Your Soul Is the Deeper Part of You—And Your Best Friend

Discovering your soul helps you reduce stress and anxiety, become more stable and empowered, and find your inner peace and joy.

How can you spare even a moment to explore your own soul, amidst the busyness of day-to-day life? After all, making a living, caring for loved ones, and handling daily tasks seem to take up so much attention. So what are the vital basics about your soul that you really need to know?

Here’s what might surprise you: your soul isn’t something far away or hard to reach. It’s right here, closer than your next breath. It’s not just something you have—it is you. Your truest, deepest self.

A Simple Way to Think About Your Soul

Imagine your soul as an ocean. The surface has waves—your thoughts, emotions, and daily activities. But deep below the surface lies something quiet, peaceful, and unchanging. That’s your soul. It’s always been there, waiting for you to notice it.

Think of it like this: you know how sometimes you feel scattered, with your mind racing in different directions? Your soul is the part of you that remains calm and whole beneath all that surface activity. It’s like coming home to yourself.

Your soul has been with you since before you can remember. It was there when you were born, it’s here with you now, and it extends across time in ways that your everyday mind can barely grasp. When you connect with your soul, you’re tapping into something that knows you completely—because it is you.

Practice: Feel Your Inner Stillness (2 minutes)

Let’s try something right now. This simple practice helps you experience that deeper part of yourself.

1. Place one hand on your heart and one hand on your belly. Close your eyes if comfortable, or soften your gaze. Feel the warmth of your hands.
2. Take three slow, deep breaths. Feel your belly rise and fall under your hand.
3. Beneath your hand on your heart, imagine there’s a warm, glowing light. This light is always there, even when you don’t notice it.
4. Ask yourself silently: ‘What does stillness feel like right here, right now?’ Don’t search for an answer—just notice what you feel.
5. Stay here for a few more breaths, feeling that presence inside you.

That feeling you just touched—that sense of calm presence—that’s your soul saying hello. It’s always this close.

Your Soul Is Both Personal and Infinite

Here’s where it gets interesting. Your soul is like a drop of water that’s also the entire ocean. It lives within you—in your heart, in your body—and yet it’s connected to something much bigger.

Think about the night sky. When you look up at the stars, you’re seeing light from across the universe. That vast universe isn’t separate from you—you’re made of the same stardust. Your soul is like that. It’s uniquely yours, yet it’s woven into the fabric of everything.

This might sound like a contradiction: How can your soul be both personal and universal? But contradictions are everywhere in nature. Light is both a wave and a particle. You are both an individual and part of humanity. Your soul is both the intimate friend within you and a cosmic presence that extends beyond what your mind can measure.

The beautiful part? You don’t need to understand it completely. You just need to experience it.

Practice: Sensing Your Inner Vastness (3 minutes)

This practice helps you feel both grounded in your body and connected to something larger.

1. Sit comfortably and feel your feet on the floor. Notice the solid ground beneath you. Place your attention at the center of your chest, in your heart area, and breathe naturally.
2. With each breath in, imagine your awareness gently expanding outward from your heart—first filling your whole body, then extending a foot beyond your body, then filling the room.
3. Let your awareness expand further—beyond the building, beyond your town, reaching toward the sky, touching the stars.
4. Notice how you can feel both small (grounded in your body) and vast (connected to everything) at the same time.
5. Gently bring your awareness back to your heart. Feel how the vastness is still there, right inside you.

This is your soul’s nature: intimate and infinite at once.

The Paradox That Makes Sense When You Feel It

Your soul lives in a world beyond either-or thinking. It exists in the realm of ‘both-and.’ You are a unique individual, and you’re connected to everyone. Your soul is completely yours, and it’s part of the universal source.

Think of it like music. Each instrument plays its own unique part, yet all the instruments together create one symphony. You are both the individual note and part of the cosmic song.

When you connect with your soul through your body and heart, these concepts stop being confusing ideas and become lived experiences. You don’t need to figure them out logically—you simply feel them as true.

Finding the Infinite Within Your Body

Here’s a secret that spiritual teachers have known for thousands of years: the doorway to the infinite is through your body, not away from it.

Most people think of the soul as something separate from the physical world—something ‘out there’ or ‘up there.’ But actually, the deeper you go into your body’s sensations and awareness, the more you discover your soul.

Your body is like a radio that can tune into your soul’s frequency. When you bring your full attention into your physical sensations—really feeling your breath, your heartbeat, the aliveness in your hands—you create a pathway to your deeper self.

The mystery is this: your body exists in time and space (you can see it, touch it, measure it), yet when you go deep into the felt sense of your body, you discover a timeless quality. In that depth, past and future dissolve. There’s only this present moment, which is eternal.

Practice: The Body as Doorway (4 minutes)

This practice guides you to discover the timeless quality inside your physical body.

