Soul Breadcrumbs: What They Are and How to Follow Them

This morning I sat on the porch with my coffee and I didn't do anything.

No phone. No planning. Just the birds and the wind chimes and a breeze that felt, inexplicably, like fall - crisp and clear and moving through the trees in a way that made me feel like my whole nervous system exhaled. I kept noticing it. The light. The gusts. The way the chimes answered each other.

It was the kind of morning that

reminds you what alive feels like.

I've written recently about going back to the backyard - about how two minutes of setup was the entire barrier, and how I'd been withholding myself from a morning just like this one for longer than I'd like to admit. Today felt like the return paying off. Like the soul going: yes, this, more of this.

That's a soul breadcrumb.

What a soul breadcrumb actually is

I've written about life winks before - those moments of quiet synchronicity that make you feel like something is paying attention. Soul breadcrumbs are related, but slightly different.

A soul breadcrumb is a small, specific signal your aliveness leaves you. Not a sign from the universe necessarily - just a response from inside you. The pull toward something before you've had time to think about it. The delight that catches you off guard. The want that keeps showing up no matter how many times you talk yourself out of it.

They're not dramatic. That's what makes them easy to miss.

They show up as: the scent that stops you cold. The task you keep putting off that has nothing to do with productivity and everything to do with you specifically. The morning that felt like a gift. The thing you almost didn't ask for.

The gardenias

I went out to the yard to walk Lexi (my pupper) yesterday and there were three gardenia blooms that weren't there the day before. This morning, five - with buds covering both bushes.

I love the scent of gardenias in a way that my be slightly unreasonable. I've known I had these two bushes and I've been watching for them to bloom all spring. And then they just - were there. Suddenly, quietly, the way things that were always coming arrive.

I stopped walking. I just stood there.

That's a breadcrumb. The delight was disproportionate to the event. Which is exactly the signal.

The shelves

Here's the one with more layers.

For nine years, I've been making do with the shelving in my office. It didn't work. It never worked. But every time I got close to doing something about it, I'd talk myself into the smaller solution - something from Ikea, something quick, something that wouldn't cost too much or take too much of anyone's time.

Specifically: I didn't want to ask my honey to build what I actually wanted. Real shelves, made by hand. I was afraid it would cost more than a workaround. I didn't want to take his time for something that was just for me.

Nine years of just for

me as a reason to settle.

I finally said what I actually wanted. He said: let's just make the shelves. We started this weekend. We'll finish later this week.

I have a card on my current shelf - a TruthBomb from Danielle LaPorte - that reads: Be done with feeling guilty for what you want.

I bought that card as part of a set years ago and just ‘happened’ to come across it during this project. Coincidence?

That want I kept talking myself out of? That was a soul breadcrumb. A long, patient one. It didn't stop showing up. I just kept apologizing for it until I finally didn't.

How to follow them

You don't need a system. You need to take them seriously.

When something delights you more than makes sense - notice that. When a want keeps returning no matter how many times you've dismissed it - that's information. When you feel your energy rise the way mine did on the porch this morning, with the breeze and the chimes and the light - that's your aliveness saying here, this direction, more of this.

The breadcrumbs aren't asking you

to overhaul your life. They're

asking you to stop walking past them.

Start with one. The small, specific thing that's been trying to get your attention. The want you've been making smaller than it is. The morning you keep almost giving yourself.

Follow it. See where it leads.

If you've been noticing your own breadcrumbs and want a guide for following them - Reconnect with What Feels Alive is what that work looks like in practice.