Soulforce: How to Discover Your Artistic Purpose, Create More Freely, and Make Art that Matters

Copyright ©2024 by Joseph Arnold. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. To request permissions, contact [email protected].

Disclaimer: This is a work of nonfiction. Nonetheless, some of the names and identifying character traits of people featured in the stories herein have been changed in order to protect their identities. Any resulting resemblance to persons either living or dead is entirely coincidental.

The publisher and the Author make no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to this book or its contents, and assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein. The content of this book is for informational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease, including mental health conditions. The use of this book implies your acceptance of this disclaimer.

At the time of publication, the URLs displayed in this book refer to existing websites owned by Joseph Arnold, excepting URLs referenced in citations which are owned by third parties not affiliated with the author. WorldChangers Media is not responsible for, nor should be deemed to endorse or recommend, these websites; nor is it responsible for any website content other than its own, or any content available on the internet not created by WorldChangers Media.

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-955811-68-2

E-book ISBN: 978-1-955811-67-5

LCCN: 2024901333

First paperback edition: August 2024

Author photo: Leslie Hermans

Cover artwork: Penji & Bryna Haynes

Cover design, layout, and typesetting: Bryna Haynes

Editors: Bryna Haynes, Audra Figgins, Paul Baillie-Lane

Published by WorldChangers Media

PO Box 83, Foster, RI 02825

www.WorldChangers.media

To the place where your art, well-being,

and the world’s hunger meet.

Praise

"In Soulforce, Joseph Arnold courageously confronts the dominant mainstream paradigm which so afflicts art and artists no less than anyone else: a malign fantasy of hyper-control over a meaningless world. Arnold’s advice releases our innate creative energies, gives co-creative relationships the central place they deserve, honors wildness, and restores hope, both individual and collective. His account is both deeply spiritual and eminently practical. We are lucky to have it."

— Patrick Curry, PhD, author of Art and Enchantment: How Wonder Works

"Deeply moving and wonderfully practical, Soulforce affirms our heart’s wisdom about the power of art. Joseph Arnold’s message empowers artists to address their creative and physical blocks to make the kind of art the world needs right now."

— Marci Shimoff, #1 New York Times bestselling author, Happy for No Reason and Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul

A deeply inspiring and hopeful vision for how a more fulfilling creative process can create a better world.

— Raji Malik, fingerstyle guitarist

"This is a book for artists who sometimes feel helpless in this chaotic world. With Soulforce, Arnold lays out his methods for artists of all stripes to crank up their creative energy, to fulfill their personal purpose, and share that energy with the world."

— Mark Baldwin, Borealis Press

This book will help you as an artist develop a new mindset that will provide a path for personal growth and artistic mastery. Arnold’s unique perspective is based on his own experience seeking artistic fulfillment and satisfaction, in both his own career and in helping others. The ideas in this book will benefit any artist, at any level, seeking greater achievement and contentment.

— D.W. Fearn, producer, product designer, engineer, and founder of D.W. Fearn Professional Audio Equipment

"Soulforce lands with the whomp of an ocean wave! I’ve always believed that we’re in this world for a reason and it’s our task to discover that reason and then make our contribution. Joseph has done this with Soulforce and has shown you the reality of interbeing. It’s his gift for all of us."

— Bob Lada, Alexander Technique teacher and Professor at Berklee College of Music

Joseph Arnold presents an impassioned plea for the necessity of the arts in our fragmented society. Though written with musicians in mind, all creative people will benefit from Joseph’s beautifully written and practical suggestions.

— Martha Hansen Fertman, EdD, Director of the Philadelphia School for the Alexander Technique

Joseph Arnold shares and validates many of my thoughts about the creative process and the tensions artists face in a culture that is largely anthropocentric, ethnocentric, and egocentric. Soulforce strives toward creative integrity.

