Three Pathways to Soul Work

The purpose of this study was to investigate meaningful experiences that may raise the awareness of spiritual meaning. Upon completion of soul work activities, participants described their changing way of being, including realizations that daily actions enhance self-awareness, appreciation of life, and sense of connection to something more and greater. ********** The intention of humanistic psychology is to inspire people's personal growth (Pytell, 2006; Rose, Westefeld, & Ansley, 2008) and, more important, nurture their souls (Sperry & Shafranske, 2005). Personal growth enhances self-awareness and actualization, thus helping people to be creative, loving, thinking, desiring, and active (de St. Aubin, 1996; Sperry & Shafranske, 2005). While moving through life's joys and challenges, a person may become a more self-aware, actualized, fully functioning personality (C. Rogers, 1961) who demonstrates self-compassion, self-direction, and self-responsibility (Perls, 1969). The humanistic psychology approach considers spirituality to play a crucial role in moving toward self-actualization. Maslow (1998), who founded the humanistic psychology movement along with C. Rogers (1961) and May (1953), specifically included spirituality as an essential part of the humanistic movement. Additionally, Frankl's (1984) logotherapy sought to bring awareness to the unconscious spiritual factors of the human personality. One major part of the humanistic pathway of spirituality is the soul (Sartre, 1956). According to Sperry and Shafranske (2005), a primary way to the soul is through a person's self-awareness: Soul reminds us that there is a deeper, more primordial world than our logical processes. We know the soul when we are stirred by a poem, moved by a piece of music, touched by a painting. Soul is the deep resonance that vibrates within us at such moments. Thus, the soul can be touched, felt, and known but never defined. (p. 137) For the purposes of this article, we defined soul work as both an internal and external process eliciting self-awareness and spiritual meaning that may provide a pathway to personal growth and self-actualization. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate whether three different exercises, which we called the three pathways to soul work, were effective in raising participants' awareness and spiritual meaning in their lives. The guiding research question was the following: Do the three kinds of pathway exercises enhance participants' personal growth and spiritual awareness? FOUNDATIONS OF SOUL WORK According to Kelly (1995), authentic spirituality is achieved by increasing a person's awareness. Soul work requires a person to use that awareness in order to realize life's meaning and purpose as well as the sacredness and connectedness of all people (Cashwell, Bentley, & Bigbee, 2007). Meaning in life influences health and wellness (W. R. Miller & Thoresen, 1999). Meaning is also connected to hope and confidence through life's difficulties (Ho & Ho, 2007; Pytell, 2006). Drawing upon the work of Lorenz (2000), as humanistic researchers, we believe that tending to the soul, or soul work, is concerned with those aspects of individual experience that are trying to come into being: self-awareness and spiritual meaning, leading to personal growth and self-actualization. Aspects that are outside of conscious awareness may be available through dreams, daydreams, fantasies, and memory. According to depth psychology (e.g., James, 1890; Jung, 1944), these aspects carry important information from the core of our being about who we are and who we might become. The images that arise from the unconscious are aspects of our being that have not yet found expression and are seeking to be known. Soul work provides that expression (Horton-Parker & Fawcett, 2010; Lorenz, 2000). However, the issues of today's world may adversely affect a person's balance and spiritual journey. …