SOUL POPS

SOUL POPS

Learning to recognize, trust, and honor the wisdom within.

I often speak and write about how I see the world through the eyes of energy. Much of what guides my perspective comes from understanding the connection between what we experience on the outside and what is happening within us.

There is an incredible amount of information available to us when we begin connecting with what guides us from within. It can help us move forward with greater clarity, a stronger sense of our own truth, and a deeper understanding of what feels most aligned with our life path.

With practice, we can develop a beautiful relationship with this inner guidance. Some call it intuition. Others call it a gut feeling, an instinct, an inner knowing, or simply our soul.

For this article, I’m going to use a term of my own.

I call them Soul Pops.

What exactly is a Soul Pop?

I often describe the sensation I experience when I feel my soul speaking to me. It’s almost like an automatic twitch or little pop somewhere in my gut. It’s not quite the same sensation as a gut punch, but it’s in that same general neighborhood.

It’s a feeling of recognition. Something inside me responds before my mind has necessarily had time to figure out why.

My soul and I are buddies. We’ve ironed out a few things over the past several years!

With each recognition, each little nudge, and each time I honor the information that feels deeply rooted within my body, our relationship becomes stronger. I become more familiar with the difference between what I genuinely feel to be true and what my mind might be trying to convince me is true.

This doesn’t mean I always get it right. It means I’m learning to listen.

Life has a way of presenting challenges, opportunities, temptations, and unexpected turns. We have free will, which means we have the freedom to choose how we respond. Sometimes those choices move us closer to our truth. Other times, they take us in a direction that may not be particularly healthy or aligned with who we are becoming.

What’s interesting is that we often feel the difference in our bodies before our conscious minds can fully understand it.

A decision might feel exciting in the moment, but something deeper doesn’t quite settle. We might find ourselves moving toward something out of impulse, fear, attachment, or the desire to control an outcome.

Meanwhile, that little pop inside is trying to get our attention.

The cliché that the truth will set you free speaks to something much deeper than simply knowing the facts. There is a kind of freedom that comes from recognizing and honoring what we already know within ourselves.

The solar plexus: Where our inner fire speaks

When I explore Soul Pops through the chakra system, I often associate them with the solar plexus chakra. I’ll connect with the heart chakra in a bit.

The solar plexus chakra is our center of personal power, confidence, identity, and will. It carries a fiery energy that helps us move through the world with purpose and conviction.

Think about what happens when we begin feeling safe within ourselves.

When we establish a sense of grounding, learn to trust ourselves, and become more comfortable in our surroundings, we naturally become more present. We don’t have to work quite so hard to control everything around us.

When we become more relaxed, the mind has an opportunity to quiet down.

This is important because a quieter mind can become a much better listener.

Rather than constantly analyzing, questioning, anticipating, or trying to manage every possible outcome, we begin to feel what’s happening inside us.

We can recognize when something feels right, when something feels unsettled, and when something may require a little more attention.

The solar plexus is also where we begin to understand the relationship between passion and compassion. We can feel something deeply, own our experience, and allow ourselves to move through it without letting it define us indefinitely.

This is where the shadow becomes an important teacher.

We all have places within ourselves that we’d rather not show the world. Old beliefs, uncomfortable emotions, disappointments, insecurities, and patterns that may have been handed down through generations.

But what if those places aren’t simply something to hide?

What if they are opportunities to understand ourselves more fully?

When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and eventually accept these parts of ourselves, we begin discovering the gifts that can be found in some of our most uncomfortable experiences.

Our struggles become opportunities for growth rather than permanent definitions of who we are.

With each commitment to ourselves, we build trust. And as trust grows, so does our ability to love ourselves exactly as we are.

From personal power to heart-centered living

As our relationship with ourselves develops, something beautiful begins to happen.

The energy of personal power starts moving upward into the heart. The heart is our most important energy center for so many reasons.

When we feel aligned with our truth, our heart is at peace and our confidence becomes less about proving something to others and more about knowing who we are.