1. Sit or lie down comfortably. Take a moment to arrive fully in this moment.
2. Bring your attention to your hands and feet. Without moving them, feel them from the inside—any tingling, warmth, or subtle energy.
3. Gradually expand this inner sensing to your whole body: legs, torso, arms, neck, head. Feel yourself as a field of gentle aliveness.
4. As you sense your whole body from within, notice if there’s a quality of ‘just being’ underneath all the sensations. Ask yourself: ‘In this moment, am I aware?’ That awareness itself—that’s your soul presence.
5. Rest in this awareness for another minute. Notice how it feels both totally ordinary and somehow sacred.

What you just experienced is profound: you found the infinite through the gateway of your finite body. This is always available to you.

Your Soul Knows You Completely and Loves You Unconditionally

Your soul isn’t a distant force judging you. It’s your deepest self, which means it knows everything about you—every struggle, every triumph, every secret fear and hidden hope. And here’s the amazing part: knowing all of this, your soul loves you completely.

Think of your soul as the wisest, most loving friend you could ever have. This friend has been with you through everything. It never abandoned you during hard times. It celebrated your joys. It held space for your growth. And it’s always available, always patient, always there.

When you connect with your soul, you’re connecting with the part of yourself that sees your whole life as a meaningful journey. Your soul doesn’t judge your mistakes—it learns from them. It doesn’t fear your future—it guides you through it. It doesn’t need you to be perfect—it loves you as you are right now.

This connection brings real benefits: reduced anxiety, greater emotional stability, increased wisdom in decision-making, and a deep sense of peace that doesn’t depend on external circumstances.

Practice: Meeting Your Soul as Your Friend (5 minutes)

This heart-centered practice helps you feel your soul’s loving presence.

1. Find a quiet moment. Sit comfortably with your spine naturally upright. Place both hands on your heart and feel the warmth, the gentle rise and fall with your breath.
2. Imagine that beneath your hands, in the center of your chest, lives the wisest, most loving version of yourself. This is your soul.
3. Silently ask: ‘What do you want me to know right now?’ Then simply listen. Don’t force an answer—just be receptive. You might hear words, feel a sensation, sense an emotion, or just experience a peaceful knowing. Whatever comes (or doesn’t come) is perfect.
4. Now silently say to your soul: ‘Thank you for always being here with me.’ Feel the truth of that.
5. Sit for another minute in the feeling of being supported, known, and loved by your own deepest self.

The more you practice this connection, the more natural it becomes. Your soul is always available for this conversation.

Living from Your Soul in Daily Life

You might wonder: ‘This all sounds beautiful, but how does it help with my actual life—my stress, my decisions, my relationships?’

Here’s how: when you regularly connect with your soul, you develop an inner compass. Instead of being tossed around by every external pressure or emotion, you have access to a stable center within you.

Your soul-connected self operates differently:

• When stressed, you can return to your inner stillness instead of getting swept away. This doesn’t mean problems disappear—it means you face them from a grounded place. • When making decisions, you can consult your inner wisdom. Your soul knows your true values and sees the bigger picture of your life. • When facing challenges, you feel supported from within. You’re not alone because your deepest self is always present. • When experiencing joy, you can feel it more fully. Your soul celebrates with you, amplifying the good moments.

Practice: Quick Soul Check-In (1 minute, anytime)

Use this micro-practice throughout your day whenever you feel stressed or disconnected.

1. Pause whatever you’re doing. Take one deep breath.
2. Place one hand on your heart and silently say: ‘I’m here.’ Feel your heartbeat for a few seconds. That rhythm—it’s your soul’s steady presence.
3. Ask: ‘What does my soul want me to remember right now?’ Listen for the first thing that comes: a word, feeling, or knowing.
4. Take one more breath, then return to your day—but now with your soul’s awareness active.

Do this several times a day. It takes sixty seconds but shifts your entire state of being.

The Journey Continues

Your soul isn’t something you need to find—it’s what you already are. Every practice in this article simply helps you remember and experience what’s been true all along.

The more you turn your attention inward, the more you’ll discover: • Beneath your busy thoughts lies peace • Beneath your changing emotions lies stability • Beneath your personal story lies something timeless • Beneath your sense of separation lies connection

Your soul is your constant companion, your wisest teacher, your most devoted friend. It has never left you. It knows you completely. And it invites you, in each moment, to come home to yourself.

The practices in this article are doorways. Walk through them regularly, and you’ll find that life becomes richer, challenges become more manageable, and peace becomes your natural state.

Your soul’s gifts are beyond anything the external world can offer. They’re sweeter than any pleasure, more stable than any security, more loving than any relationship could ever be—because they come from your own essential nature.

Take a moment right now. Place your hand on your heart. Feel that presence within you. That’s your soul saying: ‘Welcome home. I’ve been waiting for you to notice. Let’s walk this life together.’

And know that in these precious moments of connection, you’re touching something infinite—something that will guide you, support you, and love you through everything that life brings.

Your soul is here. Right now. Always.

Start with whichever practice calls to you. There’s no wrong way to begin this journey home to yourself.

Joel Bruce Wallach