— Phyllis Purves-Smith, perceptual painter,

New York Academy of Figurative Art Faculty 2000–2007, Associate Professor, University of the Arts 1976 –2010

"Joseph Arnold’s book, Soulforce, invites us step by step with vivid examples and practical explorations, like ‘The Magic Pause,’ into a refreshing new approach and experience of hope and celebration. In putting his own journey into a larger context, he instills the confidence that opening to our Soulforce is the healing medicine out of the present Separation model, and that everyone is a vital link within a whole web of interconnectedness. The artist thus becomes the midwife to a soulful world through their own active creative aliveness. This is a powerful proposition."

— Zoana Gepner-Müller, Alexander Technique teacher and Reiki Master

Contents

Introduction: The Call to Soulforce

Section I: Foundations

Chapter 1 | Does Your Art Really Matter?

Chapter 2 | The Arts in a World Gone Mad

Chapter 3 | The Foundations of Soulforce

Chapter 4 | The Soulforce Arts Approach

Section II: Practice

Chapter 5 | Your Artistic Purpose

Mind-Body Interlude #1 | Spacious Awareness

Chapter 6 | Playing from the Heart

Mind-Body Interlude #2 | Two Percent Easier

Chapter 7 | The Yoga of Art

Mind-Body Interlude #3 | Exactly As It Is

Chapter 8 | The Spirit of the Gift

Mind-Body Interlude #4 | The Thing Mode and The Being Mode

Section III: Evolution

Chapter 9 | Spiral Dynamics and the Arts

Mind-Body Interlude #5 | Four Thoughts, Four Bodies

Chapter 10 | Second-Tier Artistry

Mind-Body Interlude #6 | The Four Permissions

Chapter 11 | Ancient Roots, New Life

Mind-Body Interlude #7 | The Magic Pause

Chapter 12 | Aligned Livelihood

Conclusion

Resources

Recommended Reading

Endnotes

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Publisher

Introduction

The Call to Soulforce

I’ve always loved playing the violin. The joy I found in the instrument when I was young inspired me to perform at every opportunity, whether at a school concert or for the plumber who was fixing a leaky pipe at our home. Some of my most cherished memories are learning fiddle tunes at a music camp in the redwood forests of California and jamming with friends on the moonlit and ocean-battered cliffs of Monhegan, an island in Maine. In all these moments, I felt: Yeah, this is what life is all about!

So, when it was time to go to college, these joyful experiences inspired me to pursue a violin performance degree. However, my inspiration quickly faded in the face of the intensive training and highly competitive environment I encountered. The anxiety and tension I felt as a result led to repetitive strain injuries in both arms. This prevented me from playing the violin for anything more than a few minutes at a time. It was possibly the worst imaginable situation for a budding violinist.

When I first realized that the intensifying pain in my arms wasn’t going to go away on its own, I sought help from my violin teacher. His response, You should learn how to relax, was of little practical benefit. I tried my family doctor who told me that I had lateral epicondylitis, which I discovered translates to pain in the forearm—something I was already well aware of, thanks very much. He prescribed a round of physical therapy, my first of many. My anxiety only grew when I discovered that the relief I found in these sessions was entirely temporary—as soon as I picked up my violin again, I noticed every bit of pain that I had felt before. 

I then visited dozens of specialists including chiropractors, physical therapists, various types of myofascial therapists, Pilates and yoga teachers, and many others. I tried relaxation techniques, strength training, stretching, wearing physical supports, and over-the-counter pain medications. After more than a year of this, I was still in pain, and I had no clear answers as to either the root cause of the problem or how to solve it. At the time, it seemed like my career in music was over, and I could feel that my pathway to finding and fulfilling my life’s purpose was blocked.

As it turned out, this was not the end. It was just the prelude to an amazing series of discoveries. 

The first discovery took place in an Alexander Technique course I attended as a last resort. I remember lying on a table with my teacher’s hands placed gently on my chest, waiting for something to happen. I felt the gentle, listening quality of her hands, but nothing more. Then, right when I was about to suggest that we try something else, the tension in my body released all at once. I was shocked! Previously, I had accepted this tension as a permanent part of who I was. Now, it had all been released. At that moment I understood that the tension that had been causing my pain was a choice, one which I had been unconsciously making, and not a structural or physiological problem with my body as I had assumed.

