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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Everybody join the facebook group I’m an old soul :)
I really love this website, and has given me some explanation of old soul. I have always looked at life, outside looking in. Absorbing what I could. Learning how to belong. But now I do belong, and have a really nice life. I am an empath. A sensitive. But I am learning more everyday about myself and my abilities. How to protect myself, and how to ground myself. But I get messages from other side. Why is this possible. Can anyone enlighten me about this. When I was a young girl, I did not have many relationships with other children. It was always adults. And very kind adults. Who would always say to me, ” you are very well spoken for someone your age”. You seem to have a lot of confidence for someone your age” Now I understand why. I have been around for quite a while. I have not done past life regression. But would love to know. My friend is a medium. She has done some work for me, and she tells me that I have a parallel life, bleeding into this one. How is that possible? Please explain if you can. Your anology of me was… Read more »
Hi! First I want to say thanks so much to you and Aletheia for y’alls blog. It has definitely helped me to articulate some feelings I’ve always had about myself. I remember always hating school, having an inexplicable feeling that I was “too old” to be in school (thinking how impractical it was to watch the teacher work instead of actually attempting the work ourselves). I often felt and feel like time /doesn’t pass fast enough/ and that I have been and still am waiting for “life’s stride” around late 40’s or even retirement age, when one has become comfortable and established and can just enjoy life on one’s own terms. One thing about being an old soul that is starting to wear on me though is being so alone. My dad is thankfully a good listener and has learned to understand my point of view but other than him I feel like I have no one I can talk to seriously or doing quirky things with. Its hard to find others to truly connect with and when I meet someone with whom I can, there always seem to be impossible circumstances to keep us from being close friends or… Read more »
I remember when I was three years old, I didn’t even feel young then I just felt old and I still do.
I am extremely sensitive, when I was younger someone could get me extremely sad, now I have just found ways to handle it better and to understand someones point of view.
I’m still young (16) even though I feel ready for retirement…
At primary school I didn’t have a lot of friends and I didn’t fit the group either
with two other classmates.
I felt true love, with another person who made me feel complete
We talked for ours, for seven months we shared our deepest feelings.
I have just 1 friends left who understands me, nobody understands me.
I get tired of myself, I don’t understand myself.
I have mental issues.
I just don’t really understand life,
I keep wondering… Always if my friends are upset I help them because I know how.
I know what to say… what they didn’t see yet. Sometimes they do get a little mad at me when I just tell them the truth. When they don’t see it I will be their eyes.
Girl
This pretty much defines me perfectly, pretty much all my life I felt like I was looking in from the outside seeing everyone so happy and fitting in and then I suppose I became sad about it (not entirely sure it stopped but it’s better now). Anyways making friends was hard, and not because I couldn’t but because after I realized everything is fleeting and temporary it made me wary of who I wanted to be friends. You’re so right about many of these things it’s scary, For example I do like to be alone it’s the only time that I get to reflect and think about many things without being disturbed, for the most part I am an outcast and black sheep and though often those labels have a negative connotation I find it to be quite pleasant. But most of all the two things that I really associate with is “crippled by possibilities” and “Yearn for a place to Belong”. Being indecisive and stressed about thinks you have a choice in is one thing, however the thing that are decided for you are so much worse. Finally, throughout my life I never found a place I truly belonged,… Read more »
When I was young I already can understand what the eldest talked about, I always find that people my age are too childish, it is hard for me to find a guy my age because they all look immature in my eyes and when I tried to be in older group they think it is weird to let a young-one in the group (once they know my age) so I always lied about my age but I can never be true me if I do that. My own head driving me crazy with the auto-process system (it never stop thinking,too fast and it is tiring). My brain keep processing data (everything that happen around me).
I cant believe I happened across this website. I’ve always been interesed in such things and as I read the list of 10 problems, I began to cry after the first four were hitting the nail on the head! And everyone there after, dead on. Been dealing with all 10 of these for what seems like eternity. Please contact me back fury2442 (at) gmail.com i truly need some insight and possible direction as to researching this subjec ALOT more.
Hi! Yesterday I discovered the book old soul and I was grinning from ear to ear because I was able to put a name to the things I feel. I am a college student and as I walk around and perceive things I have realized that I do so much differently than my peers. Random facts like “everything is connected” and “everything happens for a reason” jump into my head and I know them to be the truth. I can read people to a tee and my favorite sanctuary is a river. I believe that the reason old souls connect with nature so much is because it’s familiar. People change the way they talk,act, and dress. But a tree does not change the way it stands and a river does not change the way it flows. Recently I have started to get powerful dreams that sometimes predict the future. Dreams like my bird dying, a friend becoming ill, and a spirit visiting. I was just wondering is there a way to bring on these dreams or control them more? And the other night I had a extremely life-like Dream that I walked into a bar and when I look down… Read more »
What an amazing article and website, I often feel intensely alone even though I am lucky enough to have many amazing people in my life , I have always had better friendships with people much older than me too. I used to work at a residential home and I felt like a I fit in better there with people who were in their eighties plus than I ever have anywhere else. I took your test and got 91per cent and after thirty years of confusion, being “a weirdo” and never really feeling part of things it’s good to see there is a reason and I am looking forward to exploring it further.
Reading the part about yearning to find a place to fit in struck me so deep I had a couple of tears. I wish I could write more but I have to go for now.
love your site and I hope it doesn’t sound strange but knowing I can come here and read all the things that interest me and meet people like yourself and Luna is amazing and has eased that sometimes feeling of being on an alien planet .
Thank you
I love your website, I have been reading on it all day, and will continue to relish the words of wisdom you are sharing with us. Thanks for the wonderful insights and teachings