Shake Your Soul

by Eric Santillan

We can live life generally in two ways. One way is to live life without asking any questions– to just go through every day as if there is nothing more significant than what we do, how we are, where we are. We can live life like it does not affect us, like everything is merely skin deep and there is nothing else to look forward to.

The other way is slightly more interesting, but takes more from us. It is to ask, what the blog Be More with Less calls the ‘soul-shaking questions‘. To ask the soul-shaking questions entails living life with purpose. I love the word QUESTION because its root is the word QUEST. To question–to ask–is to be on a quest. It is not just an intellectual asking; it entails a search that involves living the questions in your life, like a quest where you move from mere theory to praxis. And when you live the questions, you grow nearer to the answers every day.

What are soul shaking questions?

These are the questions that we keep from ourselves because we’re afraid to ask them, or are in denial. We’re afraid because really, who’s not afraid of change? These questions make the potential to change very real in our lives. Here are some questions we should be asking ourselves more often:

• Am I settling down or just settling?
• Why do I put up with people who make me unhappy?
• Why do I allow people to step on me?
• What makes me happy?
• Am I in the right job?
• What do I need to change in my life?
• Am I wrong?
• Why can’t I forgive?
• Why is it so hard to let go?
• Am I in the right relationship?
• Is this person the right one for me?
• Am I the right one for this person?

There are countless others. Asking these questions rock the boat, bring us out of our comfort zones, make us change. And once we ask them, we can’t help but be accountable and act. It becomes an itch that needs to be scratched. When things quiet down, in the peace and quiet of the night, they haunt us. They’re haunting because we are wired for better things, deeper things. We are wired for meaning. Our hearts are restless until they find rest in what gives us peace and makes us happy. But it is only when we have the courage to shake our souls that we can access this peace and happiness in our life.

Go! Shake your soul!