Our identity becomes less dependent on outside approval. Our decisions become less influenced by fear and control. We begin to understand that authentic love doesn’t require us to abandon ourselves, EVER.

The heart chakra also brings another dimension to our Soul Pops.

Here, we begin to recognize the difference between reacting from an old wound and responding from a place of understanding.

We can see another person’s perspective without needing to agree with it. We can establish boundaries without losing compassion. We can experience disappointment without allowing it to close our hearts.

This is where I often connect love and truth with compassion.

It’s one thing to know what feels true within ourselves. It’s another to express that truth in a way that allows others to feel respected, heard, and understood.

This then opens us into the throat chakra.

The healthy throat chakra: Giving our truth a voice

The throat chakra is associated with communication, expression, and the ability to share what lives within us.

When our heart and our truth begin working together, our expression can become something quite different.

We become better listeners. We become more thoughtful with our words. We can communicate with greater empathy and less of a need to defend ourselves.

Not every truth needs to be delivered with force.

Sometimes the greatest expression of truth is found in the way we listen, the way we show up, or the way we allow someone else to be exactly where they are.

Expression comes in many forms.

Some of us write. Some paint. Some create music, work with our hands, teach, dance, or simply bring a different energy into the rooms we enter.

This is where the sacral chakra, our center of creativity, joins the conversation. The soul begs us to create from what it knows to be true.

Creativity isn’t limited to producing something tangible. It’s the energy that allows us to bring something from within into the world around us.

When love is expressed through truth, our creativity becomes an extension of who we are.

We place something into the world that is authentically pure, from our own genius.

There can be a beautiful balance of energies here. The warmth of confidence and passion from our inner fire blends with the softer, more cooling and calming qualities of compassion and understanding.

We don’t have to choose between being strong and being kind, they are one of the same thing.

When these energies work together, we begin expressing ourselves in ways that feel much more authentic, and what a gift that is!

The Third Eye: Seeing beyond what is in front of us

As this energy continues to move upward, we arrive at the third eye chakra.

This is our center of intuition, perception, and inner vision.

I sometimes think of the third eye as the “eyes of the heart.”

It’s our ability to recognize something beyond what our physical senses are immediately picking up. It’s the hunch, the instinct, the quiet knowing, or the unexpected awareness that seems to arrive without a clear explanation.

Some people experience this as a deep connection to spirit. Others describe it as receiving information, insights, or downloads in real time.

Some carry what feels like ancient wisdom that they cannot necessarily explain intellectually.

And all of it is absolutely perfect.

We don’t always have to understand something immediately to recognize that it deserves our attention.

There is an incredible amount of wisdom available to us when we become willing to listen beyond the constant activity of the mind.

I often think about how much we have learned through conventional wisdom, traditions, expectations, and the beliefs passed down to us. Some of these teachings serve us beautifully. Others may be worth questioning.

Sometimes our greatest growth comes through unlearning. I know this to be true for many, including myself. I often call myself a “retriever” of information, often recovered upon reflection/meditation.

The information in which we recover can be found here with practice, discovering the answers we have been searching for externally may show themselves internally. Sometimes they become more clear without the outside information.

This doesn’t mean abandoning logic or ignoring our responsibilities. It means allowing our inner knowing to become part of how we navigate life.

This opens the gates to learning discernment.

Not every thought is intuition. Not every coincidence is a sign. Not every impulse is guidance.

Our ego can be quite convincing, especially when fear, attachment, or the desire for a particular outcome is involved, so be careful here. The concept is known as the spiritual ego or spiritual bypassing (sometimes described as pride dressing the ego in meditation robes).

This is why the relationship requires practice.

We learn to slow down, observe, breathe, and become familiar with the difference between a reaction that demands immediate attention and an inner knowing that feels steady, clear, and grounded.

Divine timing and the intelligence of nature

This is an article about soul pops. Soul pops can lead to so much more. That which we know to be true, creates seeds. Those seeds need time for the season of harvest.

One of the things I’ve come to appreciate is that our relationship with inner guidance develops over time. We want things to happen on our timeline. We have an idea of how something should look, when it should happen, and what the outcome should be. We also know that rigid attachment to desired outcomes can create suffering.

