What do sea otters have to do with the Transcendentalists?
How do you know when you’re on the right path?
Some people say that everything happens for a reason. All of your experiences are serving you and your path, even the really bad, painful stuff. There’s a lesson in everything.
I guess I believe that, to a certain extent. But it requires a lot of faith and trust, and you don’t get to understand the lesson until after the fact. With this way of thinking, the purpose is only revealed in hindsight. Sometimes I just want to know that I’m on the right path, right now. I want a sign or a message, right now. I want God to speak directly into my ear and say, ‘Go this way’ or ‘This is what you’re meant to do’ or ‘Yes, you’re on the right path’. Unfortunately, it’s rarely that easy or straightforward.
I do think I’ve found a little secret to knowing if I’m on the right path, however. A little technique I like to call ‘The Tears of Truth’. And it all started with a sea otter.
About a month ago, I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California. It was absolutely stunning! It’s built right on the bay and you can look out into the sea and try your luck at catching a glimpse of a whale. It’s also got a living sea kelp forest, sharks, colorful jellyfish, penguins, and my personal favorite – sea otters.
When I got to the sea otter exhibit, there were two lively sea otters swimming around. They would come right up to the glass then swoop around, bob up above the water, then dive back down, and do it all over again. They seemed to be filled with so much joy.
As I watched the sea otters swim around, I was so overcome with emotion that it actually brought me to tears. I was a little embarrassed, to be honest. There I was, a grown woman, standing in a loud aquarium filled with laughing kids and strollers and people having fun, and I was crying. I tried to hold it back, but the tears just kept coming. They weren’t tears of sadness or grief though. They were the kind of tears that come when you are filled with love and joy. You can’t repress them because they are a sign that your soul is connecting with something true.
I couldn’t exactly put a finger on it at that moment why the sea otters resonated with me so deeply, or why I felt a beauty so big that it caused me to tear up. I realized later that what I found so beautiful was their spirit. They swam and played and seemed to be so happy and joyfully content to just be exactly what they are – sea otters.
In their spirit, my own spirit recognized this truth and this longing – to just be exactly what I am. To stop fighting against myself, to stop putting on so many different masks each day, and just joyfully rejoice in being exactly who I am.
I’m not very good at this. I am a recovering perfectionist and an extreme people-pleaser. I want everyone to like me and accept me, and in order to be liked and accepted, I try to show up being what I think others want me to be. Unfortunately, this backfires for all kinds of reasons, and worst of all, it means I’ve spent most of my life hiding who I really am in fear that others won’t like or accept the real me. I’ve done this for so long that even I don’t know the real me sometimes.
I guess my tears of joy and love for the sea-otters was in recognition of their ability to be so whole and pure. That is what I want for my own life. I want to feel comfortable being exactly who I am in all circumstances. It’s hard, but it’s what my soul longs for. I know this because my soul was giving me a sign that day.
This is the secret that I figured out: Our spirit uses our physical body as a way to communicate with our thinking mind. We are all composed of three parts: our body, our mind, and our spirit. If we take the time to listen and pay attention to our physical selves, and our physical responses, our mind will receive the messages that our deepest soul – our deepest self – is trying to tell us. What moves you? What makes your skin prick or moves you to tears? Those are clues that spirit sends through our physical body to show us who we are and what our purpose is in this lifetime.
For me, I’ve come to call these my tears of truth. Tears will well up when my soul has connected deeply with something.
So what does this have to do with the Transcendentalists?
The Transcendentalists believed in something called Self-Reliance.
I know what you’re thinking – doesn’t self-reliance have to do with being independent and self sufficient? Isn’t that why that guy went away to live in the woods all by himself? So he could learn to do everything for himself?
Well, no actually. That’s not what self-reliance meant to the Transcendentalists at all.
Emerson wrote about self-reliance in his famous essay of the same name. Basically, self-reliance to him meant finding your true self and living a life of wholeness and authenticity. It means pulling away all the layers and programming you’ve gathered over your lifetime about who you are supposed to be and what you are supposed to do, and come back to the person you really truly are, and who your soul longs to be and came to this Earth for.
As we grow up, there is increasing pressure to conform to societal expectations. When we chronically try to be someone other than our original, authentic self, we begin to feel separated from our soul, and we may start to feel a deep longing for something that seems to be missing. We may even begin to feel physical manifestations that we’re on the wrong path – illness, anxiety, disease can all be signs that we’ve lost touch with our true purpose.
Self-reliance is the opposite of conforming. When Emerson used the word ‘self’ he meant ‘soul’. To rely on your self is to rely on your soul for guidance and to live out your true purpose.
But in order to rely on your soul and to live out your true authenticity, you must know what your soul wants. That’s become increasingly hard these days because we are programmed by our family, friends, school, and society to do things a certain way. We are bombarded by social media and others telling us we need to be a certain way in order to succeed, accepted, or loved.
To understand what your soul wants, you first need to get back in touch with your physical body and begin to notice the things that move you deep down. We get messages in all kinds of physical ways. For me, its tears. But sometimes it’s a feeling of infiniteness, or my skin pricks and I get shivers. Other times, I see something and I feel very drawn to it or it inspires me in some way. These are all clues.
I believe my greatest purpose, and the hardest challenge I’ll face on Earth, is getting back to who I really am and having the courage to live the life that wants to live in me, rather than living the life I think I’m supposed to live. We’re all called to take up this challenge. By getting still and getting back in tune with our physical body, we can receive special messages from our soul about how to do that.
What are some ways that your soul speaks to you? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!
With Love,
Jessica
Here are some journal prompts to get you thinking about how your spirit sends you messages:
- Think about a time you felt very moved or inspired. What was the thing that moved or inspired you? How did it feel physically in your body? What message could your soul be trying to communicate with you about this thing?
- What movies, TV shows, podcasts, or other forms of art and media are you drawn to? What do these have in common? Do they elicit any kind of physical response or longing? How might that be a message from your soul about your path, purpose, or desires?