2/23/22
Hi friends! It’s good to be back! I’ve had to take a few weeks off because I was down and out with covid. But the subject of today’s episode is exactly why I needed to step away from the microphone and take care of myself. Welcome to Episode 69 - Soul Keeping.
Okay, right off the bat, you may be wondering, “What the heck is “soul keeping? What does the soul consist of? Why do I need to do that? And how do I do that, anyway?”
Okay, so I’m going to try to make this as simple as possible. There are three parts to us that makes us human and sets us apart from all other created beings. That tripartite nature of man is the body, the soul, and the spirit. And it is super important that we understand each part and know how to care for them. If any one of these three are unhealthy or unattended, then there is an imbalance that will play out in our whole being. The body is quite literally your body - your flesh, bones, organs, muscles, blood, and nervous system. Okay, hang with me here - I’m just trying to be really clear. The spirit is that part of you that gives us the ability to have an intimate relationship with God. It refers to the immaterial part of us that allows us to have a connection with God. And it’s through this connection that we’re able to attend to “Soul Keeping.”
So, what is the soul? The soul consists of your mind, your will, and your emotions. Notice that these three are separate entities and are treated as separate. In Life Coaching, we attend to the thoughts going on in your mind. And those thoughts - whatever they may be - create emotions. It’s out of those emotions that we act or don’t act a certain way, which gives us results in our lives that we like or don’t like.
And here is where the human will comes in. The will is directly tied to our core belief system, which is formed through our connection with God by our spirit. It’s our will that is able to step in and change the thought patterns of the mind, thus changing the entire trajectory of the results in our lives.
Okay, see how it all connects now? And “Soul Keeping” is just a term for taking care of and attending to those parts of our soul - the mind, the will, and the emotions. Now, let’s make sure we’re clear on this. Attending to our soul is not naval-gazing. It is not self-focused or self-centered. As believers, we have purpose to fulfill in this life. And we’re not able to fully be who God created us to be if our soul is not healthy. So, there is a greater purpose to “Soul Keeping.”
“Soul Keeping” is also the title of John Ortberg’s book with the sub-title being, “Caring For The Most Important Part Of You.” He says, “To focus on the soul means to look at my life under the care and connection to God. To focus on myself apart from God means losing awareness of what matters most.” It’s ironic that the more we are focused on ourselves, the more we neglect our souls. It’s obvious that focus on “self” is prevalent in these days. We talk a lot about self-care, self-expression, loving ourselves, exerting ourselves, being ourselves, and believing in ourselves.
Now, these things are not bad. We talk about all of these in Life Coaching. But if we are doing these things just for ourselves, for our own gratification or satisfaction or even advancement, then we’ve missed the mark. We’ve missed our true purpose. Focusing on self makes us pay more attention to our performance, our work, abilities, our bodies, and our bank accounts than to our souls. And honestly, that’s all just exhausting. John Ortberg says, “Gaining the outside world doesn’t help you if your inside world collapses.” Dallas Willard said, “The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become. That’s what you will take into eternity. What will matter then is the soul you have constructed.”
Whoa. Okay, so this is why I’m a Life Coach. I am a Life Coach for Christian women, integrating brain science with Biblical faith. As people with human brains, we have conditioning and patterns of thinking that create neural ruts and keep us stuck in lie-based beliefs. And the hard part is that we’ve been entertaining these patterns of thinking for so long that we just think they are true. It takes someone unbiased and outside of your story to be able to peel back the layers and exposed those lies. To help you attend to your “Soul Keeping.” This is what I do. It’s what I do for myself, too, and it’s why I know it works. Yes, I get life coaching weekly, too. No doubt, “Soul Keeping” has helped me continue to move forward with joy and peace in my life. And let me say, it doesn’t even mean that the circumstances of my life have changed. Nothing big has shifted. But my soul has. Ortberg says, “If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life.” It’s true. I’m experiencing it as the thoughts and stories in my mind and the myriad of emotions are getting attention and healing. It’s intentional. It has to be. In episode 67, I shared with you that I had an Epiphany. And that was that being a Life Coach, for me, is a very purpose-filled endeavor. It’s to be used by God to set His daughters free to be who He created them to be. And it’s all for the glory of His kingdom. But, I cannot lead rightly if I’m not doing the work myself. So, I am. I will. Constantly. So that I can be and do all that God’s purposed for me.
