Soulmates

Re: Elizabeth Gilbert's definition ::

“A true soul mate is probably the most important person you’ll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave. A soul mate’s purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, and make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life.”

When someone is so similar to you (in freakishly odd small ways) it causes you to be shocked into understanding yourself a little bit better (if you're at all aware of personal habits, etc) This sudden need to look deeper into oneself is a form of challenging oneself. The process of examination usually causes change, because you see things you like and don't like.
The soulmate (of that particular instance, in my opinion there are multiple soul mates, coming at different stages) is still around, of course... and so their continued presence responds to such changes.
The soulmate is also someone who cares about you deeply, and so they look upon these new choices with caring judgement and a sort of concern. The soulmate and you have an instinctual connection, which has built trust - usually you trust these comments - but being linked to a soulmate doesn't mean one loses critical thinking ability. The trust and joyful companionship actually boosts it and creativity in a positive way. So in a long term context the bonding of soulmates helps restore self.
In the short term, the ones that come and go, we learn things of ourselves less completely and aren't given time to respond, but we are given a mirror with which we look upon who we are, because they see you past all the garbage that gets in the way. They show you both what you are, undeniably, and what you can be.
These people are the inspiring ones that in a day-to-day tell us they'll miss us when we go, that "because of what we did/said they'll never look at something the same way", and the ones who say the things that are EXACTLY what we hoped someone would say about us someday...and mean it.

Without soulmates we would never change, we would never learn truly, and we could never experience love completely.

I'm not certain I've always let my soulmates in, in fact I know i'm a hard egg to crack. But I've met these people, that have broken my boundaries and told me to run, at any cost.

There are people that from the minute I meet them I KNOW I was supposed to meet them. Then it's up to me to keep up contact, be equally open, and listen to them.

We all are someone's soulmate (many people's, infact). but it's a duty for us to recognize.


Peace,
Jude.