Courtney McGrailSoulfulness: Deepening the Mindful Life
by Brian Draper
(Hodder & Stoughton, £13.99)
Anthony Redmond
Brian Draper has written an important book. Most of us suffer stress, anxiety, boredom and often a lack of awareness. We go through life feeling tired, disconnected, occasionally depressed and lacking a sense of purpose and meaning. As the Welsh poet, W.H. Davies, said: “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?”
I think it is true to say that we often miss out on life. We fail to really notice the beauty and mystery of life and people. Brian Draper sets out to help us to become more aware, more fully alive.
He tells us that the more we can manage to move away from the ego, the closer we are to out true inner self, our soul. He reminds us that the Scottish novelist and poet George MacDonald said: “Never tell a child you have a soul. Teach them you are a soul who has a body.”
The author emphasises the importance of touch to communicate love and compassion. He writes: “Soulfulness is not about floating away on the spiritual clouds; quite the contrary. Soul might be almost impossible to describe and to see, yet it is not ethereal, nor is it isolated; soul responds to touch and as such is not some flighty and out-of-reach spiritual state, but is as simple and beautiful as a hand the reaches out to be held.”
He reminds us that there is plenty of scientific evidence to suggest that hugs affect our sense of well-being positively. He tells us that people who were hugged as babies display fewer stress symptoms as adults.
The heart rate lowers, along with the amount of the stress hormone cortisol in our system, improving our health. The psychologist Andrea Polard states, “reach out and hug, and your life might not only feel better, but last longer”. It releases oxytocin and makes us feel better.
On our lack of consciousness or awareness, the author tells of the time he went to the station to buy a ticket for a later journey. He asked his three-year-old daughter if she’d like to go with him. The child was thrilled. As he walked along holding her by the hand he was lost in thought about many petty things.
As he drew nearer the station he says he experienced something akin to waking literally from a sleep. He could hear, he says, a voice coming into sharper focus, speaking two words over and over, until he woke up fully and could hear them clearly: “Daddy; moss!” Growing on a wall were clumps of bright soft moss.
He stopped and said “Sorry” as he knelt down to share the experience with his little observant daughter. He says: “The clumps that were growing unmissably at her level made for a vivid sight, and we spent a while stroking the moss, feeling it, picking at it, even throwing it. And it was good. It’s funny what you can miss.
“As I looked with fresh eyes at the once-familiar pathway, she showed me other things I’ve never seen before, like an old window, way up high, and some words that had been scratched onto the wall nearby: All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost.”
Main point
The main point of this moving and thought-provoking book is to help us to become more fully alive, more acutely aware and to appreciate the present moment. He draws our attention to the Examen of St Ignatius. He talks about its five gentle but purposeful steps. He sums them up as:
1. Pause to be still and become aware of God’s presence
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to the emotions that you experience throughout the day.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray about it.
5. Look forward to tomorrow.
Reading this book I was reminded of a line from the Psalm which my mother used to quote: “Be still and know that I am God”.
There is much about this book that is beautiful and inspirational.