Dr. Amy Robbins, Director of Mental Health at BIÂN, shares what "soul care" is and how to best practice it.

When we can live from our soul that is when we can truly live in alignment with our higher’s selves.   Our soul is the engine.  It is what gives us life and vitality.  When our soul is hurting, we can often see a psychical manifestation of symptoms.  Sometimes when I see patients in my practice with depression and anxiety, I immediately think about how they might be out of alignment with the essence of who they are.  I want to understand in what areas of their life have they perhaps sacrificed something that was important to them in the quest for some external validation or reward.

Tell Your Truth

‍Soul care is about being able to be true to yourself about who you are.  Perhaps your parents wanted you to be a doctor, so you went to medical school but now that you have the title, you are depressed and miserable.  When you really think about what YOU want, you would have much preferred to be a teacher,  working with young kids.  When the truth of you soul conflicts with the path in which you are on, that can be soul crushing and lead to psychological distress.  Being truthful with yourself, while quite challenging, is excellent soul care.

Embrace Painful Experiences as Growth Opportunities

Our soul is here to grow and learn.  Another way to take care of your soul is to look for the patterns that keep showing up in your life.  These patterns are often there to help us better ourselves.  Oftentimes, these experiences can be quite painful and we want to turn away from them, but the best thing we can do is to lean into them.

Seek Peace and Calm

Our soul wants peace, calm, joy, and love in our lives.  If those are not experiences we are having, the soul will cry out for help and this again can manifest in all types of psychological ways.   There are many different paths to bringing more peace and calm into your life.  You might be feeling pulled to spend more time with family (or less) depending on your situation.  You might be feeling like you want to spend more time outside, hiking or walking near water.  These bring us closer to our soul because these are the desires our soul seeks.  

Allow yourself to dream

When you can tap into your creativity and imagination and let go of the limits the ego places on us, the soul can only soar.  As children, we are encouraged to dream big and believe you can be anything but as adults our souls often get crushed but the realities and challenges of life.  Get back to dreaming big about what the qualities of your soul are and how you want to express them.  Then, find a way to make it happen.