, and they are ready to jump on board the change train. A dormant soul however is fairly accepting of the status quo, doesn’t see any reason for things to be changing, and accepts the change imposed onto them as completely acceptable. Someone with an awakened soul “probably can’t understand why this world operates how it does,” according to Power of Positivity. Awakened souls are always questioning.
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People. A dormant soul is part of the crowd, while an awakened soul is at the front of the parade. They’re leaders. And according to Power of Positivity, if your soul is awake, “you sometimes feel very alone and isolated in society, but know that most leaders do.” It isn’t easy leading the revolution, but someone has got to do it. “Even if you take the road less traveled,” the site continues, “you feel honored to know what you do and have the fortitude to stick to your guns no matter what.”
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Closed mind. An awakened soul has a mind that’s like a sieve, filled with many, many holes allowing new information and ideas to penetrate but not get stuck. The things you need to know will catch, and the things you don’t will push through. A dormant soul will be entirely closed off to everything, no matter what it is. Even if that idea is something you might have actually come to agree with, you’re set in your ways, and have no plans of changing or even hearing something new.
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Conversation. Dormant souls like engaging in conversation, but nothing too deep. You like to keep the conversation light, airy, and buoyant. But fairly awakened souls know that there are deeper things that need to be discussed. They aren’t fans of small talk. Power of Positivity explains, “You probably tell people what they need to hear,” if your soul is awakened, “not what they want to hear.”
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REDDIT. When it comes to the tough questions in life, there are a few places we love to turn, without fail. And once your soul has been awakened, once you realize it has been sleeping, you can finally stretch, take stock of your life, and get to what’s really important in life. And that’s following your dreams and pursuing your goals. We wanted to see if any Redditors had good advice about following their dreams, and as always, they came through!
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User lumpytrout. “Here is my take from someone older that somehow avoided all of this debate. Nobody gets to simply ‘follow their dreams’ or to put it more clearly, everyone has BS that they need to deal with. You will still need to file taxes, pay mortgages, deal with life even if you have an occupation that you love… I lean towards the ‘follow your dreams’ crowd and I’ve had a happy and interesting and profitable career and I’m glad that I made the choices that I did when I was young. But I still have to deal with a lot of BS in life so don’t think that you can escape it. My friends that buckled down and went into careers that they didn’t necessarily feel strongly about but they knew they would do well have also thrived and most of them certainly have more money than me. It is really up to you and what you want to look back on when you view your life in the rear-view mirror.”
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User PaisleyDaman. “I love this question. You have to consider that following your dreams can change though as you grow and develop. I actually just saw a great video on Youtube recently that talks about following your dreams and stepping up to your own plate… Being in teaching now for over a decade, I’ve come to realize the profession is nowhere near what I had dreamed of for my life and I can’t imagine encouraging anyone to become one. If I would have ‘followed my dreams’ chances are, I would be way more successful…so that’s what I’m doing. The teaching job is now just a catapult to what I should be doing instead.”
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User SpiritWolfie. “Yeah I ‘followed my dreams’ and became successful as I define it but others might disagree with my definition… I’ve certainly had ups/downs and setbacks but I’ve never let that stop me from continuing to push ahead with what I want to learn. I decide for myself where I want to go and what I want to learn. However, I also try to be open minded to what others suggest so I’ll put their suggestions up against my own internal voice to see if it’s a good fit and if it is, I’ll go for it. But I try to NEVER let someone else’s ideas override my internal voice because sometimes you just have to stand your ground when everyone else thinks you’re making a HUGE mistake.”
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User willdearborne. “I think for this question to make much sense you have to understand what it means to you to be successful and what your dreams actually are. My dream life is just laying around f*cking my wife all day, smoking weed, and eating grilled cheese sandwiches. But my career dream is to make a living doing something that I find interesting and put enough money under the mattress to not have to worry about it. As far as dreams go that’s pretty tame but really that’s it.”
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User harryhov. “Never be complacent. Always improve your situation. The idea that your dream must be your full time job is bs. You can achieve your dream in many ways. The fact is, even most successful entrepreneurs don’t give a crap about their core business. But it’s what they are good at and passionate about.”
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Anonymous user. “Let me remind all of you who are unaware that success is measured differently by different people. What I see is that a lot of people think success is synonymous with money. Not for me. Success is living a happy life in my book. When I decided to stop working jobs that made me unhappy for good pay, and instead chase the lifestyle that I wanted, I became infinitely happier. I’m not rich, I don’t make much, but I can honestly look at everyone around me and smile because I’m happy and living the life I want – a big success in my own eyes.”
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You. When it comes to feeding your soul, what are some of the ways you do that in life? What are some of the best pieces of advice you’ve been given in order to push you to follow your dreams and really awaken your soul in life? We want to hear from you, because you guys always have something interesting to say. So let us know what you think in the comments section below.
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1 comment
Thank you for sharing!