Today we will talk about what is soulfulness. This word is loved by both ordinary people and advertisers. This means that the people have some kind of emotional experience associated with it. But let's talk not only about this, but also about a related concept - spirituality. What is meant by it today and what is meant by it in general.
Soulness is an untranslatable word in other languages
The headline is not a tribute to the “Russianness” fashionable now; on the contrary, it is a linguistic fact. And all because in Russian it is very difficult to define the concept of soulfulness, but it's worth a try. So, soulfulness is a sincere appeal to another person. Genuine and disinterested interest in another person’s point of view or problems. Soulness has no boundaries. This quality is possessed by men, women, and children, but most of all, perhaps, the latter, because they are sincere, have not yet learned how to deceive, lie, bustle, give black to white and white to black. Of course, culture says that we have more emotional women, but this is not true.
To make sure of the sincerity of men, you can recall the film “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” Heroes celebrate New Year in it. Having thoroughly gotten together, they drag out the song “Under the wing of an airplane”. And at first they sing cheekily, shout too much. And Lukashin said to them: “Guys, more sincere.” And at once, all as one understand what this means. And they have a completely different approach to business. They sing heartily, carefully, carefully. In a word, sincerely. As can be seen even from the example, one can replace the concept under consideration with different words. Let's talk about synonyms separately.
How to explain what soulfulness is to a foreigner or an ignorant Russian? Synonyms
Most of all, as an alternative to "soulfulness", the term from psychology is suitable - "empathy." This is the ability to empathize and empathize with another person. But empathy is a complex concept. In fact, in the Russian language there is no full-fledged replacement for the term “soulfulness”. No matter how we shuffle the words, there is still no complete analogue. There is something in this combination of sounds and letters ... extremely sincere and at the same time remaining in shadow all the time. Soulness is a secret.
For example, if in advertising they say that such a drink is spiritual, then the viewer, if he is a native speaker of the Russian language, only on an intuitive level understands what this means. If we undertake to interpret, then we immediately find ourselves in an awkward position, for the adjective “soulful” is (if we are talking about a drink) “tasty”, “fresh”, “invigorating” and much more that comes to mind, and together with something else untranslated into the language of symbols, but understood only by the gut.
However, if the reader asks us sternly: "How to understand this -" sincerity "? Can you choose synonyms for this word or not? ” We will honestly provide a list of:
- Sincerity.
- Openness.
- Genuine interest.
- The ability to empathize.
The reader, having grasped the general tonality of linguistic substitutions of the concept of “soulfulness,” himself can easily play this game. And we have to go on.
Is it possible to cultivate one's soulfulness?
Of course, when answering this question, two points of view can be adhered to. First: it’s supposedly an innate quality, and it’s useless to study it. Probably, such a point of view will have supporters, but there is another opinion. The second version: a person does not have a rigidly defined, rigid nature, so almost everyone can learn anything, you just need to. Soulness is a painstaking daily work on oneself.
It is difficult to understand another person, because it implies the presence of certain personality traits, such as kindness, tolerance, altruism. If a person who wants to learn soulfulness is evil, selfish, rude, then without internal rebirth, he can only imitate, simulate soulfulness, although it is enough to achieve some goals.
Techniques for the development of soulfulness
If we talk about specific methods and techniques, there are several ways to achieve the development of empathy:
- Reading fiction.
- Observation of people.
- The development of imagination and fantasy on the topic of what it is like to be so-and-so. Yes, an important addition: this is not about the Napoleons, but about ordinary people, perhaps acquaintances and friends or neighbors.
All these simple tricks will allow a person to understand a fellow man and expand the range of his life experience.
Disputes about spirituality and sincerity
Why is the question of the distinction between spirituality and spirituality generally relevant? Firstly, because these concepts are often used as synonyms, and this is a mistake. Secondly, because spirituality itself is misunderstood, exclusively in a religious sense. We will deal with these misconceptions.
For example, sincerity in a relationship - what is it? And is it possible to say this: "spirituality in relationships"? Answer: the first option is understandable and sounds in Russian, and the second one is even perceived a bit strange by ear. Why? Because these are not synonymous concepts.
When a man says that he and his wife have a spiritual relationship, then friends or casual companions understand: the spouses get along, they have everything in order, both in everyday life and in bed.
If the same man says: “My wife and I have a spiritual relationship!”, Those around will start to look at him and suspect the evil. And all because this kind of relationship does not imply sex. Spiritual relations and platonic are synonyms. But, from the point of view of language, it is simpler to make a mistake here, because one thing is the meaning of the word “spirituality”, and another is the meaning of the word “spirituality”. With this you need to be very careful not to get into the galosh.
Is “spirituality” a purely religious term?
The answer to the question in the title: “Of course not!” Spirituality is any intangible production. Spirituality incorporates all the phenomena of human genius - from science to religion. Naturally, literature is also included in this area. Now there is the term "spiritual literature", that is, religious. But this is not a completely correct option, because all literature is spiritual. The question is, why is there a fallacy? Everything is very simple. Now there are a lot of believers, and religious consciousness is somewhat different from secular. For example, the former believes that absolute truth is only his agency. Also, religious people, even Christians, often sin intolerance of other people's opinions and expressions, which is why they believe that if literature or art is connected with God, then these forms of human activity are spiritual, and the others refuse this quality.
The fact is that the term “spirituality” is now in great demand, because a lot of people are passionate about Orthodoxy. But, as often happens, people, using a word, do not bother to look into the dictionary. In addition, it is human nature to err. And Francis Bacon revealed four types of subject errors in cognition of the world. There is no need to list all four, we are only interested in "idols of the market square" - the phenomenon boils down to the fact that people use words thoughtlessly, and everyone puts their own meaning into them. This, in turn, makes it very difficult to understand. As an example, we can take the meaning of the word “spirituality”: a religious person means one term under this term, and a non-religious person means a completely different one. The sad thing is that they will never agree among themselves.
Fortunately, the meaning of the word “soulfulness” does not cause such difficulties in people. It is still associated in the mind of a person with something good and good. We hope that our reader will not continue to confuse related concepts. Every educated person should know the difference between the terms “spirituality” and “soulfulness”, of course, if he wants to say that he really knows Russian.