Before I explain a single word of that title, I’d like you to try something.
Think of the last time something got under your skin. Nothing dramatic. A tone of voice. A message that landed at the wrong moment. Someone who was late. (Yes, that one.)
Got it? Good. Now ask yourself one question, and notice the first answer that shows up, before you’ve had time to polish it:
What’s going on?
If you’re like most of us, the first answer sounds something like They’re doing something I don’t like. Or This is hurting me. It starts with the story, and someone else is usually the villain. The flyswatter is already in your hand.
Now ask it again. This time, point the question at yourself: What’s going on with me? The answer that comes up tends to sound different. Quieter. Something like There’s something going on here that I’m having trouble dealing with.
Same event. Two very different places to stand when you answer it.
Here’s a recent one of mine. My partner was late for dinner. Again. The first answer was the usual one, flyswatter included.
Then I pointed the question at me, and the honest answer was a little less flattering and a lot more useful. My own expectations were part of it. So were boundaries I’d set without ever attaching a consequence to them. So was a conversation I hadn’t had. None of that made anyone the villain, me included. It just showed me where I could shift my own attitude, so we could keep the peace and work out something better for next time.
I ask myself that question about five thousand times a day. It’s also how I begin almost every session with the people I work with, because the way someone answers tells me which part of them is driving.
That question is a doorway. Here’s where we open the door and see what’s inside.
Two places to live from
Most of the day, most of us run on the surface. The surface is quick, loyal, and very good at reacting. It swats the flies. It bristles at a tone of voice. It rehearses the argument in the shower. It’s built from personality and habit: the roles you play, the persona you show, the reflexes you picked up along the way.
It means well. It’s just shallow, and it runs a lot more of your life than you’d probably choose if anyone asked.
Underneath it is something with a longer view. The part of you that sees. The part that makes meaning. The part that was here before any of your roles and will be here after all of them. I call it the soul, and I use the word carefully. It’s who you really are once appearances, contrivance, and imagination are set aside.
Which of the two answered the last time you were asked something hard?
How about getting to the heart of this now?
What soul mastery means
Soul mastery is recognizing that part of yourself at its deepest, and then operating from it.
There are two parts to that, and the second is the harder one. Recognizing your soul can happen in a good afternoon. Operating from it means building a real two-way relationship with it: listening and speaking, interpreting what you hear and discerning what’s true in it.
Mastery is when your soul is running your life, rather than your persona or your personality. You’re living from a deeply anchored center instead of a shallow, reactive place.
I want to be plain about one thing: mastery is not enlightenment. I haven’t attained that. I don’t know whether it’s possible in a single lifetime. I suspect it is, but I have no way of knowing, since I haven’t experienced it yet, and I won’t pretend I’ve been there. What I can say is that I’m here, present, more of the time than I used to be, and that it took a good while to get here.
And I can’t hand mastery to anyone. It’s something you learn, and earn. Which brings me to the name on my door.
Why I call myself a Soul Mechanic
It began as a half-joke about diagnostics, and it turned out to be exactly right.
Here’s what I can actually see. Everyone I meet, I meet at the soul level, so I’m perceiving the soul underneath who you think you are. That may not be quite the same as meeting a soul, but it comes close.
What I can’t tell you is what yours is here to be and become, or what you want to do with it while you’re here. I can often come pretty close. But every one of us is the only one intimate enough with our own soul to understand it, work with it, and develop it.
So as a Soul Mechanic, I can see a lot about what’s going on, and it’s always yours to work with. Unlike a part on a mechanic’s bench, I can’t take your soul out, repair it, and put it back. I can observe, advise, and recommend. Then you take the action, and you get the results.
I’m good at spotting where the trouble is because I’ve spent decades learning what needed repair in my own. My soul was the one part of me that stayed intact. The repair work was all in the connection between my soul and the rest of me, and in learning what to do when that connection broke. I’m a master at that by now, which is why I can help with yours. I’ve been just about everywhere someone can go with this kind of work: consciousness repair and upgrade.
Conscious evolution
Conscious evolution means just what it says. You evolve by becoming, and remaining, conscious, as a practice, a lifestyle, a way of moving through the world.
That’s very different from not being aware at all. (I’ve logged plenty of autopilot days myself. Autopilot is a holding pattern, not a path.)
It’s also less a retreat you come back from than a way of meeting an ordinary Tuesday.
How this work is different
The way I work is different from most of what’s out there, and I’ll say so up front, because it decides whether it’s for you.
I have no patience with the shallow end of the pool, and I won’t stay in it. I swim in the deep end, and I make it as safe (and as much fun) as I can to be there.
It’s all about consciousness. That’s the work. Best to know it up front.
I don’t do anything for you. I lead rather than teach, and you experience instead of downloading content. You show up, and we meet the moment with what’s true for you front and center. So prepare to tell the truth, to yourself first, and then (safely) to me. That’s not better than other ways of working, just different, and it asks more of you. It’s challenging, lovingly so.
I don’t meet you at the starting line. We connect somewhere past that point, after you’ve already healed some things and done some work on yourself.
Here’s what that looks like for most people: you’ve named at least one of your main problems and begun working on it. From there, I help you remember where you wanted to go in the first place, and see whether we can’t make the trip a little more fun and meaningful.
In practice, that also means I’m honest about where this work begins:
- If you’re in crisis, the right step is support that fits. I’ll gladly refer you, and reconnect once you’re steady.
- If you’re actively using alcohol or drugs, consciousness work isn’t possible under the influence.
- If you’re newly sober, your program is the work right now. Come find me once you have a grasp on it and a working program you follow.
It’s simply where the work starts.
Remembering where you wanted to go
Here’s what that phrase means in practice. It means quieting the mental and emotional noise long enough to orient around your intention instead of your situation.
It doesn’t mean skipping the appropriate response. If the house is on fire, the philosophy can wait. Consciousness doesn’t excuse you from responding in the moment. It asks you to respond from your center.
It also means seeing this moment as one piece of a continuum whose destination is unknowable.
We can reflect on the past, and on how other people lived theirs. We can imagine, hope for, and prepare for what comes next. But we can’t live anywhere except now. That’s all we’ve got, and I’ve come to think it’s exactly what eternity is. Or rather, where it is.
So, right now, before you close this tab: what’s going on?
Pause here. Take as long as you need, and really ask yourself the question.
Then notice where the answer is coming from. Is it the surface, the flyswatter and the story? Or is something deeper answering? If it’s the surface, can you be a little more patient and take the question deeper? Try the version that points home: What’s going on with me?
And when you’ve paused: have there been any aha’s for you while reading this? Make a note of them, and keep following those threads.
Where to go from here
If you’d like company for this, here’s the order I’d suggest. Start wherever fits, but this is the path I’d walk.
- Take the free Soul Type Assessment. It looks at your essence instead of your skills.
- Read The Code of the Soul. Fifteen practical practices for running your life from your deeper self.
- Then A Living Truth, and the Living Truth Circle. The book first, then practice with company.
- Book a Check Your Soul Light Session. One private conversation about what’s actually going on.
- Not sure where you are? The Start Here page sorts everything I’ve written, and everything I offer, by where you are.