To be a REBEL SOUL is more than resisting the world as it is — it is answering a deeper call for what the world, our lives, and we ourselves could become. A rebel soul lives with an inner foundational imprint of conscious relating and creating: a quiet but persistent knowing that life can be more connected, empowered, wonder filled, growth oriented, cooperative, responsive, knowledge rich, and whole compared to the way we live and the patterns we inherit.
Sensing this often creates tension when we feel the gap between the life we sense is possible and the realities we experience within ourselves, our relationships, and our systems. Yet instead of numbing, settling, or turning away, the rebel soul dares to engage in the struggle. Through repeated cycles of searching, questioning, falling, and rising, they learn that rebellion is not only defiance — it is the courageous practice of listening deeply to the soul, navigating misalignment, and continually becoming a force for transformation and conscious change in the world.
Related Posts: This is part of a series about the REBEL SOUL. Click here for clarification on what I mean by SOUL.
What It Really Means To Be a Rebel Soul
It means the coming together of the “rebel” with the “soul”.
It means having an internal foundational imprint that quietly broadcasts what conscious relating and creating is.
It means experiencing misalignment compared to this foundational imprint and daring to t closing the gap while moving more into the world instead of away from it.
It means navigating tensions and turning them into transformation, moving closer and closer to conscious relating and creating.
It means moving through the process of transformation again and again, falling down, resting, regrouping, and getting back up.
It means searching and engaging in different pathways of transformation to become better selves, create better lives, and/or contribute to a better world.
It means ever so slowly, through the process of rebellion, evolving and developing many other skills beyond defiance, including recognizing the revolutionary voice of soul.
It means having the core purpose of conscious relating and creating for betterment, whether that is in a small corner of the world or on the world stage.
A REBEL SOUL Brings Together the “Rebel” and the “Soul”
A “REBEL SOUL” is obviously the coming together of a “Rebel” with the “Soul” in some way. So, their fundamental nature of rebellion is paired with the animation of the soul. As such, they do not rebel from survival, defiance, entitlement, self-interest, self-expression, striving, superiority, oppressiveness, ego, or just for rebellion’s sake. With development and maturation, they rebel in service to the soul. Their rebellion combines love, compassion, truth, wisdom, defiance, and action.
A REBEL SOUL Has a Foundational Imprint that Quietly Internally Broadcasts What Conscious Relating and Creating Is
A rebel soul has a foundational imprint of sorts that is ever so quietly broadcasting internally for them. It’s not simply the imprint of rebellion, but rather the imprint of conscious relating and creating which underlies everything.
Every moment. Every thought. Every perception. Every belief. Every hope. Every big idea. Every uncertainty. Every intention. Every plan. Every learning. Every feeling. Every family. Every organization. Every policy. Every rule. Every decision. Every word expressed. Every response. Every organizational structure. Every communication. Every action and reaction. Every mistake and misstep. Every regret. Every celebration. Every new beginning. Every ending. Everything within ourselves, with others, or within the larger world.
At the heart of this foundational imprint are eight living dimensions that guide the rebel soul’s unfolding (and rebellions): growth, knowingness, empowerment of self and others, connectedness, cooperativeness, responsiveness, wholeness, and wonder. This imprint acts like an evolutionary pull for the rebel soul to become more fully and deeply themselves while helping to shape a more conscious and compassionate world.
A REBEL SOUL Experiences Misalignment Compared to This Foundational Imprint and Dares to Try to Close the Gap
The more the rebel soul attunes to the foundational imprint of conscious relating and creating, the more misalignment they experience in themselves, their lives, and what’s happening in the world around them.
This misalignment becomes the motivation from their soul for rebellion. Because, let’s face it, the soul is only going to be involved in things that are either coming from consciousness or moving us toward more consciousness.
Despite the tension, the rebel soul turns into the misalignment rather than away from it.
