If you give it a second thought, you will realize that the very term ’soul’ is quite difficult to comprehend. Although we are using it often, there isn’t a realistic context for it in our lives. I believe there was more reason for its presence in the past. But as moral values got reorganized, the soul got lost somehow. What is left of it is the palette of sayings that we still like to use sometimes. Selling your soul is one of those. Maybe the most popular one.
Previously I stated that what we call ‘the soul’ is a potentiality. It is mistakenly considered something that we actually own. Also, ‘the soul’ represents the utmost in human development. The goal of any human personal development quest.
How to sell something that you don’t own?
According to the statement that, generally speaking, we do not have the actual soul in our consciousness, the question arises: how to sell something that you don’t own? This is the first conclusion that shows up if stand on the ground of reality. You can not sell your soul unless you have the soul.
But still, there are situations in life when you could say “I will not sell my soul” or “He sold his soul for pennies”. In these contexts the term ’soul’ denotes something different from the previous definitions. It denotes the situation of giving up something considered good or righteous in one’s life. Sometimes this is known as one’s true will. So what does one actually sell in these situations?
Compromises that don’t really make you happy.
The most common form of selling your soul, in this context, is making compromises. Compromise here has obviously a negative connotation. This type of compromise does not lead you to a common understanding. Instead it requires you to give up something that was keeping you closer to completeness. Closer to happiness.
Have you seen anyone that made this compromise and got happier after that? I haven’t. The process usually goes like this:
- in the first phase, they seem content. Looks like they’ve come to the right decision.
- after a while they start to show signs of devitalization. Their appetite for life is decreasing for apparently no reason.
- at its complete unfolding, there comes the admittance of burn-out. This burn-out often generates apathy, sometimes leads to depression.
Devitalization means loosing vitality, loosing energy of life, joy of life. This is the payment for making the compromise. This is the first warning for missing direction.
When the process reaches its nadir, the admittance of burn-out is the first moment of sobering. There is apparently no reason for this intense frustration. At first. But when it’s aggravating, suddenly there are many people to be blamed, many situations that are causing the bad mood. All except yourself. If there is honest self analysis, awareness will bring the cure. Otherwise the generated situations will force the sobering effect to show up.
Conclusions:
- Selling your soul is impossible.
- Selling your true will is possible. With it, you will also sell your life strength.
- The crisis it generates has an intense sobering effect.
After pointing out to you my take on the subject, I am thinking of a further condition which seems to me that is even more severe than selling your soul. This is what I call forgetting the soul. A subject for a future post.
Until then, I would be glad if you would share your thoughts on the subject of selling your soul. Have you ever been in a situation where you’ve felt like selling/sold you soul? Can you point out the most important lessons you’ve learnt from it?
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