Stand Up and Show Your Soul
Calming the Tumult in an Unsettled World
Some might say it’s a bold statement: Stand up and show your soul. Others might say it’s too “spiritual,” or without substance, or too vulnerable or soft. Yet as I read over and over again Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ 2001 “Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times,” those words—her words—feel like a clarion call to conscious living and conscious leadership in its most authentic form. It’s been at least ten years since I first came across this letter, yet it’s just as relevant today—maybe even more so.
(For your reference, this letter is also known by its opening lines, “Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.” It was republished in 2016.)
To me, her entire text is incredibly moving, humbling, and inspiring. Yet for now, I begin with these lines:
Do not lose heart. We were made for these times.
One of the most calming and powerful actions
you can do to intervene in a stormy world
is to stand up and show your soul.
Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times….
To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these—
to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both—
are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.
Struggling souls catch light from other souls
who are fully lit and willing to show it.
If you would help to calm the tumult,
this is one of the strongest things you can do.from “Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times”
by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
When she writes the word soul, and when I use that term, it’s not just a name for something abstract or philosophical or metaphysical—it’s your essence, the core of your being, the source of your truth and your deep inner knowing. In the ancient scholarly languages, all of which pre-date the religions associated with those languages, the word “soul” translates to mean “breath.” It’s the breath of life within us. In the same way, the “soul” of a community is the “breath of life” or the life-force within that community. And it’s the same for the soul of a country, or a company, or a relationship, or a family.
Showing your soul means showing your truth, your essence—showing who you really are. Living it. Living and leading from the inside out. Knowing why you are here. Letting your soul shape how you live into the roles you play, the titles you inhabit, the tasks you take on, the agendas through which you navigate. It’s how I strive to live my life every single day. And I’ll also be the first to admit that I’m not always so good at it. Yet through the decade of my sixties, and even more so in the last few months as I’ve entered my seventies, that striving has only intensified. So, I keep practicing and learning and growing into who I sense I’m called to be.
Standing up and showing your soul means anchoring yourself in your authentic presence before taking action. In short, it’s presence before action.
And then her words, Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The presence we bring to the moment shapes what is possible in that moment. When we’re surrounded by fear, uncertainty, or anxiety, the engaged presence of someone who is deeply anchored in soul can shift the energy field. It’s simply the physics of presence; we radiate who we are in the moment. And that can literally shift the energy in a room, in a conversation, in a situation. Given a big enough platform, it can even shift the energy in a country.
To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these is often not easy. It takes courage, discipline, and focus. Courage to remain open-hearted when instinctively you want to put up your armor. Discipline to keep your focus on who you are and why you’re here, and to stand in alignment with both your inner core and what wants to happen to lift all towards a greater good.
Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit. It’s the ripple effect—the physics of presence. The bigger job in conscious living and leading is not to “fix” the world; it’s to radiate a presence that creates space for new possibilities. When we are fully lit, we become catalysts for greater possibilities—maybe even for transformation. And I don’t use that word lightly. True transformation is a mystical shift in vibrational pattern and frequency that somehow happens because the conditions have aligned.
It’s not about manipulating those conditions to make something happen. It’s not about being louder or more persuasive. It’s about shining your soul light brightly and letting that light do its work. Which becomes an invitation to others to shine their light. It’s about the power of our presence and our purpose in dynamic and aligned movement. It’s not about forcing change—it’s about creating the optimal culture and conditions in which change becomes inevitable.
A few more phrases from the full text of “Letter to a Young Activist” speak directly to me right now:
…I urge you, ask you, gentle you to please not spend your spirit dry by bewailing these difficult times. Especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is—we were made for these times…. One of the most important steps you can take to help calm the storm is to not allow yourself to be taken in a flurry of overwrought emotion or despair…. Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.
…There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I, too, have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it; I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate. The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours: They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But … that is not what great ships are built for.
Excerpts from “Letter to a Young Activist in Troubled Times” by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Many authors and philosophers across generations have written or spoken versions of that last statement. Its truth can be confronting. There are certainly days when I question whether or not I am, in fact, made for these times. Many days when I wonder if my “ship” is truly strong enough. More times than I would like to admit, I have mused, “Couldn’t all this have waited for another 20 or 30 years when I’ll be gone?”
And yet, I also believe that we are not given more than we are capable of handling, more than we are capable of navigating. There have been moments when I was stretched beyond what I thought were my limits. Yet somehow, I kept going. At the same time, I’m humbled to acknowledge that countless numbers of people across generations have been stretched and challenged far beyond anything I’ve ever had to face. Just writing those words touches a deep and sober stillness inside.
We’re living in a time of massive global transition—not just political or economic or social; we’re in a massive energetic transition. Current systems are breaking open because they can no longer support what the future is asking of us. And we have to break open as well, because we can’t meet the future in the same ways we met the past, or even the same ways we’re meeting our present. Something else is being asked for now.
In closing, I come back to Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ words—that our greatest job now is to stand up and show our souls. Our greatest job is to become clear channels for the presence that is trying to emerge through us. These times are not asking us to know everything, to solve everything, or to fix the brokenness. These times are asking us to stand up and show our souls. To show the true version of who we are and who we’re called to become. To live into the fierce and tender nature of our beings.
Because light invites light. Compassion invites compassion. Authentic co-creative presence convenes us and inspires us to build a world that works for all. This is soul work in public life.
Invitations
Free recorded Meditations for Changing Times led by Alan. More than 50 guided meditations. Choose the title that speaks to you and listen. Available for free to you anytime.
Visit The Center for Transformational Presence website
Consider reading one of Alan’s Books
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Thank you Alan, powerful and beautiful words that continue to bring hope and inspire us. …change becomes inevitable. The true transformational presence which we all become a part of, creating a world that works.
Thank you for reminding us to shine our light from a humble place 🧡