Never had I been aware of the capacity for this choice, and it shed a whole new light on the inner workings of my body. Over the course of many subsequent Alexander Technique lessons, I discovered a newfound agency over the muscular tension in my body, one that gave me a clear path toward pain relief. The freedom of movement I could now access changed the quality of my entire life. It was a bit like those stories where the hero grows up as an adopted child in a poor family but is later shown that, in fact, they were royalty all along. Before, I had thought of my body as a sort of malfunctioning machine. I now saw it as a rich source of learning, growth, and artistic pleasure.

Now, with many years of experience behind me, I know well the incredible breadth and depth of benefits that this method offers. In my case I found pain relief so absolute that I have long been able to play violin as much as I want without restriction. My performances also benefited from the ease and fluidity of movement I gained, which improved my technique, sound quality, and stamina tremendously. In short, the Alexander Technique restored my life as a violinist.

There was still more to come. The most magical discovery I made in applying the Alexander Technique to music was the difference in expressive power—my ability to open a channel within and effortlessly translate felt emotion into music. I also observed this while training to become an Alexander Technique teacher alongside other injured musicians, dancers, actors, wellness professionals, and others. I recall countless moments where, aided by an almost imperceptible release of muscular tension, the other student’s performances, while already quite good, became positively luminous. 

This shift was so striking, so moving, and so transformative for both the performer and the audience that I was captured. I dedicated myself to discovering how to tap into and cultivate this power, both in my own playing and when supporting students. When I learned of the term soul force in reference to Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy about the latent potency for change in society (discussed in Chapter 3), I realized that I finally had a name for this magical source of transformation. The Alexander Technique, by showing me how to release excess tension present in musical expression, helped facilitate a connection to my own latent potential. It revealed to me that this luminous quality, Soulforce, was already fully formed inside me, always ready to spring forth with soul-stirring power.

Revealing the Source Within

Deep down, what everyone wants in a work of art is Soulforce. When you sit in rapt attention at a concert, with chills going up and down your spine, that’s Soulforce. When you become mesmerized by a painting so that you can’t tell if you were looking at it for a minute or an hour, that’s Soulforce. When a poem breaks your heart open and shows you an expansive freedom you never thought possible, that’s Soulforce.

Soulforce is also what every artist longs to tap into during the creative act. When you release trying to get it right and instead get lost in a joyful, spacious, creative flow, that’s Soulforce. When your body is relaxed and you feel like your art is creating itself, that’s Soulforce. When you stop being afraid of what your audience is thinking and instead allow yourself to give voice to the depths of your heart, that’s Soulforce. 

Soulforce is the defining feature of all the greatest works of art. It’s the X factor, the secret sauce, what makes your jaw drop and lifts you into an experience of awe. It’s the real reason audiences seek out artistic experiences and also what inspires artists to expand the creative horizons of the human experience. Soulforce is what makes art, and life, worthwhile.

Even though you, I, and countless others may instinctively know this to be true, unfortunately there are many forces in our society that act to block the flow of Soulforce. My own rude awakening to these forces came during my stressful, and eventually physically painful, experiences during my music education. At the time, these painful experiences seemed like a problem I couldn’t overcome. In a funny way, however, they are exactly what led to my greatest connection with Soulforce.  

My essential discovery was simple: there is a source of wisdom, creativity, ease, and love that already exists within all of us. One whose expression leads to the transformative energy of Soulforce. Importantly, I learned that even though this source sometimes gets temporarily blocked, it can never be fully extinguished. It exists as a powerful, creative potential that is simply waiting to be called upon.

I have seen this source of wisdom, creativity, ease, and love in every one of my Alexander Technique students over the years. Often, their injuries have been stubbornly resistant to conventional treatments, and they’re worried they won’t be able to find lasting relief. What I tell them is what I learned myself: that their injuries are the result of how they are using their body. I then show them a new way of using their body, one that taps into the natural ease inherent to the structure and functioning of their body. The ease, comfort, and fluidity that result is often surprising to them. Not only is moving freely a new experience, but it becomes obvious that the very freedom they have been seeking has been lying in wait. They simply needed to learn how to get out of the way.

