“Where are you Christmas, why can’t I find you,” sings little Cindy Lou-Who in the remake of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” And no doubt, the Grinch was feeling the same way, although he had never found Christmas in the first place…that’s why he hated the toys, he hated the noise, he hated the singing, and he hated the roast-beast.

There was no meaning in Christmas to him, and therefore, it was just another unpleasant vice that had him in its grips.

You know the feeling, don’t you? When you’re standing in front of a beautifully decorated tree, wrapped presents piled underneath, the smell of pine in the air…and you feel absolutely nothing. Not joy. Not gratitude. Just a hollow numbness where something warm should be. You smile because you’re supposed to. You laugh at the right moments. But inside? It’s like someone turned the volume down on your life.

Maybe, though, it’s not just Christmas. Maybe it’s been happening for awhile now. You check off another goal. You get the promotion or hit high revenue numbers. You buy the thing. And instead of feeling full, you just feel…tired. Like you’re walking through your own life in a costume that doesn’t quite fit anymore. The worst part? You can’t even explain what is wrong on paper, because everything looks right.

This is what it feels like when your soul is starving.

This time of year can be so beautiful because, despite all the hustle and bustle, stress, sometimes panic, and if we are being honest, the desire not to let those we love down when we can’t always afford the gifts we want to give…it’s also a time where (if we allow ourselves some stillness) can pull inward to find true gratitude, true giving of ourselves, and love. And we pull outward to see those in need and what we can do to serve or to help. 

This month in our We Play Full Out Life Mastermind you could say it was a coincidence that our Soul Gateway landed in December…but we don’t believe in coincidences. Instead we marvel at the beautiful timing of synchronicities. ✨

The soul is the magic that gives meaning to our lives. When we starve our souls, we are left with Little Cindy Lou-Who, wondering why our lives feel so flat, unfulfilled, and meaningless. We still have all the toys, all the noise, and all the abundance that we have been blessed with…yet, we are empty inside.

In our framework, we don’t say we “have” a soul. We say we are a soul, and we have a body. This paradigm shift is an important one because it energetically lands in our bodies differently. We define the soul as the eternal, infinite part of us that existed before we came here, and the part that continues when we die. It has intelligence, wisdom, and a path. It is the deepest, truest part of who we are. 

In that regard, our body is the vessel, our personality is our costume, and our ego is the character we are playing. 

We starve the soul when we achieve everything the ego wants us to achieve and ignore what our soul wants. This is when that magic just doesn’t seem to be in our lives anymore. We search for it - maybe we try to achieve more, get more, or be more. But our souls don’t care about anything the ego cares about. It cares about purpose, connection, and becoming who you were meant to be.  

Here’s what’s happening: you feed your body three meals a day. You wouldn’t dream of skipping them. But your soul? It’s been getting crumbs. Or worse - nothing at all. 

The ego (our sense of self, our personality, and our survival instincts) is insatiable. It feeds on achievement, validation, control, comparison, and external measures of success. And here’s the cruel part: the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets. 

You can feed your ego a promotion, and it will immediately ask, “What’s next?” Feed it a milestone, and it will say, “That’s not enough.” Feed it praise, and it will wonder, “But what do they REALLY think?”

The ego feeds on things like:

It’s loud, urgent, demanding… and never, ever satisfied. You could feed it for a hundred years and it would still wake you up at 3 AM hungry for more. 

The soul, on the other hand, is not afraid. It knows it is eternal, that it is connected, and it knows it is enough. The soul doesn’t need (or even want) to prove anything. It just wants to express itself. 

The soul feeds on things like:

And here’s the beautiful part: when you feed your soul,  you actually feel FULL. Satisfied. At peace. The hunger stops. 

But most of us have been feeding the ego for so long, we’ve forgotten what the soul even eats. 

This is the soul’s primary food source. Silence. Space. Stillness. 

Think about it: you feed your ego all day long with noise, stimulation, productivity, and constant doing. Your soul can’t eat any of that. In fact, that noise is like static that blocks your soul from being able to absorb anything. 

