My client Felicia is in her car. Her kids are driving her mad fighting in the back seat. It’s after school.

She’s at her wit’s end, compounded by other stresses – a bungled work email, an IRS tax bill she forgot to pay, her husband’s complaint about something earlier that morning.

She fears the soccer coach taking it out on her children if they’re late to practice, then the self-judgement of being a bad parent.

Traffic is slow. An old lady is driving 20 in a 40. Felicia wants to pass her but not with the kids in the car.

And then something happens. In the midst of it all, she hears a voice. She tilts her head, as if that will enable her to hear it better. She doesn’t know where it comes from. Still she listens.

None of this matters.

What, really? She thinks and considers it all – the work email, the tax bill, etc – challenging the voice.

And then when she drops the pretense of needing to be “right,” she knows that in the big scheme of life, it’s true.  And right now she could truly care less about getting her kids to soccer practice on time.

All that matters is that you love your kids, the voice says.

Felicia looks up and the sun is suddenly out, as if it’s been cloudy all day. A beam of light slices through the mist and angles perfectly onto her face through the driver’s window.

She feels the warmth of its rays, looks up for a moment, and forgets everything. She relaxes.

She has heard the voice of her soul and what it is wanting of her here and now.

A moment later she wonders, what do I do with that information? Do I drive off the road and say, hey kids, we’re going to go to Chuck E. Cheeses and have an afternoon of play together? My soul says we need to spend more quality time together?

Instead of seeking literal instructions of what to do, Felicia reduces the pressure of her foot on the gas pedal, breathes, gets present to being with her kids, and even smiles as they fight, telling herself that’s how they love each other.

She rebels against her story of the late, bad, stressed out parent. She lets go of the stress to get to soccer on time, as well as all her other stresses.

She listens to what her soul wants of her – to be free of self-talk and self-induced stress. She flips a switch within, to be happy her and now, to be more emotionally available for herself and her kids.

She listens to the part of her who is connected to her higher truth of what’s important in the moment. Releasing the not good enough script and saying, I’m in charge of my story, not vice versa. It’s her running her tasks, not the other way around.

It’s living in the moment, aligned with the presence, connectedness, and love that her soul wants of her. It’s soul as a real concrete inner listening that puts her in charge of her mindset and life. It’s available to her in any moment, she knows.

In the most basic terms, soul is the part of you that speaks a deeper truth, piercing through all emotional and mental volume – something you cannot deny.

Soul is relational, connecting you to self and others. Soul is that which brings you to the eternal, the mythology of life.

Even in an everyday mundane scenario, we can thrive and hear our soul speaking – if only we listen.

3 MINUTE PRACTICE: What My Soul Wants of Me

Take a moment. Pause. Put away all distractions. Take three deep breaths. Inhale from head to toe and toe to head, as if exhaling and releasing your breath through the crown of your head.

Ask yourself, what does my soul want of me now?

Breathe into the question as if digesting it. Consider the voice inside of you, discrete from your mind (thoughts) or heart (feelings). It’s the wise part of you connected to the bigger picture. Your sovereign self that speaks your truth. It’s presence and intuition.  Listen within.  Share your answer in the comments section below.