367: Understanding Soul Contracts with Sahara Rose

Namaste, it's Sahara Rose. And welcome back to the Highest Self Podcast, a place to discuss what makes you your soul's highest evolvement. And before we get started, I would love to share with you a new opportunity that is on the horizon, and that is for you to become a certified Dharma Coach. So if you've ever felt like maybe my purpose is to help others find their purpose and you're looking for a way to infuse your spirituality to be part of your career, then you are the perfect Dharma coach. So I'm so excited to introduce to you Dharma Coaching Institute, the world's first and only accredited certification for you to become a Dharma coach as well as a spiritual life coach. We will be teaching you everything you need to make a career for yourself, where you are supporting others in finding and actualizing their purpose and finding balance and integration in all other areas of their life. Because, as you know, our purpose is so much greater than what we do, but it's also who we are. So doors are open right now to join us at Dharma Coaching Institute. And class begins May 10th. If you'd love more information to get started, head over to dharmacoachinginstitute.com again, that's dharmacoachinginstitute.Com you'll find all the information there and be able to hop on a call with an enrollment advisor to answer any of of your questions. I am so excited to meet you Inside Again, it's dharmacoachinginstitute.com and you can find that link in the show notes. Now let's get started with this episode. If it is your first time listening, welcome. I am so grateful that you are here. I'm your new spiritual bestie, here to bring all of the multi dimensional realms to you in a really easy to understand and digest way. Because you know what? This spiritual journey is meant to be fun and easy. So let's get started with this episode because I was just thinking about soul contracts in my own life and then I was like, you know, what do the highest self podcast listeners know about soul contracts? I feel like it's this term that gets thrown around a lot in spirituality. Like my soul contract with him was complete, or I feel like I'm done with the soul contract on this job, et cetera. I hear it a lot, at least in my world, but I realized I've never heard an explanation about it. My understanding of soul contracts, like many of yours, is intuitive. And when we can feel a soul contract in our lives, we can understand what it Is. But unless we've really had that feeling, it can be hard to determine what is a soul contract and what is not. And if you're new to spirituality, you may have not even heard this term, but maybe hearing the word soul and contract together, you're like, wait, what? My soul has a contract with. With who? With God? Like, what's happening? So I wanted to break it down. And again, with any type of spirituality, there's no one way, no set in stone or wrong. So I am explaining my understanding of soul contracts not from any book, but from how spirit is showing them to me and from my own experiences with soul contracts, especially working in spirituality for the past 11 years or so. So when I tap into the frequency of a soul contract, I think the word contract in our English definition is a really intense word and not necessarily the best word to put upon it. When I think of the frequency of just the word contract, I think of an obligation, something that's very human made, something that is forced, something that doesn't come naturally, something that you signed upon that may no longer be true for you anymore, but because you signed upon it, you have to agree to this thing. I think of a lot of legal institutions, even marriage is a contract. Business deals are a contract. So the word contract on itself is not a very high frequency word. And I don't really believe it is the best word even for this term. However, it is the word that people have been using. So I will. I will use it that way now when people speak into soul contracts, and when I speak into it, my understanding, and I think what most people's understanding is, it's a period of time that your soul has decided to be a part of some type of partnership or experience. And these soul contracts can be in about three, four different ways. And even more than that, the first way are with jobs, careers, elements of our dharma, our soul's purpose. So, for example, with my own soul contract, I, because of past lives, being an ancient Rishi, which is an ancient Ayurvedic scholar in ancient India, many thousands of years ago, I came back in this lifetime knowing that it was part of my dharma, part of my soul's purpose, to bring Ayurveda back into the world and to make it relatable and feminine and approachable and really give it back to the people. And this is because I actually have a memory in my past life of being amongst the other men. I was at man in this life, the other Rishis, and it was getting very religious and it was really separating from the earth wisdom. And I said, I'm going to come back in a lifetime as a full powered female and bring Ayurveda back to the people. And that is what part of this lifetime for me is about. So that's what brought me on my journey to becoming very sick. Going to through perimenopause, basically my body totally shutting down, being told I would be handicapped by the time I'm 50 years old because I had no more estrogen in my body, being told I would never be able to have children, not being able to digest food without being in severe pain, and going to many different doctors who prescribed me everything from antidepressants to hormone replacement therapy. I went on this journey of self healing which brought me to Ayurveda. So this was the beginning of my soul contract with Ayurveda in this lifetime. Again, that was my introduction. I had to get sick, I had to need the healing to then become the healer, to become even interested in this thing, because I was on a whole different career