What do you do when your “Service Engine Soon” light comes on? Do some self-diagnostics or get it checked out? Ignore it? Tell yourself there’s nothing wrong, probably just a glitch that will go away?

How about when your “Service Soul Soon” light comes on?

All too often, we run ourselves into the ground physically with 16-hour workdays, running on too much caffeine and adrenaline, and then too much wine to wind down at night.

We run ourselves into the ground mentally with endless chatter that has us swinging between the shit that already happened and the shit that might happen. Do you ever just want to cry out, ala George Jetson, “Jane! Stop this crazy thing!”

And the end result is we often run ourselves into the ground spiritually because our careers and futile attempts to mentally control things take precedence over any kind of spiritual practice.

What I’m learning though is that’s bass-ackwards. It’s not that we’ll be happy and fulfilled WHEN and only when we get our career right or figure out a way to mold everything and everyone into our model of the world. It’s more that we become happy and fulfilled when we’re aligned with our soul and our highest being. Then, as a bonus, the mental, emotional and physical (and career and relationships etc.) begin to balance and become abundant as well.

Your spiritual practice might be meditation. It might be prayer. It might be staring out at a vast expanse of water. Walking in the grass and digging your toes in the dirt. Being grateful. Reading an inspirational book.

Whatever works for you, the key is getting quiet in some way, shape or form. Because whispers and direction from the Universe can’t get through when we’re playing haunted house in our heads.

When I get the “service soul soon light” there are times I heed the signal and slow down and times when I brush it off and slide smoothly into the pattern of worry or workaholism. But now I know I have a choice, we all have a choice, and I’ve seen evidence over and over again, that when I take the time to trust and listen, the rest of my life arranges itself far more beautifully and effortlessly than any of my striving and pushing could have done.