Why I named deep souls
and BIG NEWS about my next book!
This story begins with Joalida Smit’s painting above, entitled “Lightness of Being.” The soothing organic curves of the flower’s velvety petals in calming shades of creams and yellow envelope me in what the title implies: peacefulness.
Lightness of being suggests to me the idea of being at peace with oneself, just as we can’t help but be at peace while gazing at this exquisite painting.
For many years, I encountered first children and then adults whose beings felt the opposite of light. In fact, they existed in a constant state of tension between who they are and who they were understood to be. They were misunderstood by others and perhaps even worse, they misunderstood themselves. They felt less-than, broken, or utterly self-doubting.
Sure, some deep souls were light and confident, but the misunderstood were the ones that tugged at my heartstrings. As the years went on, I continued to notice that these very people who were most misjudged were also the most innovative, original thinkers I’d ever met.
I wondered, “Why are these brilliant thinkers so consistently misinterpreted to be bad, broken, or annoying?”
This question haunted me as an educator and advocate, especially when I received angry calls from administrators yelling at me that indeed, this child is broken and how dare I say he has strengths to be supported!
Through research conducted during and after my master of science program in the science of creativity, I was finally able to articulate the framework that explains the unique intelligence of these “people I loved to work with.”
Around that time, my research led me to identify the seven core strengths “these people” shared. Finally, in 2018, I coined the term deep souls by way of this article that I’ve shared before. As I’ve also shared before, over the last 16 months, 89% of the impressions on my Sparkitivity website from queried searches have been on this single article.
As it turns out, the term deep soul resonates. It clearly connects with “the people I love to work with.” When deep souls hear the term deep soul, it seems to awaken their recognition right then and there.
Over time, I have identified many deep souls in daily life. Often I’ll knowingly mention the term and watch their eyes light up. They tell me that their challenges include feeling alone, weird, on the outside, and unsure that they really have strengths. But when they hear deep souls, they often immediately realize they are no longer alone.
They also have asked me, for many years: Where is the deep souls book?
Well, I’ve been writing it in fits and starts for ten years. I have edited and revised dozens of drafts. But it seemed I just couldn’t finish it until I took a two-year break to live as a deep soul myself.
You see, I’m not one of “the people who I love to work with.” I mean, I didn’t think I was, and that’s mostly because I have allowed my deep soul strengths to become sanded down over the years. I don’t have the fluidity of strengths that I have observed in “the people I love to work with.”
And yet, when I was stuck on the deep souls book I took a break to focus on poetry. As I’ve written before, I embarked on a personal challenge to walk to Lake Michigan (nearly) every day for a year to write a poem. This project turned into a collection of 45 poems entitled Unsalted Blue Sunrise: Poems of Lake Michigan.
This deep-dive study of poetry and nature, followed by a continued immersion into contemporary English haiku, has nurtured my deep soul strengths. Finally, finally after all these years following my path on one hand and catering to an idea of who I thought I should be on the other, I was able to perceive and own my deep soul strengths.
With this understanding, the book on deep souls became more authentic and intimate.
And, it is about to be released!
In true deep soul fashion, my book on deep souls will be published unconventionally: right here on Deep Soul Strengths.
It is the book that comes to your inbox in 4-minute reads.
My book is a serial book in the spirit of Charles Dickens, whose chapters were published over time in inexpensive periodicals of the day. The Pickwick Papers, his first serial novel, unfolded in 19 monthly installments.
Dickens’ innovation at the time made reading long books more accessible to working people. In our present busy world, I thought that deep souls would appreciate the same. I may even add some audio for those on the go . . .
Soon I’ll tell more about the creation process behind this book, and about my spreadsheet with over 400 title ideas. But today I’ll share the actual title, the one that took ten years to find. It’s the title that communicates my hope for “the people I love to work with” and my hope for this book:
A Love Letter to Deep Souls
On what day do you think we will begin to release this serial love letter?
You guessed it! On February 14, 2025—Valentine’s Day!
So how do you get access to this book?
If you are already a paid subscriber or founding member of Deep Soul Strengths, it will come automatically to your inbox twice a week beginning in February and continuing for at least six months.
If you are free subscriber, click the upgrade button below and in one step you can become a paid subscriber or founding member and receive the book.
What if you want to gift the book and membership in this community that comes with it? Again, in one step you can do so below.
When you are a paid subscriber or founding member, you will have access to the full Deep Soul Strengths archives and to our live chats or just the chat history if you want to observe. You will also have the ability to comment on each article or chapter, adding your own experiences to the mix. If you don’t prefer to comment, you might enjoy reading the comments that others post.
So back to “Lightness of Being.” It is my hope that A Love Letter to Deep Souls will be just the balm of understanding that millions of deep souls need to be at peace with themselves, and to own and more thoroughly express their strengths. And I hope that the very existence of this community will demonstrate to deep souls that they not at all alone.
If you want to learn more about the history of serial publishing, this is an interesting article.
Have you popped over to the Deep Soul Strengths homepage? There, paid subscribers have full access to our article archives and free subscribers can read all free posts. You can see our About page, access the Chat, and more!
About the art in this post: “Lightness of Being” by Joalida Smit is one of the artist’s signature oil on canvas flowers. From the artist: “The title for this painting is from a book The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. The term refers to the endurance of the human spirit; that despite our fragility we have the capacity to find joy through the depth of our human relationships.” See more of Joalida’s exquisite work here or follow her on Instagram here.