What drains your soul? What recharges it? What is the soul? Can you kill your soul? Does the soul have a gender?I think that the best way to tackle this would be to start by answer the question "What is the soul?" I think we need to have a definition of what a soul actually is, before we can answer any of the other questions.
So what is the soul? I believe it's the spiritual part of us, and maybe the moral compass as well. It's the part of you that makes you feel fully alive and connected to the world (for example, when you step outside on a sunny spring day and smell the fresh air and feel the sun on your face, and just feel so peaceful and so alive and so connected to nature...that's the soul's doing). I think that the soul is
also the part of you that lives on after death. Your soul is what helps you connect to other human beings. It's what helps you to feel emotions. It's your spirit. It's the very basic essence of what makes you human.
That being said, I don't think you can "kill" your soul. If you didn't have a soul at all, you would be completely lifeless. I mean, your body would still function, but it'd be like a hollow, emotionless, thoughtless shell. (Harry Potter fans, think the dementors kiss here). So you can't actually kill it. I think you can harm it, you can damage it and drain it. You can constantly and consistently keep your soul malnourished. Acts of evil hurt your soul. There are millions of things you can do to feed your soul, and millions of things you can do to damage it. But you can't even actually kill it. It's more like...you can repress it; it's still there, but because it's so damaged and malnourished you don't get the good effects from it. You can get to a point where you stop feeling good emotions, where you stop feeling connected to others, where you stop feeling alive even. But it's not irreversible. It can be very hard, but you can always bring your soul back to where it should be.
I've NEVER thought before about whether the soul has a gender. It never even occurred to me. And I mean, I guess that depends on your definition of gender, anyway. I don't really have an answer for this one. Your soul is what makes you you. So if you have gender without a body, then yes. But if you think gender is more biological, more about reproductive organs and such, then no I guess the soul wouldn't have a gender. This is a really interesting question, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about it.
Alright, and now for the easier part (for me, anyway). What drains your soul and what recharges it? List time!
What drains your soul?
- tedious and/or uninteresting work/homework
- filing (I work a few hours a week in an office, and much of the work, ESPECIALLY filing, just drains my soul)
- being around negative people or experiences
- disorganization/clutter
- fear
- snow
- rudeness
- long days filled with tasks I DON'T want to do
- boredom
- cold temperatures
- never going anywhere/staying in the same location for too long
- being sick
- fluorescent lights (SERIOUSLY. I really really HATE them. I wont turn the overhead light on in my dorm, I use desk lamps, because the fluorescent is just SO DRAINING)
- anger
- winter
- debt/being broke
- humidity
- being surrounded by large crowds for long periods of time (don't get me wrong, I love being with my friends and such, but I'm introverted. I recharge by spending time alone. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy spending time with people, it just means I need time alone, too. And with this, I'm not saying being with people at all drains my soul, just if I'm in a very busy or crowded place for a LONG time. Like all day multiple days in a row).
- messy rooms
- lack of fresh air/being inside for too long (again, I say: WINTER)
- not getting enough sleep
I know that's a pretty big list, but I'm sure if you think about it, you can find plenty of things that drain your soul, too. I'm sure that list is not exhaustive for me. Heck, I'm sure there are probably things that drain my soul that I don't even know about yet. But now for my favorite part:
What recharges your soul?
- sun
- fresh air
- warm temperatures
- nature
- driving on sunny days
- music (some types/songs more than others)
- reading a good book
- THEATRE!
- helping others/volunteering
- autumn
- going to the park (especially Palmer Park)
- running errands on a day when that's all I have to do.
- travelling
- visiting big cities (I think if I actually LIVED in one, it'd probably end up on the drain list. But just visiting them...I absolutely LOVE it, and it definitely recharges me)
- figuring out the answer to a problem or question that I've had trouble with (this is especially true if I've been struggling with a tough math problem, and then all of a sudden I get it and it all makes sense to me)
- hanging out with certain friends
- waking up without an alarm
And of course, there's plenty more that I just can't think of right now. Also, certain things recharge my soul more than others, and combinations of things more than others. For example, if it's a warm sunny day, and I'm driving in my car, listening to music, on my way to travel to a big city, where I will spend time with friends...that's gonna recharge me more than just one or two of those things separately.
So, what are your thoughts on all this?
-Beth
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