Soulmates, Soul Groups And Soul Contracts
I find that many people in the spiritual and metaphysical communities are looking for their ‘soulmate.’ So what is a soulmate? What does this term mean to you?
A soulmate is often defined as the individual that we can completely resonate with, that we can truly love and that they truly love us back unconditionally. In reality, however, due to our humanness, this may not always be possible and then we may become obsessed with the search for a soulmate. In that search sadly we often miss truly wondrous opportunities to connect with love in the most unusual or unexpected places.
So, why do we fixate on soulmates? The reason is because we crave love. For the majority of people, the pinnacle of human connection is having achieved such a true, ultimate spiritual connection with another individual. It is what we attest to in the ceremony of marriage, the birth of a child, and so forth.
But maybe we should choose to expand our view of a soulmate as being an individual that we have the deepest admiration, respect, love and positive connection with. Then as we look around, with this new definition in mind, we will see that each of us has many, many soulmates.
We should change our paradigm from being one of soulmates having to be our intimate romantic relationship to that of being simply a deep, compassionate heartfelt connection. Then our relationships have the potential of attracting so much more, including the pinnacle connection of true love. Soulmates available to you abound throughout the world. Your universal connection can be instantaneously expanded beyond your wildest belief.
Context, Context, Context
In the sales and marketing field they often talk of ‘location, location, location’ (no matter how good your product or service is, how successful you are often comes down to location). Perhaps in our communication with others we should think of context, context, and context?
We have entered a period of time in the world that communication is misconstrued, even fake and has more opportunities to be interpreted as confrontational, biased, and not politically correct.
On top of that put an individual’s personal style of communication – introvert, extrovert, analytical, emotional subjective and all the other styles, and the matter becomes more thorny.
Then, add even another layer, such as email and social media, which does not involve the other person being face-to-face.
Now communication becomes even more complex, because body language and the human expression energetically is not a resource available to us to can pick up on the subtle options for interpretation. We will initially respond to the email from our frame of reference, and our reference alone, which is biased by our experiences.
So what do we do? Well, we recognize the importance of ourselves being energy vibration, through which our body communicates consciously and subconsciously with everything in our environment. We acknowledge that our emotions, beliefs and thoughts are complex, inter-connected and influence each situational response in our communication.
The Difference Between Soul Rescue And Soul Retrieval
In shamanic and spiritual traditions, soul recovery practices are based on the understanding that a person’s soul essence or ‘life force’ can become fragmented or lost due to trauma.
While these two shamanic arts are closely related and often assumed to be the same practcie, they refer to different contexts of healing. There is a subtle, but key difference.
Soul retrieval is the most common term used in modern shamanism and it is based on the idea of soul loss.
When a person experiences a severe physical or emotional trauma, such as an accident, abuse, grief, or a difficult breakup, a part of their vital essence may abandon the body to survive the experience. This is essentially a spiritual survival mechanism, similar to dissociation in psychology.
This disassociation might be related to the trauma of a car accident or extreme injury, or perhaps a memory of a time in someone’s life when an attribute of their soul felt threatened or fearful.
Other typical examples include physical, sexual or emotional abuse as a child; a feeling of abandonment after the death of a relative; financial ruin; nearly dying; or loss of a job.
Someone suffering from this kind of soul loss might feel “spaced out,” numb, incomplete, or like they are watching their life from the sidelines. Chronic depression or a sense that “I haven’t been the same” since the traumatic event are common indicators.
Remember To Treasure The Living Years
Many of us attach personal meaning to songs. Perhaps it is a song played at your wedding, or a family member’s favorite tune, or something meaningful from your childhood years.
Psychics often have songs come to mind during readings, or we find they are playing on the car radio after we were just thinking of that special family member or friend. We then take that as a sign that they are watching over us and that they had just stepped in from the Spirit side of life to make their presence know.
These songs can be the triggers for memories that we once treasured, or continue to treasure, or to remind you how precious and loved you are.