Recently, I got on social media to talk to my Christian girlfriends. Part of being in the Christian culture, I’ve found, is that we’re not really good about talking about our soft spots, our failures, our sin, the way we’re struggling in life and in our marriages; the way we beat ourselves up, and put on masks, and wish every day we were someone else. Looked a certain way or had different things. Why is that? Why are we pretending we’re not human? Are we afraid that not having these struggles means that we’re a good Christian? And by golly, I’m not going to let anyone think I haven’t got it all together and maybe have people even question my spiritual maturity. Are we afraid that if we admit our struggles God might not love us and shower us with blessings? He already knows, friends.
So, your marriage is struggling, your kid is on drugs, you curse at people under your breath, you have insecurities and constantly compare yourself to others, you often find yourself in conflict with other people, you doubt and worry and fear and wring your hands at the future. AND you’re a Christian. The difference between you and unbelievers in each of these scenarios is what you do about it. That’s it. Because life is hard. Hard things come. The question becomes, in these, are you caring for the most important part of you? Are you looking at your life under the care and connection to God?
This takes paying attention to the details of Soul Keeping. So, the thing I mentioned in the social media post was that, yeah, you’re dealing with hard stuff in life AND you’re a Christian. AND you’re struggling but that doesn’t mean you’re not a good Christian or that you’re not a Christian at all. The only problem is what’s going on in your head - in your thoughts about it all. And your thoughts are creating certain feelings or emotions, and it’s out of those emotions that we act or don’t act a certain way, which gives us results in our lives that we like or don’t like. The beauty of Life Coaching is having a unbiased, objective viewer of your life in order to be able to point out lie-based beliefs that are fueling your thoughts. Someone to help integrate the way your brain works and what you believe in your Christian faith.
So, let me ask you friend, where are you in your Soul Keeping today? Are you attending to your mind, your will, and your emotions? Are you examining your life under the care and connection to God? When the hard things in life come, how are you handling it? Are you sweeping it under a rug, hoping no one will notice? Are you pretending you can handle the things that you clearly cannot? Are you wearing a mask, refusing to admit you are broken and struggling? How healthy are you emotionally? Spiritually? What or WHO is at the core of your belief system? Are you even aware? Are you allowing God to point out those lie-based beliefs that are keeping your soul from being healthy and free? And what are you doing about it when you recognize that all this time you’ve been living out of a lie and your brain has just been conditioned to think a certain way because of the neural ruts that have been carved out time and time again?
Are you ready to get some healing finally? Are you ready to attend to your soul? Again, as Ortberg stated, “If your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life.” That means that no external circumstance, no matter what that is, can break you, move you, push you so far down that you cannot get back up again. Soul Keeping creates resiliency. It’s what allows you to say “yes” to Another Beautiful Life just when you thought all was lost.
Friend, if you’ve recognized that you’ve not been taking very good care of your Soul - your mind, will, and emotions - and you’d like someone to help you navigate through what that would look like, I’d love to be your Life Coach. I can help you get free from the need to hide your true self for fear of rejection. You can live free from the worry of judgment from others. You can learn to be yourself, and love yourself, when your soul is healthy. Let me help you!
I’ve put a link in the show notes to my calendar to book at quick 30-minute chat to see if we’re a good fit to work together. Or you can visit my website tricizody.com and send me an email there.
Have a beautiful week, friends! See you next Wednesday for the next episode of Another Beautiful Life podcast.