Formal meditation is you creating space for your soul to finally eat. Just focus on your breath. Create space between thoughts. In that space, the soul feeds - and speaks (Headspace is an excellent app for teaching how to do this).

But it doesn’t have to be formal. Maybe it’s early in the morning while you’re drinking a cup of coffee - by yourself, no phone, no agenda. Just you and the steam rising from your mug. It could even be in the shower, letting the water drown out everything else.

The first time your soul actually gets fed, you’ll know. You’ll feel something shift. Like you’ve been clenching your jaw for years and suddenly it releases. That’s not relaxation, that’s nourishment. 

This is not walking for exercise (that’s feeding your body or your ego’s need to optimize). This is not walking while listening to a podcast or planning your day (that’s feeding the brain). This is walking to feed your soul. Leave your phone and music behind. This is just you and nature.

When you walk with the intention to connect with your soul, something shifts. You’ll start to notice things - really notice them. The way the light hits the trees and makes them look like they’re glowing from the inside. The sound of the wind that you suddenly realize has been there all along, like a conversation you’d been ignoring. The feeling of the ground beneath your feet, solid and real, reminding you that you’re here, you’re alive, you’re present.

Your soul feeds on presence. On beauty. On being connected to something alive and real that isn’t asking anything from you.  

Not always in words, sometimes in a feeling that washes over you - a knowing. Sometimes it is tears you didn’t see coming. Sometimes it’s laughter. But it’s always real. 

Your breath is the bridge between your body and your soul. When you consciously work with your breath, you are creating a direct line of communication with your soul. You are literally feeding your soul oxygen - not just physical oxygen, but energetic life force

Here’s something many people don’t realize: they’ve been holding their breath. Not literally, but many have been living in that shallow, chest-breathing, fight-or-flight mode for so long they have forgotten what it feels like to actually breathe. That shallow breathing feeds the ego’s fear. Deep, conscious breathing feeds the soul.

Try Box Breathing for 5-10 minutes (4 seconds in, hold for 4, exhale for 4). Or try Conscious Connected Breathing. This is deeper work. Set a time for 20-30 minutes and breathe in and out through your mouth with no pause between exhale and inhale. This can be intense, so make sure you research it a little bit so you know what to expect (or reach out to us - Bart is certified in breathwork). 

When you finally let yourself breathe fully, deeply, consciously…it’s like your soul has been underwater and finally breaks the surface. Gasping. Grateful. Awake.

Journaling is how you feed your soul truth. Your ego feeds on stories about the past and worries about the future. Your soul feeds on what’s real right now.This is one of the most direct ways to access your soul’s wisdom. Here’s how: ask your soul a question and then write your answer without filtering it. Don’t think. Don’t edit. Don’t worry if it makes sense. Just let your hand move. 

What comes out will surprise you. Sometimes it will be profound. Sometimes it will be weird. Sometimes it will be exactly what you needed to hear but were too scared to admit. 

Here are some questions you could write at the top of your page:

The key is to get your ego out of the way. Your ego wants to sound smart, to be right, to say the “correct” thing. Your soul doesn’t care about any of that. It just wants to tell you the truth.

Your soul feeds on creation. Making something that didn't exist before. Expressing what's inside you and letting it take form in the world.

The key is to create without judgment. You are not creating to impress anyone. You're not creating to be "good" at something. You're creating to feed your soul, and your soul doesn't care if what you make is "good." It cares that you made it.

Painting, drawing, singing, playing music, writing poetry or stories... it doesn't matter. What matters is that you're making something, anything, without asking "is this good enough?"

Because here's the thing: your ego feeds on being good enough. Your soul feeds on creating. Period. Give it that space and watch how full you feel.

This week - or even for the rest of this month - we invite you to commit to at least one of these practices every day. Not because you should. Not because it will make you more productive or successful. But because you deserve to feel the magic of aliveness again. 

You feed your body three times a day without thinking about it. It’s time to feed your soul with the same devotion. 

You will be astonished at how much more energy you have and how much more grounded you will feel. Maybe, like the Grinch, you will feel your heart just grew three sizes and the magic of life will flow back into your day-to-day reality. 

Not because you found something new. But because you finally fed the part of you that’s been starving all along.