To be soulcentric is to seek out the ways soul attempts to guide our relationships and individual development. It is to envision the principal goal of maturation to be the conscious discovery and embodiment of our human soul – our unique place in the more-than-human world of mountains, rivers, critters, farms, businesses, and schools.

To be egocentric is to treat the self as an isolated, competitive entity, an autonomous agent with minimal relationship or obligation to other people or the larger world. In an egocentric society, how can you, as a soulcentric parent of pre-teens, optimize the social, psychological, and educational environment in which your child learns and grows?

You are a special, unique person, and you have a meaningful contribution to make to the world. Every person is born with a purpose. There is a reason you are here; you have a role to play that no one else on the planet could fill. The special contribution you came to make is your life’s work. When you are doing that work, you are following your higher path, and your life will be filled with increasing joy, abundance, and well-being.

The great secret of fulfilling our heart’s desires and living in joy and abundance is an open secret. It is a power to be claimed as soon as we awaken to its existence and adopt the tools and habits required to bring it through.

The lesser secret involves the law of attraction: whatever we think or feel strongly, the universe says yes. If we carry around feelings of failure or dread, the world will give us lots of reasons to feel those things. If we follow our creative passions and are willing to make a leap of faith, the universe will support us and will bring us resources and opportunities in magical ways.

But back to the idea of the duality of polar opposites. This tension between polar opposites described by the mystics, interestingly enough, is reflected in the human brain – or, you might say that because the brain/mind creates these divisions, it isn’t a surprise that the brain is structured in a split manner.

The Divided Mind
Your brain, as you know, is divided into two hemispheres, a left and a right hemisphere, connected by a small piece of tissue called the corpus callosum. And, it’s possible for one side of the brain to be more active, more dominant, than the other at any given time. This is called brain lateralization, and the more the brain is lateralized – the more unbalanced it is – the more likely we are to chop the world into separate things and see the two sides of any supposed duality as being separate and opposite.