Does my soul want to relax?

Or is that what she wants?

Just relaxing is quite normal when I’ve had busy, stressful times. But the exciting question is whether more relaxation comes from dangling trees or from a relaxing yet somewhat demanding activity such as hiking, swimming, pursuing my hobby or cultural interests. In order to relax and sleep well, we need a certain amount of physical exertion.

So what about the soul? Does she want to sag like the obese cat in the hammock above? Can it even sag and dangle? If I understand the soul as a person’s consciousness, as the ability to think, feel and want, then I come to the conclusion that the soul, like the body, wants to be alive, wants to learn new things, that a person’s soul does not feel comfortable in stagnation, but is at home in the expansion of new knowledge and possibilities and in encounters, in exchange.

Take a look at the following video. This figure skating pair won the gold medal in 2018. It is an incredibly beautiful routine with very harmonious interaction between the two partners. This art does not grow out of nothing. Resilience, both physical and mental, is certainly necessary, and this over decades, to produce such a centered, elegant and seemingly light and airy art of movement.

Resilience is not only necessary for sporting activities, we need it as a mental or conscious force in almost all activities, whether at work or at home. We often only realize how much we need and naturally apply qualities such as attention, concentration, perseverance, discipline and observation to lead our lives when we are completely exhausted, suffer burnout and have to painstakingly relearn them.

Reading, and especially reading challenging literature, demands our attention, stamina and mental resilience.

Reading spiritual writings such as the New Testament, the Bhagavadgita, texts by Sri Aurobindo or Rudolf Steiner, to name but a few, can be described as a real art. These writings cannot be understood with our usual intellectual thinking and our minds quickly say, “I don’t understand that, it’s too difficult.” Repeated attention and a spirit of research, a withdrawal of our quick-wanting-to-know mind, a quiet reflection on the author of the scripture and the statements he makes, slowly lead us closer to the contents and also a feeling for these contents.