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 do not normally partake in the comments of, well, pretty much any article. However, I have found this intriguing. Particularly, #5 and #10. I’ve always considered myself to be an old soul. Before even hearing the words, the concept was known to me at least subconsciously and I never needed explanation. Many of the things I have found on this site so far (just came across it tonight) have rung quite true to me regarding old souls. I also read briefly about the other soul ages on the site, I definitely associate with the old category and not much with anything else. Now, to my point, quite a few of these universal problems strike me as younger than old – with 5 and 10 jumping out at me. 5: Existentialism. This word to me was, for quite some time, just some word I heard in passing. One day, I looked it up. I was rather surprised that such a concept even needed name. There are quite possibly things I do not know. However, I have always known that the meaning I give to and find in my life are the most important, and possibly only, value in any given… Read more »
For me honestly all of these hit home. I have always distanced myself from other people, I just don’t like them, don’t have time for them. I have never felt like I belong here. I’ve always said this is the wrong time frame.
Jeez. Life for us old souls could be tough. Although I’m barely 16 as of now, mental weariness seem to permeate to my every core. When many of my peers are all concetrated in their pursuit of the material world and its many (supposed) wonders, I found myself thrusted into a lonely corner where no one could hear our words. The fact that some still could relate to my experience of simply viewing things differently is a refreshing change from the crushing pressure society exerts at us youths and our so-called ambitions.
This entire post resonates with me very intensely- I am only 18, and yet I feel as though I have lived numerous years beyond that. I am about to leave high school, and as I reflect on the relationships I have formed during this time, I can’t help but observe the disconnect between me and my peers. Their concerns and interests are not inappropriate and certainly not uncharacteristic of teenagers, but I simply can’t relate. Believe me, I have tried to play the role, indulging as best I can into their habits and ideas of fun. I want to belong somewhere, as you said, but I have since accepted that it’s not with them. Certainly I do not resent them. It has just been difficult. I often feel as though I have a unique understanding of things. Wisdom, perhaps, wisdom that isn’t normally cultivated without corresponding life experience, something of which I have very little at this point. I also struggle with the juxtaposition of my physiological youth and my spiritual age; I’m still very young, still afflicted by adolescent hormones and frustrations, yet I carry the weight of someone much older. I’m happy, overall- I have an undeniably wonderful,… Read more »
The last one – feeling that you do not belong here…everything, word in word as you wrote it – I have felt it. Some long time ago I remember I have had this huge frustration that i seriously cried my heart out because of all the unfairness that happens and that sometimes my head and heart fails to comprehend all the nasty things that are being done to other people and nature also animals. When I was younger and was in some gatherings I preferred the company of older people, of my parents, grandparents and people their age. In school ( i am 27 now) I was the loner, I never got into the ‘latest trends” and never wanted to. I was harassed about that I was so serious. You could say that at my current age I somewhat start to feel as it fits me. The weird thing is that for my age of 27 I look like minor sometimes to people. I look younger, but I feel older inside. There was a time I felt that the time till now has been like a crash course into experiences and that these years up till now have been like… Read more »
I found your site today, and for the first time in my life it seems as though I’ve discovered why I feel so isolated and disconnected to those and the world around me, and have consistently never fit in. I’m 17 and before my first ever real existential crisis a few months ago I’d always been a ‘Mature Soul’ (as I’ve just learnt it’s called): switching too and forth from different lifestyles recreating myself due to not knowing my real self, carrying the constant heavy burden of searching for something that I simply can’t find, a longing for experiences I know will be simply amazing and beautiful but have never really physically seen or heard described, to finally materialize in some way. But now I have seen the reality that life is always moving and we are here for a passing time which gave me the shock to discover my soul and not be afraid of it. I don’t know whether it’s too soon to make assumptions but I’ve read about Old Souls and am beginning to wonder whether the existential crisis has caused me to unlock part of the Old Soul within me, as on so many levels I… Read more »
This was very enlightening. Although I am not sure how much time has been condensed into my 18 years of life I find myself getting continuous feelings of nostalgia of places I have never been too or of a certain time period in the past. I am too mature for people my age yet too immature for older people. I do tend to act childish at times but my out look on so many things leaves my mom and my counselor speechless. I have had all of the problems listed above in my life. I have a habit of not holding back my opinions when I know something is wrong or if I’m trying to express a different understanding to people. But my kindness is one of my Achilles heels even though I have been physically and/or mentally hurt by others. I still have a hard time accepting who I am and wish I were someone else. But what REALLY frustrates me is that I know I have so much knowledge in my head yet it feels like I am unable to unlock it thus I just get frustrated. I also have a problem with seeing life in a third… Read more »
great to seee something written about od soul….. :-)
Amazing, so true.
I have/or am currently experiencing all 10 of the problems listed above. I feel as though I have been “pushed” to learn and face a lot of problems in my 21 years of life (fast tracked, compared to other Old Souls). I was experiencing Existential Crises for the past year (but it was most intense for the last 2 months). I was angry about the “sweatshops” that made workers work 18 hour shifts with little pay, the meat industry that cared about profits rather than animal welfare, caged eggs and the lie of “free range eggs”, which the chickens live in barns with very little space to move. The diary industry, which impregnates cows every year so they produce the maximum amount of milk possible, the government and powerful sponsors which secretly control the media and news. BUT especially the people who know /or are too ignorant to care about “sweatshops” and the “meat industry”. It saddens me to see the world so corrupt and money hungry. I am currently overcoming this by recently finding my soul purpose and trying my best to make this a reality. My guardian angels have lead me to start a project which will help… Read more »