sturdy

Reading and reflection have fostered in me the suspicion that it is unhelpful to visualize one's soul -- one's being -- as located deep within, either in the chest cavity or lodged inside the skull. Instead, one's most essential being is better visualized as seated at the skin, at the interface between one's self and all else. Did I say at? I meant as. It is not that surface is substance, no. More that interface is substance.

This is a visualization, of course, not a spiritual anatomy. And even if it is wrong (might be), or simplistic (surely is), the visualization is still heuristic. One's soul, visualized as an inner dark, safe spot apart, is usually a wildly unhelpful excuse and an opportunity for avoiding the truth that one's outer being is what one is, as much as anything else.

Mind you, if I were helping someone cope with an abusive, torturing or otherwise hellish environment, I would advise retreating within. That is, if the person abused were ordinary and weak like me and you. If a saint, I would have her live the glory of being most herself right at the surface of suffering.