For me Ave Maria and Unchained Melody (from the Ghost movie during the pottery making scene) are songs that I have attached over the years to my mother’s presence. Ave Maria because that was one of her favorite songs. When she was younger she apparently sang it on stage a few times in Vienna.
I never did get to hear her sing it, but family said it was incredible. Later in life, when I found this out, she said her voice had broken and would not sing it for me. I often tried to imagine how great it must have been to hear her sing, as I looked at her picture.
Always Remember That You Are Enough
You are enough. If only, as we grew up, we had heard more such words, even if there was an additional “… and yet strive for more”.
The fact is we were raised in a world where competition is prevalent; where our insecurities are often emphasized to us, or used as leverage (intentionally or otherwise); where our personal beliefs about ourselves potentially delays our soul evolution.
As partners in the Universe we say to ourselves, “Everything has a reason, we each have a soul purpose, all is in Divine Order.”
Yet, when a tragedy or life shattering moment hits, we are so intimately impacted that we have to dig deep to console ourselves and try to reframe that that tragedy has a Divine purpose, and that you have enough and are enough in that moment.
Perhaps such a life event is the loss of a family member, a loving relationship, job, pet, or a financial crisis, or any other life-changing event. Our faith in Divinity may keep us going, but it does not change the fact that we are deeply grieved by this loss.
Our ego will bring up all sorts of emotions, including anger, grief, betrayal, denial, hatred and many other emotions. You may espouse such things as, “Why them why not me” or “I feel cheated” and “How could this happen”.
In our Divine space, devoid of analytical ego, we know in our heart this experience is for our soul growth path and those closely connected with us, but that is still hard to face.
The Magicless Misery Of ‘Compare And Despair’
I once attended a Toastmasters meeting where a gentleman was delivering his first speech to this specific group. It was an ice breaker to have us get acquainted with him. Instead of the typical short autobiographical introduction this speaker chose to give us an overview of his philosophy of life.
He told his audience that he sees himself entering a new phase of his life right now. He spoke about how important it is to get to know yourself and to take care of yourself first and foremost, and to always live in the moment.
After the speech and applause, the toastmaster reflected briefly on what the talk meant to him as he had listened. He said it reminded him of a mentor who had once, many years ago, said to him, “Compare… and despair”. If in life you are constantly comparing yourself to others, or comparing what you have with what others have, or what you feel you lack, or need to achieve, then all that will do is bring yourself unnecessary despair.
The only thing you should ever compare yourself against, his mentor added, is yesterday. Today did you do something constructive or grow in some way that makes you a better person than you were yesterday?
Too often we compare ourselves with our peers, both in our personal and professional lives. Why did he get a raise and not me? Why can I not find a soulmate like she did? Why can’t I be a successful entrepreneur like him? How come they get to have all these wonderful vacations?
False Education Appearing Real (F.E.A.R)
I love the acronym F.E.A.R. (False Education Appearing Real) since we all have people, circumstances, phobias and so forth, that can put us into that space.
Fear is an instance of emotion that is triggered by the awareness, or anticipation of danger. It can also become a state of being. Excluding clinical fears, needing professional help, there are many fears we simply impose upon ourselves as a result of life experiences.
One of my fears is acrophobia, the fear of heights. When I get within five feet from the edge of a rooftop, I begin to shake.
Climbing 30 foot ladders has me nervous and when I hiked to the pinnacle of the mountain of Macchu Picchu in 2004, I could not take those last six nervous steps onto the plateau pinnacle rock. This was partly being due to a few other tourists already sharing the rock… and I am a little “accident prone.”
Although I was invited by my partner and the guide, I leaned against the rock debating my fear, shaking a little at the prospect and wishing that I could take those final steps, as I might regret it after I hiked down. Part of me did regret not taking those last steps when we got back to the base.
Yet, a bigger part of me knew I had to acknowledge the feelings in the moment, and since I am not a regular exerciser, I already had accomplished something tremendous by taking the hike to the top and back down the back side of the mountain. On the way I enjoyed the magnificent views and spiritual energy for several hours. Continue reading