A REBEL SOUL Navigates Tensions and Turns Them into Transformation to Move Closer and Closer to Conscious Relating and Creating
This willingness to be in the tension is what allows the rebel soul to turn tension into transformation. They are not initially equipped to tolerate the tension. But because they are so motivated to honour their souls and move closer to conscious relating and creating, they learn to tolerate and transform through the tension. This differentiates the rebel soul.
The rebel soul is invited to navigate at least twelve tensions.
- Current Reality vs. Conscious Relating and Creating
- Individual vs. Collective
- Indifference vs. Relating
- Simplicity vs. Complexity
- Externalization vs. Personal Action and Accountability
- Impossibility vs. Possibility
- Apathy vs. Engagement
- Optional vs. Essential
- Timid vs. Brave
- Safety and Security vs. Risk and Sacrifice
- Gain vs. Grit
- Status Quo vs. Change
By staying with the tensions despite the discomfort, rebel souls can cross the threshold of transformation, gain inner authority of soul, and make gains in moving toward becoming better selves, creating better lives, and contributing to a better world. They eventually become beacons of transformation.
A REBEL SOUL Searches for and Engages in Different Pathways of Transformation to Become Better Selves, Create Better Lives, and Contribute to a Better World
A rebel soul is someone who is SEARCHING.
A rebel soul is searching for more conscious relating and creating.
They are searching for betterment. It seems to me that conscious relating and creating is for, and always ultimately leads to, some sort of betterment. I say ultimately because sometimes, in the midst of a rebellion, the betterment isn’t always easy to spot.
Betterment in this case means a couple of things:
It is soul standard betterment, not ego or survival standard betterment. In fact, what is considered betterment differs significantly depending on the level of conscious relating we are coming from. For example, the rebellious act to forgive will feel like betterment for the soul but may feel like an afront to a displaced ego.
It is broader benefit betterment. The movement toward conscious relating and creating is not strictly for self. This does not mean that the self cannot benefit. Just that it always has broader benefits to others, our lives, and the larger world. It impacts family and friends. It brings a new idea to the workplace. It leads to more compassion for those who are suffering.
It is circular, self-supporting betterment. The movement toward becoming more conscious in how we relate and create in one area typically increases it in other areas as well. For example, an increase in knowingness is likely to result in more cooperativeness or responsiveness, or lead to healing and growth, which in turn leads to more consciousness.
A rebel soul is searching to become better selves, create better lives, and/or contribute to a better world. They are leaning in (at any speed) along any or all of the 12 pathways, each with dozens and dozens of potential rebellions, both big and small, personal and communal.
Becoming a Better Self by:
- Recovery from Victimization, Survival and Trauma through healing trauma, ending patterns of victimization, building self-protection, developing healthy expectations, and moving beyond survival patterns.
- Breaking Away from Toxic Ego and External Expectations by releasing fear-based identity, entitlement, domination patterns, and external conditioning and conforming so that a more conscious self can emerge.
- Ensuring Core Needs and Human Developments by building physical, emotional and social, health, integrity, resilience, maturity, and the internal foundations to function well for ourselves and others.
- Shifting to Soul Centered as one’s primary source, and developing inner alignment, authenticity, presence, meaning, spirituality, intuition, and connection to the deepest essence of who we are.
Creating Better Lives by:
- Nurturing Relationships that support the needs and developments of partners, children, family, and friends while releasing and shifting dysfunctions and destructiveness.
- Contributing Meaningful Work, Livelihood & Leisure by exploring purpose, contribution, creativity, restorative leisure, meaningful work, and life-giving forms of engagement.
- Stewardship of Money and Other Physical Resources such as money, possessions, resources, while considering consumption, sustainability, and long-term thinking and avoiding what is shiny and short sighted.
- Community Involvement, Participation and Engagement to build belonging, participation, local connection, mutual support, hospitality, and healthy community life that supports and sustains the needs of members.
Contributing to a Better World by:
- Enlightened Leadership by bringing humanity, ethics, consciousness, relational intelligence and future impact into families, business, organizations, and systems.
- Gaining Systems Thinking and a Global Lens on situations and societies relative to complexity and understanding, inequality, power, culture, media, economics, oppression, and the complexity of the larger world.
