How to Speak to Your Soul and Find Inner Peace

Lately, I have been speaking to my soul. In my morning journaling, I will reflect on what I sense God speaking to me, what I want myself to work on or realize. When I have gathered my thoughts, I begin my addressing myself as “soul.”

For example, this is an excerpt from my journal this morning,

"Soul, endure, endure, endure, endure. Endure that you may gain life (Luke 21:19)… Soul, today, worship God, be silent, listen, be slow, be present. You can be nowhere else except here and in your imagination when you pray. Be a man shaped by Scripture and prayer.”

I believe that God is always speaking, the problem is I have a hard time discerning it. But through self-talk, I can sort through the noise of my thoughts, the words of Scripture, and the moving of the Spirit and communicate to myself clearly and simply what I believe God is saying. I do not think I always get it right, but the process is life-giving in that it makes me look for God’s voice in my life.

After my Scripture meditation this morning, I read this quote as I spent some time with Leo Tolstoy:

As soon as a person asks himself the question, “How do I live my life in the best way?” then all other questions are answered.

Real living takes place not in the domain of outward change, but in the inner domain, where changes can hardly be observed, in our spiritual life. —Tolstoy, Leo. A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se (p. 194). Scribner. Kindle Edition.

I love this quote because I believe it captures the goal of this practice: living life in the best possible way. When we speak to our soul we are not looking for an outward change, but inward change. Why? Because as Tolstoy notes, in our inner selves is where “real living takes place.”

I encourage you to give this practice a try. Next time you pray, speak to God and speak to your soul, so that you may give guidance to your inner domain.