People across the globe are searching for deep souls
Check out these stats
Dear Readers,
When I switched to using this Substack platform for my newsletter, I had no idea how inspiring it would be to increase the number of articles I send each month. On the old email platform, my Spark Report mailings ebbed and flowed—hovering around once or twice a month and growing when I had something of interest to share like a new book. With Deep Soul Strengths, I still send a free article like this one at least once a month and I send member articles and goodies at least once a week.
There is so much that I’d like to share with you that it’s hard to stop writing!
Truth be told, there were barriers to sending the old way. It wasn’t as seamless. As I type this note, it feels more like communicating than “sending something out.” I know that many of you will interact with the ideas in this post through the comments. We will have chats. We are a web of connection instead of a centralized hub with me at the center.
Thanksgiving to you
Speaking of connection, many thanks to those of you who upgraded to become paid subscribers in recent days!
Gratitude to Founding Members: Katie R., Jennifer M.
Gratitude to Paid Subscribers: Leah H., Diane H., Kristin H., Hannah T., Kasey W.
We are getting ready to host our first live chat for members during the last week of September!
Googling deep souls
This week, I’d like to share a story of numbers and discovery to explain why I moved from calling my publication The Spark Report to Deep Soul Strengths.
At the end of each month, good ole Google sends me an email with monthly search performance insights from my Sparkitivity website—the home of my workshops, articles, biography, and books.
For several years, this report has shown that people arrive at my website primarily to read my writings on deep souls—ever since I started writing about them in 2018. The numbers are astounding.
Over the last 16 months, 89% of the impressions on Sparkitivity.com from queried searches have been on one single article: “7 Strengths of Deep Souls, The Thinkers We Need But Don’t Understand.” This article is now pinned on the Deep Soul Strengths publication here.
Incidentally, but not insignificantly, 6% of queried impressions are on the Spanish version of this article. People all across the globe, from 229 unique countries or regions—in various languages—are typing words into Google to try to gain more understanding about deep souls.
They may or may not have heard the term “deep soul” uttered (a term that I coined), but they are intuitively searching for this idea—questing, I believe, for a greater understanding of the depth of their being.
Why does the term deep soul relate to us all?
More evidence that people crave information about deep souls is in the reaction to the following image from my book Creativity for Everybody, the quick overview of the science of creativity that I co-authored with designer Jane Harvey.
This chart has consistently been readers’ number one favorite page in the book. The book was published nearly ten years ago and to this day, people still tell me that reading it was a major revelation.
Please take a moment to look carefully . . .
Have you ever used any of these words to describe yourself or someone else?
Has anyone else used them to describe you?
I found when working with students, that without a more accurate way to characterize people who exhibit a high degree of the positive strengths listed in the first column, they are mislabeled with negative words found in the second column.
But, you say, originality, open-mindedness, and curiosity are good qualities to have! Why would anyone criticize them?
Because anything original or different resists conformity, and conformity is a top value in the day-to-day operations of society. Conformity often requires the opposite of originality, open-mindedness, and curiosity. This annoys the people running the show—whether the show is a classroom, home, or workplace.
And to be honest, it annoys them for good reason. These pioneering traits can be hard to manage, especially if you are tied to certain top-down ways of doing things. It takes originality, open-mindedness, curiosity, and leadership to successfully support the characteristics that lead to originality, open-mindedness, and curiosity!
Conformity often requires the opposite of originality
Why would we want to support characteristics that lead to nonconformists?
Four words: Innovation, entrepreneurship, invention, progress.
Progress relies on people who are willing to step outside of the present-day hum of life. Every single person who made a significant invention throughout history, or a new discovery, or came up with a new theory—that stood the test of time—necessarily exhibited strengths from column one and most certainly was branded with negative terms from column two during his or her lifetime.
Progress relies on people who are willing to step outside of the present-day hum of life.
Unfortunately, societies throughout time have a proven record of punishing, shaming, executing, and otherwise not supporting the very people that usher in progress and enlightenment. We often only recognize these heroes only after they are long gone.
For decades, I have researched the lives of hundreds of eminent creators and world-changers. And though I’m not a fan of slapping present-day labels on people of the past, I will say that most of them have exhibited intense deep soul strengths.
We need deep souls. We need them right now—to be the inventors, the dreamers, the entrepreneurs, the makers. We need them on a large scale for society of course, and we will have some. But perhaps even more, we need everyday deep souls who bring their original perspectives and insights to raising their families, serving their communities, and working at businesses.
We need them right now—to be the inventors, the dreamers, the entrepreneurs, the makers.
I’m glad you are here to join me on this journey to discover more about who deep souls are. Perhaps you will find a deep soul lurking within and gain valuable tools to more effectively interact with the deep souls that will shape our future.
Might one of them be you?
Warmly,
Kathryn P. Haydon
Comments and conversation
Have you ever been described using the strengths or negative mislabels from the chart above?
Do you know others who exhibit these traits and are regarded positively or negatively?
Click below the article on “comments” to contribute to the discussion. Only paid subscribers will be able to comment, to keep comments private from Google and the greater internet. If you’d like to join the discussion, upgrade here!
About the art in this post: “Beautiful and Brave” is a street mural by artist Anna P. Murphy. The message that accompanies this art is written by the artist as follows: “How beautiful and brave we are. Brave in love, in kindness, and in peace. Learning from the wisdom of the natural world and the animal kingdom, we are one with all things. This mural is a representation of a unified love, between all. Every being of life connected by the divine love of the universe. Surrounded by a glowing gold background, reflecting the riches and beauty of the world. Symbols of resourcefulness (fox), courage (tiger), community (bees) and new beginnings, we look to a bright future, where love is all around.” See more of Anna’s art on Instagram or on her website.
Fidgeting Daydreamer is definitely a skill I possess. One thing I have learned is that I need to be drawing to pay attention. In college, I was doing just this..drawing intricate things on my notebook when my business professor "caught" me and asked if I could tell what he'd been saying and discuss. He was shocked to find I heard everything he had just mentioned and indeed had some thoughts about it. He never bothered me again when I was drawing in class because he realized that was part of how I learned. I am forever grateful to him for identifying this thing I didn't even know I was doing.