- Service to Others with Time, Talents and Tithing by participating in the common good through generosity, contribution, reciprocity, and meaningful service (in our small corner).
- Supporting Social Awareness, Allyship and Action by engaging issues of inequality, inequity, exploitation, oppression, and injustice with greater awareness, courage, and consciousness.
A REBEL SOUL Moves Through the Process of Transformation Again and Again, Falls Down, Rests and Regroups, and Gets Back Up
As they tolerate tension, the rebel soul learns to navigate the process of transformation and its four phases. While the phases can go by different names, their purpose is the same no matter the rebellion.
- Restoring involves gaining the growing awareness of misalignment compared with conscious relating and creating. It invites movement into a full transformation that begins with renewing, reflecting and releasing.
- Restarting involves beginning again, from a different place, following the dismantling in phase one. It requires more than mere resistance against the object of our rebellion and invites readying, reenvisioning, and reaching.
- Recreating involves effort, growth, and overcoming obstacles. It invites activating change in ourselves and the circumstances or relationships around us and resisting the energy of undertow in the face of obstacles, confrontation, and consequences.
- Realization involves reintegrating and solidifying all of the changes that were part of the rebellion within ourselves, bringing a more permanent re“solving” of the point of the rebellion into the different dynamics and forms in our lives and environments, and coming to terms with the results and consequences of our rebellion both positive and not so positive.
- Resourcing involves doing all of the important things to keep ourselves in a state of capability through self-care, regulation and resilience, reaffirming ourselves with compassion and encouragement and recharging with inspiration, information, and support.
No matter the outcome of the rebellion, the rebel soul cycles back into restoring. If they have been effective (circumstances willing) in moving through the rebellion, they can rest and renew before moving forward with regular life (and the eventual next rebellion). If they have been less effective, they are invited to continue the rebellion and enter another round of transformation.
Along the way, they fall and get back up, gaining a little more consciousness as they do. However slowly they are moving, they are trying to animate and elevate their consciousness one bit at a time.
If you want to dig into some specific posts about growth and transformation.
A REBEL SOUL Develops Many Other Skills Beyond Defiance, Including Recognizing the Voice of Soul
The rebel soul is grown, developed, and matured in multiple ways through engaging with and in rebellion that comes from soul. They of course are growing in the dimensions of conscious relating and creating (connectedness, empowerment, wonder, growth, cooperativeness, responsiveness, knowingness, wholeness). But beyond defiance they are experiencing a deeper initiation—one that is growing their skills of rebellion and transformation.
Through engaging repeatedly in the process of rebellion, the rebel soul is developing in at least seven ways and matured.
- They learn to turn tension into transformation.
- They translate awareness and insight into embodiment.
- They embrace soul authorship in a conditioned world.
- They straddle systems, levels, perspectives, and pathways.
- They grow a lens for seeing in patterns and progressions.
- They hone and ignite their creative power.
- They move into conscious evolution.
A REBEL SOUL Has the Core Purpose of Conscious Relating and Creating for Betterment, Whether that is in a Small Corner of the World or the World Stage
Ultimately, the REBEL SOUL has the core purpose of conscious relating and creating for betterment. No matter how messy or how clouded the searching becomes with fear, survival, or ego, they are engaged in the quiet (or not so quiet) rebellion of connectedness, empowerment for themselves and all others, wonder, growth, cooperativeness, responsiveness, knowingness, and wholeness.
Turning Inward
Hopefully, this overview gave you a better sense of what it means to be a REBEL SOUL. Perhaps you saw glimpses of yourself in the descriptions.
If so, that’s awesome!
The world needs more rebel souls. Perhaps you and your life need a rebel soul as well. Whether you’ve taken one step in this direction or a thousand, you’re on the way.
Upcoming blog posts will dig into the eight dimensions of conscious relating and creating, the ways rebellion is more daring for a rebel soul, how rebel souls turn tension into transformation, the four phases of transformation, and more. Stay tuned!
With Humility, Hope, and Heart,
