Soulfulness: Living with Depth, Meaning, and Inner Radiance

Glimpse ahead: Soulfulness is a way of being. It’s our lived connection to meaning, presence, and the true self. It’s more than a feeling. It’s a path shaped by core principles that guide how we move through life with awareness, integrity, and depth. In this reflection, you’ll explore those guiding principles and how Soulfulness reveals itself through quiet signals of alignment, soul signals like resonance, compassion, and a sense of deep understanding. These principles aren’t fixed ideas but living invitations. They can be nurtured through intentional practices. This is the beginning of a deeper journey, one that unfolds through conscious steps and the choices we carry with care along the way.

The Way of Soulfulness

There are moments when you feel something deeper stirring, not just satisfaction or success, but something more elusive and radiant. A sense that you’re not just going through the motions but really living. You pause to admire the light filtering through the trees, feel moved by a piece of music, feel connected, or suddenly understand something with new depth. In those moments, you’re not just alive. You’re soulful.

Soulfulness is a way of being. It’s not a trait or a task, but a felt presence and an inner orientation toward depth, meaning, and connection. It’s what opens when we’re fully here, when we meet life with reverence and curiosity. It’s less about what you have and more about how you relate to what is.

There was a time when I used the word “abundance” to point to this dimension of life. But the term often got tangled in material overtones, more about gain than grounding. What I meant was something deeper: the richness of being, the aliveness of becoming, the clarity that emerges when you tune in. What I once called abundance; I now recognize more fully as soulfulness.

And soulfulness, I’ve come to see, arises through a set of living principles. These are guiding cairns on the path to greater authenticity and wholeness. These aren’t commandments or steps. They are invitations. Qualities that, when nurtured, bring more of your deeper-self and your higher-self forward.

Below are eight such principles I’ve come to trust.

Appreciation

Soulfulness begins with the ability to see, to notice the beauty, richness, and presence woven through everyday life. Appreciation isn’t about gratitude lists or forced positivity. It’s about pausing long enough to feel the moment’s fullness. It’s the awe in a sunrise, the warmth in shared laughter, the stillness after a deep breath. It’s the resonance that says: “This matters.”

Reflection

The soul arrives in subtle ways. The soul speaks through dreams, memories, patterns, insights, and longings. Reflection is how we listen. It’s the space we give ourselves to wonder, to process, to re-know what we thought we already understood. It’s less about solving problems and more about becoming aware. In reflection, meaning emerges from within.

Creation

Soulfulness wants expression. Not just art, but aliveness made visible, through our self being made real in the world. Whether through words, gardens, gestures, or choices, we bring our soul into form. Creativity is about being real in how we focus our energy in our own unique way. It’s how we give shape to what’s meaningful and stirring inside us. In creation, we participate in the unfolding mystery of ourselves.

Action

To live soulfully is to move in alignment with your truth. It’s not enough to feel. We must act. This doesn’t mean striving or hustling but choosing from the deep-self. Even a small act, when grounded in our values, carries great power. Action is how soulfulness walks in the world.

Connection

The soul is not solitary. It longs for resonance with people, nature, and spirit. True connection isn’t just interaction; it’s a vibrational congruence. A moment when your energy harmonizes with another, whether the other is a person, a group, or any living entity. It may also be when your energy sings with your higher power, nature, or universal connectedness. Soulful connection feels like belonging, not because you fit in, but because in that moment, you feel connected, and you know it.

Openness

Soulfulness thrives with an openness to experience. Openness is a kind of receptivity, a willingness to not know, to be changed, to let the moment teach you. Openness to experience allows life to touch us. It invites wonder, accepts paradox, and welcomes mystery. When we’re open, the soul has space to grow.

Authenticity

The soul wants to be seen as it is, not masked or distorted. Authenticity is the courage to live from your deep-self, even when it feels vulnerable. It’s letting go of performance and choosing presence. In authenticity, we meet life as who we truly are now and as who we are becoming.

Presence

The soul resides in the here and now. It is only by being present that you can feel, know, and express your soulfulness. Presence can be still and quiet. It can also be full engagement in some activity or interaction. Presence shows up in those moments when we are truly with ourselves or fully in flow.

These principles are at the heart of soulfulness. They are not just ideas; they are qualities we can nurture through supportive practices.

In doing so, soulfulness deepens. Soulfulness grows as we reflect, appreciate, create, and connect. Soulfulness grows as we are open to experience, present in the moment, and take action as our authentic self.

These principles come alive in how we move (our steps), and what we carry and place with intention (our stones). They are stones from which we take conscious steps toward a more soulful life. This is the path of soulfulness, and it will be explored in future reflections, practices, and offerings.

Soul Signals

How do we know when we’re touching soulfulness? We feel it. Often before we can explain it. These signals don’t demand attention, but they invite awareness. Here are some soul signals:

• A sense of resonance, like something quietly humming “yes” inside
• A moment of unforced compassion, toward yourself or someone else
• A deepening sense of meaning, when something ordinary suddenly feels important, or our understanding shifts
• A wave of gratitude, often for no grand reason
• A lightness in the body, an easing of pressure or resistance
• A surge of clarity or energy, when things simply align
• A tear that comes unexpectedly, when something true touches you
• A sense of awe, in response to nature, music, silence, insight, or anything else
• A flicker of joy, grounded and real
• A deep sense of connection with the sacred, your higher power, or the universal

These are soul’s affirmations. Not instructions. Not formulas. Just information to notice and perhaps consider. Soul signals are truths that say: “This matters… this is the way.”

Toward the Journey ahead

Soulfulness is not something we achieve. It’s something we remember, nurture, and embody as best we can. These principles and signals are reminders, not rules. Some days you’ll feel one more than another. Some seasons the depth, meaning, and radiance will be bright. Other times they may be in repose, waiting to emerge. And that’s okay. The path is not direct or smooth. The journey is different for each of us. But it is always there, waiting, when you choose to walk it.

So I’ll leave you with these questions:

Which of these principles is calling to you right now?
How might you listen, not just with your mind, but with your whole being?

~ Rich Liotta, Ph.D.

This post is one of three core reflections introducing the heart of Steps, Stones, and Soul; exploring how we move through life, what shapes us, and who we can become.

Read What We Carry, How We Move: here

Read Three Kinds of Stones: What Hinders, Grounds, and Guides Your Journey: here