The moment a woman starts following the path of her Soul she goes on a journey to become a Wild Woman. A Wild Woman is one who always trusts her gut over logic and outside influences, who has enormous courage and a desire that burns hot and often doesn’t make sense, but always takes her to the most magical places. There is no school that teaches women to follow their wild Soul. The path itself becomes the teacher.

As soon as you step onto the path of following your Soul you will realise just how thorny and twisted and unconventional it is. It will feel like a mess and at times you will feel completely lost. And there won’t be many people you can turn to for guidance. After all nobody’s walked this particular path before. But soon you will realise that things you considered mistakes and failures were actually lessons or beautiful detours to show you something you otherwise would have missed.

It may be terrifying at first, especially if you grew up being told what to do. It’s like stepping off the highway onto a twisted forest path. It’s definitely more picturesque and enjoyable. There are no exhaust fumes and you get to walk at your own pace. But there are also no road signs or indication which way to go. If you grew up on the highway, have always been surrounded by other travellers on the highway, and your parents always told you to make sure you stick to the highway because anything outside of it is insecure and dangerous, you may very well feel frightened and lost as you step onto the narrow path in the forest. No matter how beautiful and colourful and exciting that path is you are going to miss the familiar road signs and other travellers and rest stops. No longer relying on others to prepare your food, you will have to forage for yourself and get creative.

The highway is easy and predictable. It’s in the interests of the system that built it to keep you happily cruising along, the monotony of routine nearly lulling you to sleep. When you are on the highway, you are exchanging your freedom for comfort and predictability. In exchange for this comfort and “security” they have taken your wildness, your wisdom, your freedom, your intuition. So as soon as you step off onto the forest path, along with excitement of finally being free, you also realise how unprepared you are, how much you have yet to learn and how habituated you had become to being told what to do. Now on this path there is nobody telling you what to do. All you have is your wild Soul. So gradually you start to learn to listen to her and follow her guidance.

It can be a dark path. Once you set off on this path, you may start to freak out because you can’t see more than a few metres in front of you for all the tall trees that surround you. Back on the highway you had a broader view and a clear destination that was prescribed to you. The path of your Soul is to be walked slowly, one step at a time, concentrating on the journey rather than the destination. The destination you were moving towards on the highway was an illusion anyway, expertly placed like a carrot dangling inches from a donkey’s nose. It’s there to keep you moving so that the system can milk every little drop of energy out of you.

It’s a more lonely path. There are a lot less people walking through the forest than there are on the highway. But then again, the ones you do meet will be like-minded souls who are forging their own paths, awake and aware, intuitive, respectful of Mother Nature and her laws. These connections will be so much more valuable. Even if you only walk together for a few miles before your paths diverge, you will leave a lasting effect on each other, forever connected, carrying an imprint that your soul will cherish for the rest of the journey.

The rules of the forest are different. You have to learn to rely a lot less on your intellect and a lot more on your intuition/guidance/gut feeling. We have to listen to our wild nature because she will tell us when it’s time for things to die, when it’s time to start walking in a new direction, what needs to be left behind, and what you need to courageously give birth to.

The only way to go about it is to trust your Soul completely. Connect with her daily. Ask her how she feels, what she desires, what feels good right now. And then say yes to her. Allow her to take you along on an adventure with her. The mind will protest and worry about the “how”. Leave the “how” to your infinite Soul. She can see so much more than your mind. Her reach is vast, her vision is clear. She can see into the field of infinite possibilities and manifest her desires in the most creative ways if only you give her the opportunity.

It’s a tricky path and the learning curve is steep. But deep down you know that you would rather die right here on this forest path of your Soul than go back to the deadening “comfort” of the highway. You know because once you stepped off onto this path you cannot unknow. You know that you can’t just go back to sleep and drift along with everyone else because that would be the equivalent of a slow painful death. Your Soul has tasted freedom and she will never want to be caged again.

By Asselle Seitmagzimova