"Loving My Soul" Meaning

If you've seen my blog Loving My Soul by Kathryn Palacio or Kathryn Palacio - Loving My Soul Facebookpage, you may have seen the tag line, “Loving My Soul” and wondered, “What does loving my soul mean?” In this post, I want to explain a bit about what "Loving My Soul" means to me, how it is about each of us discovering and loving who we are, the overall purpose of what I want to share through my LovingMySoul blog, Kathryn Palacio YouTube channel, and Kathryn Palacio - Loving My Soul Facebook page.

With that said, "Loving My Soul" is said at the individual level. To apply the phrase, loving our souls is about figuring out what makes us happy, what makes our hearts sing, what sets our souls on fire. Each of us will have our own special mix of the magic of life that helps us to love and nourish our souls and to shine our brightest with our own unique purposes. This beautiful journey of life is about learning how to clear away what is no longer need in our lives, to peel back the layers of who we think we are, to discover who we truly are, and to craft our own recipes of laughter, fun, joy, and abundance. I am blessed to share my experiences so that you can take any tools and techniques I have used, try them on, modify them, see what works for you, and leave the rest.

I have not always been at this point in my path, where I live in my own personal bubble of "everything is awesome", and able to share what has helped me along my own journey. Having learned many tough lessons along this road, I am appreciative, grateful, and thankful for everything that I have experienced, everyone I have met, and all those who have been teachers (or sacred mirrors) along the way. I hope that others will benefit from what I have learned.

A decade ago, I felt a strong urge to figure out my purpose in life. At the time, I began to grow more and more dissatisfied with the logical and analytical way that I was approaching life. Later, I recognized that I was almost completely cut off from my emotions. I have always been curious and wanted to know how the world works. As I began getting to know myself, I incorporated more creativity (hobbies like sewing, knitting, making jewelry, etc.) into my life, and I noticed how much more nourished my soul felt (how much happier I was) with these creative outlets. These pursuits also allowed me to learn new things and challenge myself. This was a lesson in the balance between my analytical and creative mind, and understanding that I would be happiest in a career where I could use all of my skills.

Around this same time, I began my meditation practice after reading several books that touched on meditation. In retrospect, I was not yet ready to heal parts of my life; however, the use of meditation benefited me greatly. I still use some of those meditation and visualization techniques that I learned then, and I find them becoming more prevalent now.

As life is ever unfolding, about five years ago, I became aware that had checked various boxes  on thelist of “what I thought I was supposed to do” and “how I was supposed to live my life”. I realized that by doing so, I was not happy, I had lost myself, I had not focused on my career or my goals, and I was living my life for other people instead of for myself. How could I follow someone else’s recipe for happiness and what others wanted me to/thought I should do to construct a fulfilling life for me? I learned that I needed to get to know myself and figure out what I wanted instead of bowing to the expectations and constraints of those around me. By accepting all of the expectations and constraints without question, I was playing small, I was not being true to myself, I was living in a cage of my own making, and I was stifling my light and the full expression of my soul.

"I am motivated by love. Resentment, criticism, guilt, and fear come from blaming others and not taking responsibility for my own experiences." - Louise Hay

At that point, I decided to choose me. I took complete responsibility for all of the choices that I had made, and I decided to choose differently, to live my life for me and without regrets moving forward. There was power in remembering who I was and what I wanted, and I let go of many things that were not serving me.

I ended a nearly decade long-term romantic relationship, I moved to a new city where I would have more career opportunities, I restarted my career, I began healing strained relationships with my family, and I began healing myself. After other challenges and disappointments, I turned to yoga and to meditation. Through pain, grief, and disappointment, I focused on loving and accepting myself instead of choosing self-destructive coping mechanisms that I had learned or observed in my youth.

I look back 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, and I have grown by leaps and bounds at each turn. The truth is that with each and every obstacle, setback, disappointment, and dark night of the soul, I have learned to look within myself, to let the light of my soul seep through the cracks to illuminate the darkness around me. Initially, when experiencing some of these disappointments, it was difficult to rise to face the day. No matter how low, dejected, and broken I have felt, I always find my touchstone within, that inner place of strength and knowing. I feel into that space that tells me that I have made it through tough experiences before and that this too shall pass.

I release all of the chatter and negative thoughts in my mind to instead hear my inner voice telling me that I deserve to be treated well (by myself and others), I deserve my own love most of all, I am worthy, I am whole, I am complete, I am healthy, my body is a temple to be honored and cared for, etc. I have learned to see each obstacle, each challenge, and each disappointment as an opportunity to let go of what is not me and to step more fully into the present and who I really am.

We can tell when our highest self, our soul, is talking to us by how lovingly it speaks to us. By turning within and choosing to find and listen to our highest selves, we build resiliency, and each time it becomes easier to focus on figuring out who we are, what we want, and what makes us happy. It becomes easier to love, accept, and be compassionate with ourselves.

I invite you to join me on this journey of turning within to hear our highest selves and loving our souls.

Many blessings!

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