Soulmate Dynamics
by Diane Linsley
I've been fascinated with the concept of soulmates ever since
I was introduced to it by my life coach after my divorce. I was
initially resistant to the idea because my marriage had been such
a huge disappointment that I'd given up on romantic notions of
love many years before.
My coach insisted that she was married to her soulmate. They'd
been together for 30 years, and they still loved each other. So I
started researching the topic and doing the Law of Attraction
exercises that we learned in the coaching academy.
Sure enough, I attracted a relationship. It met some, but not all of the parameters I had set. When that one didn't work out, I attracted another disappointing relationship. Finally, on my third try, I attracted a healthy, happy relationship with a wonderful soulmate.
What is a Soulmate?
Most people think that a soulmate is a romantic partner. Actually, a soulmate can be in any type of relationship with you - as a friend, parent, child or sibling. Soulmates are people with whom you feel a deep connection and have many growth-promoting experiences.
Soulmate relationships are about personal growth. Since growth is often painful, these relationships are not always peaceful and quiet. When you ask for a soulmate to come into your life, you are asking for your map of reality to be ripped up. You are asking for your ego to be exposed. You are asking for your life to be changed. Be careful what you ask for :)
In Soul Love, Sanaya Roman describes three types of soulmates. She identifies them as younger, older, and same-age souls. This is in relation to your own soul age.
Younger Soulmates
There are both positive and negative aspects to being in a relationship with a younger soul. Sanaya Roman says, "Being a teacher can be very rewarding when the younger soul is willing to grow and wants to learn from you. If the younger soul does not want to change or grow, you will most likely feel drained and frustrated .... If someone's soul age is a great deal younger than yours, you may expend much energy with few results."
Working with younger souls teaches you patience, compassion and forgiveness. It's an opportunity to overcome codependency and learn about freedom.
On the downside, "Younger souls sometimes feel threatened by older souls, and may try to reduce an older soul's confidence and personal power to feel better about themselves."
That's a mild way of describing it. Some younger souls are narcissistic. Narcissists don't have relationships - they take prisoners. A younger soul may be infatuated with an older soul, but he may also feel jealous of the older soul. So he tries to pull down the older soul to his own level. The younger soul may be passive-aggressive or even aggressive in his efforts to control the older soul.
Of course, not all younger souls are like that. Some are good students and a joy to teach.
Sanaya's final warning: "If you decide to join with a younger soul, be certain that this person wants what you have to offer and is receptive to change and growth. When this is the case, you can find it very rewarding to be with a younger soul and watch this person evolve."
An older soul who doesn't yet know who she is, or who suffers from low self-esteem from past trauma, may allow herself to be abused, while mistakenly believing that she is being patient and kind. The challenge for the older soul is to develop healthy boundaries.
Same-Age Soulmates
What about same-age soulmates? Is that a better choice?
Sanaya Roman says, "There is a potential for great joy as well as for intense conflicts in a same-age soul relationship .... The degree to which you love youself will determine your ability to love the other person, who will be reflecting back to you many of your own personality traits and qualities. A same-age soul relationship has the potential for being very intimate, for knowing the other can be like knowing yourself. You will need to be vulnerable and allow another person into your heart. You will want to love what you have considered unlovable in yourself."
Same-age soulmates are often working on similar issues. I enjoy same-age soul relationships with my best friends. As quickly as we discover new things, we share them with each other. Even our dreams often correlate and are relevant to the other person.
When two soulmates are working on the same issues, they may trigger each other's shadow material. My friends are a mirror to me. I first learned to love myself by loving them, which eventually led to becoming a self-compassion coach.
Older Soulmates
Older souls have a lot to offer as teachers. Younger souls may not recognize the love of an older soul because there is less attachment in it.
Sanaya Roman says, "Older souls are often able to detach from personality reactions, offering you a more impersonal, wise love. This might not always be comfortable to you."
Mature love doesn't look like love to a younger soul who just wants to fight. And from the perspective of the older soul, the younger soul looks like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum.
Every soul has a unique journey. Humility means accepting our own journey and appreciating other souls for the roles they play in our lives. A teacher cannot be a teacher without students. At some point, the line between teacher and student blurs.
The real student is the one who learns the most in the relationship. Old souls are good students because they learn from every situation and every person they meet.
We are all on a spectrum of development. The fact that we are still incarnating on Earth means that we haven't graduated yet. We have many more lessons to learn. Wherever you are on the spectrum, there are people who are more advanced and others who are less advanced. For more details, read the article on cognitive development.
Soul Progression
In The Multidimensional Human, Kurt Leland discusses the soul's progression:
"We begin as infant souls, just getting used to being in a physical body. Then, like children, we begin to explore and master our physical environment. As young souls - the equivalent of adolescents - we become competitive, amitious, driven to succeed. As mature souls - the equivalent of adults - we make lasting contributions to science, politics, art, and the humanities. As old souls, we seek to expand our consciousness, to develop ourselves as spiritual beings and explore realms beyond the physical."
This is a helpful map for understanding soul age. If you are an old soul, you may find yourself driven to develop your spiritual abilities, including deeper stages of enlightenment and out-of-body experiences (astral projection).
Old souls can be recognized by their wisdom and compassion. They often devote their lives to service. They can be found serving others in all sorts of capacities, sometimes with little reward. As Jesus told his disciples, "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant." (Matthew 23:11)
Wisdom and compassion are learned from experience. If it was possible to gain these things from reading, I would have achieved them long ago, since I've read over 500 self-help books in my life!
Obviously, reading alone isn't enough. We must have actual experience. As Michael Newton says, the Earth school is a very difficult curriculum for souls. But we keep coming back because the challenge has great benefits for our soul development.
How to Recognize Your Soulmate
In The Meaning of Mary Magdalene: Discovering the Woman at the Heart of Christianity, Cynthia Bourgeault describes what it feels like to meet your soulmate.
"When one meets one's authentic partner ..., perhaps the most striking telltale is an immediate trust, an intuitive recognition that this person is someone with whom it will be safe to open the door to the cage. And there is a yearning to do so, for the path of kenosis as walked between beloveds expresses itself in a deepening urge to hold nothing back. But as Welwood observes, 'Though we may truly desire to connect with another soul-to-soul, our ego still prefers to promote and defend self-image.'
Thus the approach-avoidance dance begins, as the clash between our deepest yearnings and our deepest fears sets the partners on an inevitable collision course. With honesty, trust, a huge amount of inner witnessing, and the mysterious alchemy of love itself, the two beloveds may finally set each other free."
This is a beautiful description of a true soulmate relationship. The biggest challenge is to stay alert - witnessing everything that arises. I witness how my ego tries to defend its position and put up walls every time we move into a deeper stage of relationship. It really is like a dance - advancing and retreating - making a little more headway each time we grow closer.
Everyone has a threshold for how much love they can tolerate. Soulmate relationships push against this threshold, raising it over time so that we can experience more love.
Attracting a Soulmate
Now that you are aware of soulmate dynamics, you can use what you've learned to consciously attract soulmates into your life. Do you need more students? Or a new teacher? Do you need a friend or a lover who is working on the same issues?
Look at the relationships you've already attracted. What are you learning in these relationships? How are they promoting your growth?
I don't care for any of the popular books on how to attract a soulmate. They seem to be more about the ego than the soul. I take a serious, spiritual approach to soulmates and their purpose in our lives. If you want to learn more about soulmates, I recommend Michael Newton's soul journey books. They are grounded in a deep understanding of the soul.
Here's a fun soulmate meditation that we were taught in the Quantum Success Coaching Academy.
Be well,
Diane Linsley
