My first insight into the feeling of being internally old occurred during adolescence.
I felt unusually different from the kids around me, somehow older, but ‘mature’ wasn’t exactly the right word. The best way I could describe it back then was as though I had lived hundreds of years of life which had been condensed into 16 years of time.
As the years went by, I encountered a few Old Souls who I shared my experiences with. I would talk about my insights and introduce them to the concept of Old Souls. One of these people was Luna. She was so excited about it that she eventually wrote the well-received article 9 Signs You’re An Old Soul as well as a subsequent Old Soul Book.
In my years of mentoring Old Souls and helping them through their spiritual development, I’ve witnessed a number of issues. I want to mention that it’s important to remember that having an Old Soul doesn’t necessarily equate to being ‘all-knowing’ or perfect. Rather, it’s an indication of the age of the energy known as your soul. With that being said, these are some of the biggest problems I’ve seen, and personally experienced:
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1# You’re a Social Outcast
As with anyone who perceives the world differently from others, Old Souls can experience a great (and unending) sense of isolation. Because they fail to fit into the standards that society admires and values (careers, materialism, status and so forth), they’re commonly seen as strange, offbeat and unconventional.
2# You’re the “Black Sheep”
While Old Souls can build many strong relationships with people, their penetrating ability to connect with the depths of the people in their lives can create many enemies. Seeing deeply into the core issues of the people around them, Old Souls feel an innate desire to be truthful, even if this means revealing uncomfortable truths such as the fact that many problems are caused by immaturity, or a failure to take responsibility.
Those who are willing to change will listen and like you, while the rest will feel great disdain towards you. This is why Old Souls often become the “devils advocates” or “black sheep” of their friends or family.
3# You Often Get Mislabeled
If there’s something we all love and are good at, it’s labeling people. We fool ourselves into thinking we can “know” someone by attributing a label to them. However, humans are far too complex to be boxed into a specific and unchanging group of people. In this case, Old Souls will often be given different labels, from “beatniks” to “hippies”, “anarchists” to “new age freaks“.
While you can’t fight labels, you can try to use them in a positive way. Labels can be used as signposts, as directions towards awareness of some quality many of us share. These qualities will be different in intensity and strength in each of us, but at least they will help us understand ourselves (and the people around us) a bit better.
This is partly why I called the Old Soul Group “I’m an Old Soul” – not so people can gain egotistical pride with such a label, but to create a sense of self-awareness, to allow people to better understand themselves.
4# You Speak an Entirely Different Language
Words are symbols we each load with our own unique definitions according to our own unique life experiences that are associated with each word. What I associate with love might be entirely different from what you associate with love. For example: When someone thinks about love, they might remember their old failed relationship and feel a terrible sense of vulnerability when the word arises, while others might associate love with loyalty and friendship.
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Old Souls realize this limitation, and therefore greatly struggle to express entirely what they want to say, knowing that it’s as though they are speaking an entirely different language from others.
5# You Are Prone to Intense Existential Crises
I have sometimes witnessed cases where Old energy is born into the body of a person who does not have the matching mental maturity to embrace it. This can result in depressions, substance abuse and existential crisis’s.
When a person realizes that everything is transitional and passing, life can become pointless. This person sees that our bodies are temporary vessels that don’t really matter, and without the ability to cultivate self-love, self-destructive habits can result.
In this case, it’s necessary to undergo intense spiritual-growth, to cultivate existential meaning and inner-understanding through inner work in order to learn how to embrace your soul.
6# You Easily Become Emotionally Drained
With the wisdom and patience that comes with being an Old Soul, there also comes others people’s desire to use you as a dumping ground for their emotions. I’ve experienced this a lot in my own life, often experiencing emotionally-charged conversations that last for hours at a time. Some Old Souls also double as Empaths, which can also take a great toll on your energy.
7# You’re Prone to Becoming Mentally Drained
In the search for truth, deeper understanding and inner exploration of yourself and the world around you, it is common for the Old Soul to experience a lot of mental fatigue. Double this with acting as a mediator between people and their problems, and you’ll end up exhausted at the end of the day.
#8 You Struggle to Find a Kindred Spirit
If making friends who connect with you is difficult, finding a kindred spirit, soul mate, or life partner, can be even more of a challenge. It took me living in 6 different countries to find Luna.
But it’s not always as hard as that. Having the wisdom to discern the true depths of your connection with a person will be your greatest asset in the area of love.
#9 You’re Crippled By Possibilities
As we grow in maturity our perception of possibilities and explanations expands: we see life from limitless angles. This means that we see more than one way of doing things which makes us unfailingly indecisive as we see the full expanse of possibilities, and the lack of absolutes. Although making decisions and judgments can be a crippling experience, this can double as a virtue, allowing us to understand that we can’t simply judge people by face value, and that they are the result of millions of internal and external influences.
#10 You Yearn For a Place to Belong
For some Old Souls, the world feels alien. They find it hard to understand people, why such chaos and misery exists and how it is allowed, and sometimes encouraged, to continue. They long to find a place where they feel like they belong, a space filled with freedom and liberation. This often results in the feeling that this world is not their true home.
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Regardless of which of the above problems you may come across, these struggles will affect your life a lot less when you grow in inner understanding and acceptance.
