At least once in their life, everyone goes through the feeling of being lost, confused, grounded to nowhere, and empty. Your once-dream job has become a troublesome chore, you have a dull relationship with others, and it just seems like you’ve lost all life inside you.
If you have this type of pessimistic emotion, you might be going through an existential crisis.
It’s all part of our journey in life and we are sure you are not alone in feeling this way. It can be disheartening and frustrating but being affected like this can be a good thing.
This displeasure serves as a tip-off that there is something off with an aspect of your life. It could be relationships, your job, or your lifestyle.
And soul-searching is the recommended solution to this.
What is soul searching?
A lot of people have a different definition for soul searching but the general concept of the term is taking a step back to evaluate yourself and your life, and refresh the soul.
“All soul searching begins with a deep desire for something more, almost like a craving or curiosity to know more, feel more, experience more, and have a deeper meaning in your life. Soul searching is the journey of learning what that ‘something more’ is.”
Laina Caltagirone, life coach and manifestation teacher.
Some might think soul searching happens once or maybe twice in your life but in reality, it should be regularly practiced. It’s always important to know your meaning in life.
If you think you need some soul searching, here are some tips to help you find meaning in life.
Here are tips to nourish your soul and find deeper meaning in your life
Embrace solitude
With soul searching, you’ll learn to appreciate solitude. With the silence, you’ll be able to listen to your heart and mind’s demand and helps you think and examine your current situation. Questions like what went wrong and which aspects of your life are doing great will be addressed in solitude.
So make some time and spend time with yourself, away from the others and away from technological distractions. It can be 10 minutes a day to half an hour and enjoy quiet activities, such as meditation or a peaceful stroll outside.
Assess where you are now
Soul searching can be found even in the simplest of questions you can ask yourself.
- How am I feeling?
- How is it going with my work?
- How’s home?
- Do I feel valued and appreciated?
- What are the things I am proud of?
- What are the things I regret?
- What do I want to improve in my life?
Answers to questions like this aren’t meant to be rocket science. It only requires pure, honest answers from you. Paired with solitude, the answers to these questions can lead you to identify aspects of your life that you want to improve.
Weigh your relationships and career
The relationships you have with other people can be the source of your exhaustion. Sometimes, we don’t realize that we are being drained out of our souls just by being friends with a group of people.
Ask yourself, which of these relationships are working? Which aren’t? Am I connected with these people? Are we in sync? If you have found the gap that disconnects, you need to decide whether you can still fix this or you need to let of this relationship.
Career might be one of the primary reason why people gets lost in life. Your day job might take up most of your time and it can be exhausting. Gone are the sparks you felt on your first day or the excitement of working on another project and the dream job you’ve always wanted is now nothing but a draining task.
Ask yourself, how’s your job doing? What do you feel about your current job? Do you think you had career growth or development opportunities? Are you happy?
If you found that there are few job aspects that you feel disconnected from or maybe you’ve received poor performance feedbacks, dig down and found out the cause of this. For some, it could be because they are not happy with their work, while for others, it could be work overload.
Once you’ve determined these, it’s time to weigh in some decisions and consider some career changes along the way.
Have me-time
With busy jobs, packed schedules, and everything in between, it can be quite hard to find some time for yourself. But that’s exactly what you need. A few hours or a day away from a toxic and taxing routine can be your version of soul searching.
It could be anywhere but make sure it’s a place free of the things you are avoiding. A trip to the sea, a walk down the beach shore, or a relaxing day at the park. Just enjoy the process, feel the moment, and dwell on the small pleasures the time brings.
When you give yourself even just a few hours of the day to forget about the worries of life, you might find the answers that you’ve been looking for.