Of course, this is easier said than done. Most of my students arrive at my studio so used to trying hard and getting it right that, at first, they have a difficult time trusting that anything less than one hundred percent effort could work at all. All that changes when they experience how a single moment of greater freedom of movement brings bigger improvements in their technique, poise, and sound quality than could have otherwise been achieved through six months of diligent practice.

The question then becomes not finding a new way of trying harder, but how to get out of the way of what’s inside that wants to be expressed. Through questions like, How does your body want to do this? or What do you need to let go of to allow more freedom of movement?, my students gradually open themselves to a greater freedom, ease, joy, and connection in their creative life than they previously thought possible.

The process of revealing the source within has always put me in mind of the famous quote from fifteenth-century artist Michelangelo: I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. What I have learned is that this is true not just of blocks of stone, but of artists themselves. The truth is that your Soulforce is already within you. Your task now is simply to learn to tap into it. 

In writing a book about Soulforce, I would be remiss if I didn’t share how I understand the word soul. This is obviously a term with countless interpretations, so I want to be clear about how I use the word in this book.

I do not use this term in reference to any specific religion, set of beliefs, or practices. Soulforce is not a religious book, but it does touch on matters of spirituality, which to me simply means an interest in the big questions of life. I define soul as an aspect of consciousness that is the source of your deepest truths and desires. Soul has both personal and universal aspects. It is specific to your own life circumstances, your background, culture, and where you call home. At the same time, it also comprises universal needs, such as acceptance, love, play, and healing, as well as the universe’s own evolutionary forces.

Many traditions assume that what is spiritual must be fundamentally different from that which is worldly, but to me this is just another example of separation that is unhelpful and untrue. I believe that all aspects of the soul can be found in everyday life and directly engaged and experienced in a variety of ways. Experiences like creativity, vibrating energy inside the body, intuition, or synchronicities in daily life are all soul experiences.

I sometimes use the terms soul and heart interchangeably as I consider them to be pretty much one and the same. The heart is experienced as an emotional center, and it is the main channel for your soul to communicate with you. Soulforce could then also be understood as Heartforce, and for some this might be a more resonant way to think of it.

I also want to offer clarity about the term Soulforce itself. In this book, I repeatedly make the point that many artistic challenges arise from the use of excess force in the creative act. So why, if force is to be avoided, do I use a term that contains the word force? It’s because Soulforce is an active energy, a flow, a source of creative momentum—and, yes, a force. But it’s a mysterious, connected, and alive kind of force, very different from the constricted, effortful, and controlling kind of force that interferes with the creative act. If you find the word force confusing in this context, try to remember that there are different kinds of force in this world and that no term, Soulforce included, is fully adequate to fully capture an ineffable experience.

Who this Book Is For

This book is for artists and creatives of all kinds, abilities, and backgrounds: musicians, visual artists, dancers, writers, designers, composers, actors, sculptors, directors, photographers, poets, producers, gardeners, chefs, and others. It is for artists who want to improve their artistic lives across three core dimensions:

Personal: This book will help you navigate many of the physical, emotional, and spiritual obstacles that artists commonly face.

Professional: This book will introduce you to new values and methods that will make your artistic life richer, more joyful, and more impactful. It will help you discover your artistic purpose, create with greater physical and emotional freedom, and cultivate a career that is financially rewarding and which matters to our world today.

Communal: This book will redefine your life as an artist so that you know and see yourself as an active participant in a community and in the healing and growth of the world at large.

Many of the examples I use in this book are about music and musicians. If you are not a musician, do not be concerned; it’s all the same process, all the same feeling. For example, while the Playing from the Heart technique discussed in Chapter 6 might sound like something only a musician can do, a sculptor or painter can do the same thing with a chisel or brush. Build from the heart, paint from the heart, sing from the heart.