The stronger your ability to channel and use the Old energy that is latent within you, the greater your capacity will be to aid in the continuation and evolution of your soul.
Please feel free to share your experiences below.
There was something almost mysterious about this woman. Her face had lots of wrinkles. These were the first things to catch your eye, but they didn’t make her look old. Instead, they emphasized a certain youthfulness in her that transcended age. The wrinkles belonged where they were, as if they had been part of her face since birth. When she smiled, the wrinkles smiled with her; when she frowned, the wrinkles frowned, too. And when she was neither smiling nor frowning, the wrinkles lay scattered over her face in a strangely warm, ironic way. ~ Haruki Murakami (Norwegian Wood)
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I’m going to say something a lot of people on here probably won’t like to hear but please hear me out as I think it might actually be beneficial to those of you who might (in my humble opinion) be confused. An Old Soul is extremely rare, or at least should be in this world. The description given here of Old Souls as well as people’s descriptions of their own traits are more indicative of a stage before the Old Soul. It’s where I’m at myself. The stage where you’re really working on relationships and exploring what the “other” is. It’s the “last” stage if one wants to be so crude in the evolution of the soul. Many of you on here are writing about your struggles with other people and how you don’t like them or are painfully aware of your difference form them. I struggle with this myself as well. I don’t think you can be an Old Soul and be so focused on these things. There’s a good website (maybe here?) which talks about soul evolution and the stages. I’m sure you can find it. I actually think it might be here. Each stage is important and… Read more »
I have been told many times in my life by many people that I am an old soul. But because it was always said with much admiration, I always felt that it would be quite narcissistic of me to accept that compliment for myself. I came across this website completely by accident a few days ago, and was intrigued by the articles. This one particular really hits home hard. I am definitely afflicted with all the problems mentioned here, the biggest being existential crisis. So much so that I even contemplated suicide in the past. This also made me realise that being an old soul it no bed of roses or pleasure cruise (as Queen to eloquently put it), which means accepting flaws and pain. And now I know that I cannot possibly be the other person on the planet that experiences life like this, even though it certaintly feels that way. I have yet to.Meet another person who can relate to me on this level. This is definitely one extremely lonely road to be on and I will probably Stull struggle with all of this, especially since I have no idea what it means to have a mental maturity… Read more »
Hi. I think I’m an old soul. I can agree with most of the things on this list. I’ve always been the black sheep in my family, everything I do is wrong and I was/am getting abused. At school I was always the outcast, loner, weird girl (whatever you want to call it) and I got bullyed for it. I didn’t fit in but I didn’t stand out either. I was just there. Life seems meaningless to me. There are things I want to do. I have goals and ambitions like everyone else, but I don’t know how to achieve them. I have mental illnesses
I don’t understand myself at all but I’ve always feel that I’m isolated from the others specially in the society that I was born with.
Thank you for this, it’s really encouraging to know I’m not alone ^_^. Well, have met a few, but it is so isolating and difficult to make your way through this world. Though introversion and reflection can be wonderful respite, it is nice to have discussions with people on the same level. Great depth of understanding is so valuable, but so undervalued or even recognized by others. It’s enough to make a person crazy, seeing the world as it is, vs. what it could be… If y’all ever decide to form a hippie commune for old souls that would be cool. We could create be capable of a lot together…
Anyways, rambling, thank you and best to you all!
~blessed be
okay I took your old soul test almost a feew months ago and back then I was just speculating and playing around with the idea that souls can have different ages…but what I scored back then and now are the samr 84% ? I am gonna turn 21 in a few months, so personally I wouldnt consider myself as an worldy knowledgable, filled with passion for-everyone-and-every-thing-around-me kind of an old soul ( I do feel passion but only towards uplifitng and nurturing my goals so that one day I can help the human race around me when I fulfill my ambitions)..So yeah, I still have a lot to learn before I can reach that old soul level , I incline more towards your definition on being a mature soul, …ALthought recently I ‘m begginigng to see the traits of an old soul in me. I dont know, I really tend to look for the best in people and the world around me and yes the appreciation for nature, for art and culture AND the subtle beauties in this life has always been present in my phsych . But what seems to bother me is that , maybe the old soul… Read more »
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Holy cow, I never thought I would read an article online that would describe me to a T, I am having a real big problem at the moment as I am contemplating cutting everyone off (apart from family), mainly because my extreme introversion removes any real desire to socialise. It’s awkward because the people I’ve met are really cool nice people, but either because of depression or whatever I drift away anyway!! I am always drifting away so I think it’s unfair on other people to have me as a friend if that makes sense, removing myself should allow them to move on without me right?? I am really confused right now, I think I need to live in complete isolation for a couple of years just to make sense of things (though I probably won’t).
Sorry for the ramble, bit of a miserable day today…
Every single point in this article…… did I write this?
I’m in my preteens and have always felt that Earth isn’t my true home. I’ve always felt homesick or a want to leave this planet. Ever since I was really little I was different from the other kids. I was always obsessed with outer space and minerals. One day some one told me that I was an old soul and I had no idea what it meant until I found this website. This website has helped me a lot from understanding myself and finding that there really are other people that feel the same way that I do. Thanks!!