Soul Mapping

You Are Here.

When is someone going to invent a GPS tracking device that tells you where the hell you are on your big cosmic soul journey?

You know, a charming disembodied British voice that very politely clues you in on where to turn left and when to get off the motorway. Oh yeah, and what time you’ll be arriving at your next destination.

At least a general ETA.

Because, if you’ve been plodding along at a bumper to bumper snail’s pace toward your next big dream goal or spiritual outpost, it would be helpful to have some omniscient being chime in with upcoming traffic patterns.

Like a Waze app for life that tells you about accidents ahead so you can calculate alternative routes to get to your coveted book deal, record contract or beach house– that even warns you about upcoming potholes so you know what pitfalls to avoid.

But where I really need help…

Which exit to take in the maddening rotaries of life.

You know those states (of mind) that have seemingly endless roundabouts? Where you are given the option to drive in circles, to go around and around and around studying every possible exit, over and over again.

It’s not like there are more than three or four options for where you can get off. But each looks kind of promising and dismal in its own way and none look quite different enough to inspire action.

It’s not like you look down the Barnstable exit and there’s rows of tenement housing while the Green Acre exit has nothing but wide-eyed cows and the Golden Gate turn-off appears to be lined with a yellow brick road.

They all look the same but you know down the road, they’re not at all.

And to make one decision means you forfeit the rest.

And who knows if one of the rejected options is actually the way to personal happiness, peace and destiny?

Do all paths lead to Rome?

Well, yes and no.

Confucius said, No matter where you go, there you are. But, Neitzsche said, In this world there is one unique path which no one but you may walk.

This always seemed like an irreconcilable paradox to me until I realized the secret lies in whether you are focused on you or the path.

It is a small shift in focus that shifts the entire landscape of possibility.

Neitzsche went on to say, Nobody can build the bridge over which you must cross the river of life, nobody but you alone. True, there are countless paths and bridges and demigods that would like to carry you across the river, but only at the price of your self; you would you pledge your self, and lose it.

He talked at length about the tremendous challenges of finding this path given the societal constructs into which we are born and raised.

He saw it as a haphazard concoction of fragment and riddle and dreadful accident. protected by a cozy veneer of borrowed manners and received opinions.

In short, a cultural inheritance of dead-ends and wrong ways.

In other words, no purchasable, downloadable GPS soul mapping software.

But, here’s what I realized this morning. You know the X that says You Are Here? I’m always so diligently focused on where I am and where I should go, I forget about the YOU part of YOU Are Here.

And with soul maps, it’s kind of irrelevant where you are if you don’t know who you are. I know Who am I? sounds like a rather ginormous existentially overwhelming, unanswerable question, but… it’s not.

There are clues. Lots.

We make virtual maps of where we want to go and what we want to do, but what about a map of who we are? A soul map?

It could begin by referencing favorite books, movies, ice cream flavors, meals, restaurants, pieces of art, drinks, actors, comedians, musical artists, sports to play and/or watch and what we like to do in our free time.

It could detail places we like to go, vacations we like to take, people we like to be with, ways we like to celebrate and anything else that comes to mind.

What inspires us? Nature? Double-decker hamburgers? Vintage cars?

When, where, doing what and with whom do we feel most alive and excited to be exactly who we are, as opposed to wishing we could be better versions of ourselves or someone else altogether.

I have a way of back-ending who I am around what I think I could be most successful at or what I think others around me need most or what seems to make the most sense given my circumstances or what I wish I could do, be or look like based on what the culture around me values most.

I evaluate external cues and frame myself accordingly.

But this is problematic because it’s more about who I think the world wants me to be than it is about who I am or who the world actually needs me to be.

The questions are not about what I can do but what I love to do.

What am I drawn to? What do I do if I have free time? What do I do where I don’t notice time passing? Who makes me feel happy and comfortable being me?

Exploring who we are is essential if we want to find our own unique path.