Some days, I wake up, and for no discernible reason, I feel as if things are just…off. Like while I slept the earth’s gravity shifted, and now I’m left tilted and disoriented. Sometimes this feeling lasts days, or even weeks. A rut as some may call it. The days become longer, my temper shorter, and every simple experience filled with anxiety. Yet, it always seems to be during ruts I find myself most. I suspect ruts are our souls way of telling us, “Hey this isn’t working for me. Something is wrong. Reorient.”
Our spiritual health, just like physical or mental health, requires attention, and constant adjustment. We know we are physically unhealthy when our body is in pain or feels discomfort. When we feel spiritually plateaued, filled with anxiety, boredom and lack of passion, it is our soul’s way of telling us the way we are living is harming it. The same way eating only candy everyday for month harms our body, certain patterns are harmful to our spiritual growth.
I often find myself in ruts during lazy periods of my life, loaded up with social media, binge watching T.V, and a general lack of enthusiasm for my daily life. These simple problems need only simple fixes. Instead of checking Instagram when I first awake, I will meditate or pray. Does my soul feel calm and peaceful? Yes. Then I will keep doing that. Constant mini checks on the ways our habits make us feel are eminent to our spiritual well-being.
Sometimes ruts may indicate something deeper, a relationship that isn’t working the way it should, the avoidance of unresolved emotion or trauma, the pursuit of something besides one’s passion. These problems are deeper and sometimes require life-altering solutions. Leaving relationships incapable of meeting our needs, quitting jobs, switching majors, or schools, or leaving school altogether. If we listen to what our soul tell us it needs, our lives will become more fulfilling.
So search for what brings you serenity. Find what sets your soul on fire and do that. Find who sets your soul on fire and love them. Listen to the signals your soul gives you about how it feels and what it needs and DO IT. DO IT. Break the rut. And the next one and the next one until your life feels like the one destined for you to live. Your soul is telling you it’s unsatisfied. Satisfy it.