Nature offers us a beautiful reminder of this.

There are seasons for planting, growing, harvesting, and resting. Nothing in nature seems particularly concerned with rushing through its process to satisfy our expectations.

A seed doesn’t become a tree overnight.

There is an intelligence within nature that we can learn to trust. It reminds us that growth happens in stages, that some things need time, and that what may appear to be stillness can actually be an important part of the process.

I sometimes think divine timing is a gift of protection.

What if receiving everything we wanted, exactly when we wanted it, wouldn’t necessarily be in our best interest?

What if some of the delays, detours, and unexpected experiences are creating the conditions for us to become better prepared for what comes next?

This doesn’t mean everything happens for a reason that we will immediately understand. Nor does it mean we should passively accept circumstances that need to change.

It means we can learn to participate in our lives without trying to control every part of the journey.

We can listen. We can observe. We can take action when something feels aligned. And we can allow ourselves to be patient when the next step isn’t yet clear.

Sometimes the Soul Pop is a nudge forward.

Sometimes it’s a reminder to pause.

Sometimes, it’s simply the reassurance that we’re exactly where we need to be to learn what is in front of us.

The more we honor it, the stronger the relationship becomes

Think about any relationship that has become meaningful in your life.

Trust doesn’t usually develop from a single conversation or experience. It grows through consistency, recognition, communication, and the willingness to show up.

Our relationship with our inner knowing is no different.

Each time we recognize an intuitive feeling and take the time to explore it, we’re building that relationship.

Each time we honor a truth that may be uncomfortable, we’re building trust.

Each time we choose compassion over judgment, presence over reaction, and love over fear, we’re strengthening our connection to who we are.

Over time, we may begin noticing these little pings and pops more frequently.

We become more aware of the people, places, conversations, and environments that bring us closer to ourselves. We may also become more aware of the things that leave us feeling disconnected, unsettled, or out of alignment.

Our world begins to expand.

We become more receptive to connection, kindness, compassion, joy, and love.

Then, the energy we cultivate within ourselves begins to influence the energy we bring into our relationships. The way we communicate, the way we listen, and the way we show up can create a ripple effect for those around us.

What begins as a small inner recognition can eventually become something that touches many lives.

That’s a pretty wonderful return on a little pop that we honored as it occurred.

Exploring the Nature Within

At The Nature Within, I welcome people who are curious about their intuition, interested in exploring their spiritual gifts, or simply looking to develop a deeper relationship with themselves.

You don’t need to arrive with a particular belief system, spiritual background, or understanding of energy.

You simply need a willingness to explore.

Through breathwork, Reiki, coaching, meditation, and spiritual mentorship, we create opportunities to slow down, become more present, and develop a greater awareness of what’s happening within.

These practices can help us recognize patterns, explore the relationship between our mind and body, become more comfortable with stillness, and develop discernment between our intuitive voice and the thoughts or beliefs that may be influencing us.

My approach isn’t about telling you what your truth is, what your path should look like, or what you should believe.

It’s about creating a space where you can begin discovering more of that for yourself.

Many meaningful connections in which we develop is the one we have with ourselves.

You already have a tremendous amount of wisdom within you. It requires a little space, a little practice, and a willingness to listen.

So the next time you experience that little nudge, that unexpected feeling, that moment of recognition deep within your body, take a breath.

Pause for a moment.

Ask yourself what you might be feeling and why.

You don’t have to act on every feeling. You don’t have to explain every experience. Just become curious about it.

Over time, you’ll begin recognizing your own version of a Soul Pop.

It all starts within.

The Nature Within LLC

Reiki | Coaching | Breathwork | Spiritual Mentorship | Meditation

Let’s explore what moves you from within.

Visit thenaturewithinllc.com to learn more or schedule a complimentary one-hour consultation. We can explore where you are, what you’re looking for, and whether one of our services feels aligned with what you need.

No expectations. No pressure. Just an opportunity to connect and explore.