What is soul care? Soul Care founder Mindy Caliguire explains what the soul is, how soul care differs from self-care, and simple ways to begin today.
People ask me this all the time, usually right at the start of a podcast: “Mindy, what exactly is soul care?” It’s a fair question. The phrase gets used a lot these days, often right next to words like wellness and self-care.
So here is my best answer, and how I came to it.
|
The short answer Soul care is the intentional practice of staying connected to God in real time. It’s a way of life built from simple practices, relationships and rhythms that help you notice what God is doing in your life and respond. Because your soul holds your whole life together, caring for it shapes everything else: your mind, your emotions, your body, your relationships and your work. |
I came to soul care the hard way. Many of us do.
Years ago, my husband and I were planting a church. I was a pastor’s wife, serving in leadership, giving everything I had. My head was full of good theology, and we were doing what we felt God was calling us to do. The demands and pressure I strong-armed until I could go no more.
And then I hit the wall. My soul was dry, brittle and exhausted. Out of that wreckage, God graciously led me down a new path: learning to attend to the well-being of my own soul as a first priority. Many things had become more urgent or important, to the demise of my own soul. I had to learn a more sustainable way.
That path changed my life, and it has shaped everything I’ve done since.
Like many people, I grew up thinking about the soul only in terms of eternity. Souls were saved or unsaved, lost or found. Once yours was “saved,” you could get on with the work. What's to care for?
Then I took a closer look at one of Jesus’ most famous questions:
“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”
Matthew 16:26 (NIV)
The Greek word for soul there is psuche, where we get words like psyche and psychology. And in the verse just before, Jesus uses the very same word, and our Bibles translate it “life.”
Your soul is your life. Your soul is alive, and it holds together every dimension of who you are: your mind, your emotions, your body and your relationships. As it goes with your soul, so it goes with your whole life. Dallas Willard’s writing shaped so much of my thinking here, and once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.
So the real question becomes: if your soul is saved, how is it doing? Is it alive to God today?
When people ask me to define soul care, I usually answer on three levels.
For me, soul care is a way of life. It’s building in the practices, relationships and rhythms that keep me connected to God in real time, in the middle of daily life. Put simply, it’s placing myself in a posture of awareness of what God is doing and saying in my life, and then responding to it.
God is always at work. Soul care is how we learn to notice and respond, so we can stay grounded, rested and connected to God, and then let our lives flow from that place of connection.
Over the years, soul care also became a message I feel compelled to share, especially with leaders. So many devoted followers of Jesus are living with a real soul deficit, and many of us were never given a reason to make the care of our souls a priority. Without one, it just keeps sliding further down the list.
What began as my own way of life became a message, and then a team. For more than 25 years, Soul Care has helped leaders and everyday followers of Jesus care for their souls. Today that includes trained Soul Care Guides, monthly retreats, courses and a free Soul Health Assessment, all built around one simple idea: life connected with God.
Self-care is good. Rest, nourishing food, exercise, time laughing with friends: God cares about all of it.
A friend of mine once said it perfectly: she could take a bunch of bubble baths and never actually talk to God. Soul care is about your life with God, and it ends up guiding the rest. When I’m paying attention to God, he often has some good ideas about my self-care too.
There’s no perfect checklist. Honestly, you can get through a 45-minute quiet time and never have your soul actually open up to God. Nobody told me that for years. The point is the life with God that the practices make room for.
Still, practices help. Here are some that have helped me, and thousands of people we’ve walked with, with a free place to start for each:
Writing helps me notice what’s happening inside me and bring it to God. Start small: a few honest lines a day. Our free 21 Day Jumpstart to Journaling will get you going.
A few minutes of stillness makes room to listen. Our free Silent Prayer Guide walks you through it.
Read a short passage slowly, more than once, and notice what stands out. This ancient practice, Lectio Divina, is at the heart of the Page, Person, Plan framework we use every week.
We were never meant to do this alone. Find one or two people who ask how your soul is really doing. Our free Spiritual Friendship Guide can help.
Stepping away for a few hours, or a whole day, gives your soul room to breathe. Our free Monthly Retreat Guide shows you how.
Sometimes the most helpful thing is a trained, caring person who helps you notice God at work in your life. Learn about spiritual direction with Soul Care.
I’ve walked groups of thousands, and groups of eight around a conference table, through the same exercise, and the symptoms are remarkably predictable. When we lose a sense of God being with us and for us, it shows up in how we act, think, feel and work. When we’re anchored in that sense, we can stay steady even when life is hard. A few signs your soul may need attention:
I know those places well. In fact, I wrote a whole book about how exhaustion, isolation and burnout can become the very path God uses to lead us toward flourishing: Ignite Your Soul. If any of those signs sound familiar, there is hope, and there is a way forward.
I’ve had the joy of talking about soul care with some wonderful hosts. If you’d like to keep exploring, these conversations might be helpful for you:
Wherever you are, there’s a next step. Here’s a menu to choose from:
Take a few minutes to see how your soul is really doing across the areas of your life. You’ll get a personalized results guide and next steps by email. Take the free assessment.
Our 90 Day Journal gives you a guided question each day to help you reflect on the well-being of your soul and your connection with God, others and your work. Prefer your phone? The Soul Care Journal app for iPhone walks you through 90 days of guided journaling, one day at a time.
My newest book, Ignite Your Soul: When Exhaustion, Isolation, and Burnout Light a Path to Flourishing, is available in the Soul Care shop.
Pick one: the Silent Prayer Guide, the Monthly Retreat Guide or our free Embracing Rhythms course. If you’re feeling worn down, Confronting Burnout is free too. You’ll find everything on our resources page.
Strengthening Our Souls is a guided course and cohort for building the practices, relationships and rhythms that restore your inner life.
Explore spiritual direction or leadership coaching for one-on-one support.
If you want soul care woven into your whole year, join us in Soul Care Rhythms, our membership. It’s built on small, consistent touchpoints, woven into even the busiest schedule, that keep you connected to God, honest with yourself and alive to the things that matter most. A guided 15-minute Friday Check-in each week. A monthly semi-silent retreat with others, because it’s hard to carve out time, so we do it together. A quarterly one-on-one with a trained Soul Care Guide. And an annual day of retreat to make a plan for your soul.
Leading a church or organization? A free team Soul Health Assessment shows how your people are really doing, and Rhythms is available for whole teams.
“Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.”
John 15:4 (NIV)
Soul care is how we remain. It’s how our lives stay connected to their source. Start small, start today, and let God meet you there. He wants your soul to flourish even more than you do.
What does soul care look like in a season of stress, fatigue, and uncertainty? Listen here to a conversation with Mindy and Joanna Meyer on the Faith...
Soul Care in a Crisis: Holding Space for Tragedy
How do you care for your soul? In this podcast, Mindy Caliguire reflects on taking care of your soul in difficult seasons in ministry and personal...