In fact, you don’t need to consider yourself an artist at all to get something of value from this book. Being an artist has little to do with a specific activity but is rather an orientation to life characterized by a devotion to beauty and creativity. You might be an artist in your garden, or in your cooking, or in how you play with your children. So, whether your art is with a violin, a camera, a pen, or a garden spade, you will certainly be able to find ways of relating each section and its practices to your own life circumstances.

One more note on who this book is for. This book puts forth the idea that many artistic challenges are the result of certain attitudes inherited from our society. Which society is this? In this book, when I say our society, I mean the individualist, consumerist, industrialized society that evolved in the United States and which now spans the globe. My primary audience comprises creatives who, like me, have grown up in this society and have experienced its Soulforce-draining effects. If you hail from another society, then some of the examples and practices in this book may not resonate with you. However, you may still find it useful or inspiring because Soulforce is a universal human experience.

How to Use this Book

It is a cliché that you are most called to teach what you have most needed to learn, and this book certainly lives up to that for me. In a sense, this book contains all the guidance I would have liked to have had when I was in music school, something that could address the struggle and doubts I faced and orient me to what was most important in my music and in life in general.

I wrote this book in part to address such a need for guidance in other young artists and anyone seeking answers and a means of reconciling their creative life with the world as it is today. My goal is not to teach the specifics of any artistic craft. I assume that you already have some level of competence in the basic skills and techniques of your art. Rather, you can think of this book as a compendium of all the most vital aspects that your formal artistic training overlooked. This book is, in short, not necessarily about what you do as an artist, but how you do it and where you’re coming from as you do it. 

This is a psychoactive book. It is meant to provide more than an intellectual understanding, instead transforming your artistic life so that you can channel your Soulforce in your every creative act. This transformation can happen in two ways. The first is by the simple act of reading this book. Doing so will open your mind and heart to new artistic possibilities and touch on ones that have long been hidden in your heart. To aid this process, take your time reading. Let things sink in and work on you before you move on.

You can also speed your transformation by engaging with the practices. Practice is where intellectual ideas become an embodied reality, and in the end, this book is about practical, embodied change. So, integrate what you learn in this book into your daily life with patience, curiosity, and regular practice. This is the quickest and richest way to achieve a genuine personal transformation. 

People have different relationships with practice. Some may be used to skipping over the practices, eager to get to the good stuff in the main body of the text with the idea to return to the exercises later. If this is you, then your growth edge may be to do all the practices at least once so you can get the full benefit.

Others feel a sense of responsibility to do things right, to read every page, and do all the practices. When this comes from a place of pressure and anxiety, this can make even the right methods lead to the wrong results. If this is you, then your growth edge may be to relax and just do the practices that speak most to you. This will be sufficient.

In addition, remember that it’s better to adapt than adopt. In other words, feel free to adapt any given exploration to suit your needs, rather than trying to make it work when it really doesn’t. Some things will work better for certain people or at certain times, so don’t worry if one of the practices doesn’t work for you right away. Perhaps they will make more sense with time.

There are two kinds of practices in this book:

Mind-Body Interludes:These appear in Sections II and III between the chapters. These are essentially lessons in the Alexander Technique, ones that over the course of my twenty-plus years of studying and teaching have proven to be particularly effective. They are presented in an order to complement the material of each chapter. You can think of these as the centerpieces of your self-care and Soulforce toolkit. Once you’ve tried the Embodied Practices as written in each Mind-Body Interlude, attempt them while doing a low-stress everyday activity (such as brushing your teeth or making your coffee), and then while doing a challenging artistic activity (such as with a tricky technique). Practice each exploration at least once. If it works for you, consider making a point of practicing it daily for a few weeks. The more you experiment with it, the more it will infuse every area of your life with effortlessness, awareness, and renewed creative flow.

Soulforce Inquiries: These are practices embedded throughout the chapters, and relate directly to the material being explored. Some are journaling exercises meant to help you get clearer on who you are and what you want as an artist. You may wish to obtain a journal specifically for the exercises contained herein. Others are meditations meant to give you a direct experience of the ideas in this book. (You don’t need to have any prior experience with meditation to do these.) Each will help you flesh out and deepen your skills as a Soulforce artist.

