Science and Soul
Logic and Intuition
Sometimes, you feel something intuitively deep within your soul, or as we say in the south, your gut instinct. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the work I’m doing as a coach, public speaker, and writer is what I’m meant to do. When I’m engaged in this work and helping others along their journey, I feel it deep within my soul. It comes from a place of love and gratitude for the opportunity to help others and give back. There was a time when I wasn’t as sure about the work that I’m most passionate about. It took 30+ years for me to get to this place of awareness honestly, and that’s ok. Looking back, I do recognize that I did elements of this work throughout my career and personal life even though I didn’t call it by formal names. I’ve always been a helper type of person, and that’s how I showed up and continue to show up in my professional career and personally with volunteer work and with family and friends. And I feel a sense of great satisfaction when doing this work. I intuitively know it is what I’m meant to be doing in this world. Now, it is great to be connected with my intuition, but I haven’t always had that connection, and even now, sometimes, I have to pause and listen and reconnect with it to confirm if I’m on the right path and in alignment. At the same time, there’s a part of me on this journey, that needed something more tactical and logical to help with the journey to bring the intuitive vision alive and make it real for myself and in the world. That is where science and logic came into play. And I can point to a time when the science and logic started becoming more clear for me and aligning with the soul and intuition.
I’ve talked about this numerous times. It was around 2006, twenty years ago, that I started on a journey professionally that led me down the path of discovery for the science and logic that aligned with my soul and intuition. I had begun a new consulting client engagement that introduced me to industrial and organizational psychology and the related science associated with organizational change. Now many argue that organizations don’t change, people change and thereby facilitate organizational change. Those scientific constructs and theories piqued my curiosity and led down many intriguing paths towards positive psychology and the science of well-being. I met several interesting people within my client organizations and special guest speakers that taught me a great deal about these scientific constructs and fields. And I had the opportunity to volunteer for internal well-being teams that implemented science-based programs and initiatives that significantly impacted the people and critical missions of these important organizations. I continued both my practical experience and work with science-based constructs and logic while also pursuing both an undergraduate and graduate degrees and studies grounded in the science and logic of positive psychology and science of well-being. I volunteered as a research assistant in a research lab for the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being in my university and had the opportunity to work with very talented and passionate scientific leaders in these fields.
The science and logic grounded me in how the work I felt deep in my soul and intuition could come alive in the world and tactically make a difference for those around me and for me as well. I continue to learn and grow today in my scientific and logical knowledge and experience while also pausing strategically on a regular basis to listen to my intuition to ensure it is still aligned with my logical and scientific side. To me, both are critical, and the alignment is very important for my own balance and to best serve my clients and followers as a professional coach, public speaker, and writer. I will share more of the science of well-being and positive psychology that informs my work and passion in future posts, as I’ve shared some in the past, in hopes that it may be of use to each of you on your journeys.
At the same time, I always encourage you to reflect on your own journeys and experience with science and logic as well as connecting with your soul and intuition and aligning them. What has worked for you to align science and soul in your professional and personal lives? Are there resources, including mentors or others, that have helped you connect with science and soul or both? There are coaches I collaborate with who specialize in helping clients connect with their soul (intuition) and align with logic. I myself have engaged coaches who specialize in connecting science (logic) with soul (intuition), and it helped me tremendously. I am a coach and promote my coaching services because I’ve used, continue to use, and benefit from the value of coaching and believe in it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to promote my own coaching to my clients. I am a coach because I’ve lived and experienced many of the challenges my clients face, and I engage in coaching for myself. I will also say that sometimes we put too much demand on a single job or career to be everything to us. Sometimes, I’ve found elements of my science and soul alignment in the work I’m passionate about in a particular job, but I found other elements within volunteer work or other personal projects and endeavors. The point being, don’t expect a perfect job or career will contain all the elements aligned for what you seek deep in your soul and intuition as a purpose in life. Sometimes, we find elements of it in a collection of different experiences. Be open and curious to all the ways you can integrate science and soul in your professional and personal life.
Many of us as coaches seek to do the same, while using various methods to help our clients connect the two important areas, science and soul. I highly recommend you reflect on your own experience with the connections between science and soul, and how it has best served you on your journey. What are ways you can increase your knowledge or integration of both in your lives and how would your story and journey benefit? We all feel some things deeply in our soul, whether that is a calling for work we truly want to do, or goals and dreams we want to accomplish. Connecting that soul and intuition with science and logic may help bring it to life for you and write new exciting chapters for your life, because as always, Your Story Matters.
