Wisened beyond their years. Unexpectedly insightful. Worldly. However you explain it, you know when you encounter an old soul. You see, the funny thing about wisdom is the fact that it doesn’t always have a direct correlation to age. For some people, wisdom is just as much of a trait as hair color. These “old souls” are a beautiful part of the universe. They are also extremely easy to fall madly in love with. Old souls are easier to connect with. They are the kind of people that you know for 5 minutes and feel like you’ve spent a lifetime with them. Just like these wonderful minds are different from most people you’ve ever met, loving them is its own unique experience. If you, like me, find yourself drawn to someone who is what you’d consider an old soul, here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to loving them, as well as being loved by them.
Throw your own expectations out the window
Your picture of “love”, as you personally define it, is probably not going to be the same as someone with an old soul. You want a fairy tale, and they know that they don’t exist. Love comes in as many forms and fashions as any other emotion, and not every situation fits into a box that someone else has created. This is important to keep in mind because you might be expecting a reaction or a situation that just isn’t coming. Be patient, and look for the little things that define a true, deep, experienced love. Things like going out of their way to make you a simple, maybe even bad, cup of coffee in the morning instead of going to Starbucks are super important signs of affection from an old soul type of lover.
They pick their battles wisely
If you are someone that likes to argue, I can tell you now – without a shred of doubt that an “old soul” is not for you. One of the greatest traits of wisdom is knowing how to pick your battles, and old souls do it better than most. They have a very firm grasp on what matters and what is just noise. That principle gets applied to everything in their lives, including relationships. You might think something is important and needs to be discussed at length, meanwhile your old soul partner just brushes it off. This isn’t an attempt at brushing you off, it is their way of de-escalating something that isn’t important. I know that sounds calloused, but the truth is – in the end, those moments spent worrying and discussing something unimportant are moments that could be spent loving each other and being happy.
There is a difference between loyal and faithful
Although loyalty and being faithful sound like the same thing on the surface, they aren’t. You don’t have to have sex with someone to cheat. Emotional cheating is a real thing to someone with an old soul. Loyalty is a bond. Being faithful is a moral obligation.
They love hard (for good or bad)
Old souls, when they do love someone, they love hard. They love completely. They are smart enough to know that love can be the equivalent of jumping off of an airplane with a chute that someone else packed, and they still fling themselves into thin air. For an old soul, love isn’t something that you do at 3/4 speed. You’ve got to be prepared for that leap because once it’s made, you can’t un-jump. In their minds, the options have been weighed, the potential outcomes measured, and something in them is telling them that this is the right choice.
Quick to forgive, but not to forget
Finally, keep this one thing in mind above all else: forgiveness doesn’t have anything to do with memory. Old souls are typically harder to hurt because part of having an old soul is usually a heightened level of emotional intelligence. They are very quick to forgive, but almost never forget. Don’t expect a third strike from an old soul. In fact, don’t expect a second in most cases. That same wisdom that makes someone an old soul in your eyes is the same wisdom that they rely on to spot patterns of behavior. This doesn’t mean you have to tiptoe around on eggshells with an old soul, it just means that if you’re not what they want – you’ll know pretty much immediately.