You will also find many stories in this book. On one level, their purpose is to bring the ideas and practices in this book to life, to make them feel more relatable and tangible. On a deeper level, these stories are a form of medicine that will act on your creative soul if you allow them to. So, as you read, make note of any thoughts, emotions, or connections that come up for you and bring those into your next creative session. (Note: To protect the privacy of the people in these stories, I have changed their names and other identifying characteristics.)

Ultimately, your artistic transformation is as much a collective effort as an individual one, so it cannot be achieved alone. We need others to support and inspire us along the way. You can begin by sharing your journey into Soulforce with your friends and colleagues. You can also share your progress on social media, using #soulforcearts so we can all find each other. If this book changes your life (as I hope it does), give a copy to someone else; it might change their life, too.

In addition, if you want a more tangible sense of togetherness in your journey to Soulforce, you can join the Soulforce Arts Community, an online community and learning platform that brings together conscious artists of all kinds, abilities, and backgrounds to help you embrace your artistic purpose, create free from blockages, and make art that matters to a world in need—together. As a member, you gain access to regular Soulforce arts classes featuring the Alexander Technique and other methods of enhancing your creative Soulforce, all Soulforce Arts Institute online course recordings at no extra charge, and a vibrant community of like-minded and like-hearted creatives. Learn more at SoulforceArts.com/community.

I also offer two additional resources to enhance your journey to Soulforce artistry. One is the Recommended Reading section, a list of books I have found transformative in my own journey to Soulforce and which may be useful to you, too. The other is a link to access additional materials directly relevant to this book, including a guided meditation into your creative Soulforce, recordings of the Mind-Body Interludes that go into greater detail than space allowed in this book, and other bonus content that won’t be available elsewhere. Visit SoulforceArts.com/bookextras to download your resources.

My Great Hope

My great hope in writing this book is to help you to find the aliveness, joy, and purpose that you desire, and to give you the tools you need to embody and express this in all your creative life. I’m sure that you, like so many, intuitively feel that this is what the arts are ultimately about, that this is what makes for truly transformative art as well as a fulfilling life as an artist. This book will help you reconnect with all that creative magic by affirming its value, showing why it seemingly disappeared in the first place, and what you can do to cultivate it in your life.

Ultimately, my goal is to support the emergence of a new way of being. A soulful one. A creative one. An unabashedly joyful one. One that will allow humanity to live in greater harmony: people with each other, and all of us with our planet. I believe that humanity is currently at a crisis point, and that as with all crises, there is both danger and opportunity. The danger is that we continue to become even more disconnected: from ourselves, each other, and nature. The opportunity is that we could instead reconnect, and from there experience a world of beauty, awe, and goodness that I believe is our birthright. All that is required to fulfill this opportunity is that each of us follow our soul’s guidance, our Soulforce.

We begin our journey with one of the most painful, poignant, and urgent questions in the hearts of artists today: does your art really matter?

Section I

Foundations

Chapter 1

Does Your Art Really Matter?

It’s either soul force—or bust.

— Jamie Wheal, Recapture the Rapture

On August 9, 2021, I woke up in my friend’s sun-filled guest room, surrounded by the whispering of trees, the chirping of birds, and the fresh air of rural Maine. When I stepped outside with my morning coffee, the clear sky and the sounds of life all around filled me with a sense of well-being I rarely felt in the city.

So, when I heard the gravel crunching under the tires of my friend’s Subaru as she rolled up her driveway, I was ready to burst forth with relief and gratitude for such a beautiful day.

However, her face was anything but serene as she made her way up to the porch. Have you heard the news? she demanded. "There’s a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change saying, ‘Code red for humanity.’(1) The climate’s screwed!"

The beauty around me suddenly felt fragile, ephemeral, and even more precious—like it could all go up in flames at any moment.

I had been aware of ecological issues since I was a little boy. I remember celebrating Earth Day in elementary school and feeling a vague anxiety that grew every year as the destruction and pollution of our environment accelerated. I felt a deep grief at the diminishment of Earth’s ecosystems at humanity’s hands, and while I made it a point to do what I could to understand the issues and minimize my own contribution to this diminishment, I also felt helpless to stop it.

That morning, the emotional impact of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report swirled through me. I felt an intense mixture of fear, grief, confusion, and anger. Amid these emotions, I thought, Well, the rehearsal is over. It’s finally here. It was time to do something real—but what could I do? As a musician and Alexander Technique teacher, it’s not as if I had the political clout to sway policymakers. Nor did I have millions of dollars to invest in ecological protection or millions of social media followers to influence.

I wondered, Does my art really matter in the face of global climate change? What can I possibly do to help?

At first, there seemed to be no satisfying answers. The societal messages I grew up with placed the arts far down the totem pole of tools to effectively address humanity’s challenges. The arts were regarded as something nice but essentially frivolous—definitely not something that could address planetary or societal issues such as climate change or inequality. So, I was faced with a terrible choice: abandon the arts in favor of a more practical field like climate science or political lobbying, or isolate myself from global issues and continue a life in the arts in the naïve hope that my art could, somehow, make a positive difference.

Neither option appealed to me. Ever since I was little, I have known, deep in my heart, that I was meant to be an artist. Over the years, I turned down many opportunities to move into a more hard-nosed, utilitarian, or financially stable career. I also know that, while the arts have played a crucial role in societal change around the world (for instance, energizing the revolutionary movements of many Latin American countries), creating yet another socially or environmentally conscious piece of music isn’t something my creative soul is called toward. Nor, for that matter, are protest songs necessarily the most effective channel for artists’ creativity in general; such works are great for energizing those who already care about the issues, but otherwise seem to have little effect on the social and political ills they decry.

I knew I needed a different kind of answer to my dilemma, one that reached to the root cause of the destruction in our world today, and that also considered the true meaning and value of the arts. My heart rebelled at the thought that all of the time, joy, love, and training I had poured into my artistic pursuits would be wasted—that I would essentially be a passionate bystander while the Earth burned. I knew, with unshakable certainty, that there must be a role for artists in resolving humanity’s many crises, one that went beyond engaging in the rat race of money and influence, that didn’t rely on wishful thinking, and that every artist could embrace in their current life. But what was that role?

My friend and I were sitting on the grass, discussing all this and what the code red meant. It was then that the memory of soul force rang through my mind.

Two years earlier, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I listened to a podcast episode in which the guest, flow expert Jamie Wheal, was asked, What chance does humanity have of surviving the next few decades with all the climate destruction, political division, and inequality? Wheal’s reply changed my life. He said, To me, it’s either soul force—or bust.(2) He went on to explain that soul force meant to face life’s challenges from a deeper truth, and that this term was coined by Mahatma Gandhi during the movement to free India from British colonial rule. According to Wheal, our usual ways of fighting the symptoms have failed and are only causing more problems. It’s time to step into a new story and guide our choices from a place of soul force, because our lives depend on it.

Despite previously knowing the broad outlines of Gandhi’s philosophy, this was the first time the idea of soul force hit home for me. Once I learned more about this term, I coined my own version, Soulforce, to reflect the underlying unity of the soul and its transformational force. I immediately loved this term because it gave form to a hidden connection I had long intuited, deep in my soul. I realized that Soulforce was the luminous quality I had witnessed and experienced in my Alexander Technique school: it was what made my favorite works of art so moving and transformative; and it was at the core of the wisdom teachings I had studied and cherished over the years. My first thought after listening to this podcast was, What if I could have a Soulforce Arts Institute and guide musicians and artists to share this world-changing quality more effectively in their own art? How amazing that would be!

I realized with newfound optimism, curiosity, and joy that the time for Soulforce arts had apparently arrived. Soulforce arts seemed to answer all the challenges I, along with so many others, had ever faced as artists. I saw how Soulforce could help artists relieve the physical tension that causes injuries and undue strain. I saw how Soulforce could help artists turn performance anxiety and impostor syndrome into flowing, creative energy. I saw how Soulforce could help artists create art