path to become an international human rights lawyer. So that was the beginning of my soul contract with Ayurveda. And then I wrote my first book, then my second book, Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda. Then Eat, Feel Fresh and created courses and shared Ayurveda, you know, thousands upon thousands of times on podcasts and courses and stages and seminars and everything you could ever imagine. And I did this consistently every single day of my life, all day, until I was about 28 years old. So about seven years was the soul contract. And it's interesting because the number seven is a very, it's a highly auspicious number and oftentimes we go through life cycles in seven year periods of time. So this actually was a seven year period of time for me of fully devoting my life to Ayurveda and then feeling like there was something more. So the beginning of the soul contract, it's harder to tell because you're just following the flow, you're following your interests, you're being guided there. However, the end of the soul contract is often easier to distinguish when you're in tune with yourself. So for me, the end of that soul contract felt like I was getting really sick of repeating myself over and over and over again because, you know, I was being asked the exact same questions. What is Ayurveda? What are the doshas? What do they eat? What are they? This, that. And while I love, loved it and am still to this day passionate about it, I could feel that there was something More for me to dive into and discuss. And I really looked at my life, and if this is it, every single day, I'm just having this exact same conversation over and over and over and over and over again. I won't be happy, you know? And it's interesting because sometimes we think, like, we're gonna live our dharma, and then we got it all figured out, and we're gonna just do this thing forever, and our life is made, and it's not that way. That's why I teach in my book, discover your Dharma in my courses at Dharma Coaching Institute. I that discovering your dharma is like a mountain range. And you get to that first peak, that first summit, and you know you've never climbed a mountain before. You don't know if you can do it. You don't even know if the summit exists. You don't have the right shoes. You don't have the right tools. You don't know how to sink your breath. You're learning these things for the first time. And then you get to the top of that mountain and you realize it's a mountain range. And it continues to deepen and deepen and deepen as you further understand yourself and further understand your truth. So for me, Ayurveda was really that first expression of me living my dharma and giving basically my entire 20s to that. However, when I started to feel, oh, I'm not feeling excited to go on this podcast and talk about it again, I am feeling like. Like have this, like, rehearsed thing that I have to just keep saying. And I feel like I'm not really using my creativity. And there's so many other things I want to discuss more about spirituality, past lives, healing, purpose, divine, feminine, all of these other facets. But I felt like I was known or expected to speak about Ayurveda that I couldn't. I couldn't change because that was what was expected of me. However, when I started to share more about these other things. And by the way, this is why I began Highest Self Podcast. I was actually 26 years old when I started the podcast, so four years ago, but this was one. I really created this as an outlet for me to talk about other things besides Ayurveda. So that was really the beginning of me sharing about more things around spirituality and opening up from just fully focused on the soul contract. And as I was sharing more and more about these other areas, I was getting more momentum towards that. So then the soul contract I could feel was, like, starting to close and close and close itself until I Reached a point that I said, I'm done doing interviews and teaching on Ayurveda. I'm going to put all of my information here in this course, and I'm going to give my focus onto other things. So that is an example of a soul contract. When it comes to a career dharma role project for you. It could look like you were a wedding planner for many, many years, and you love doing it. But then suddenly you became resentful of all the obligations you had to do. Or maybe because of COVID you couldn't do it anymore. It made you realize that you didn't even love doing it. You just never felt the same excitement for it that you felt at the beginning. And it felt like there's something else greater for you, but you don't know what it is. Or, for example, writing a book. You know, when you're writing a book, you're fully focused on that task. You're giving your all. You're giving all of your energy. And sometimes you may feel like the soul contract is done, but the book is not finished. So you got to keep continuing and committing and devoting yourself to the book. But once that book is out into the world, you may feel my soul contract is done with that subject. I'm ready to move on. So really, the energy of the contract being complete is the. This feeling that the faucet is no longer running anymore. The same creativity, inspiration, insight, devotion that I had for it no longer is there. And now it feels like I have to force it. Now I'm becoming a bit resentful for it. Now I feel like there's something else for me, but I'm stuck doing this thing now. Some people's soul contracts are done with things, and they don't let go. You know, I could have very easily just stuck with Ayurveda for the rest of my life. Many people do that, and many people love it. But for me, I. Because I'm in tuned with myself and what's right for me, I could feel that this isn't just it. Ayurveda is maybe how I start my career, but it's not my entire career. And my last book, discover your Dharma, is on purpose. And my other books will be about other topics as well. So know that if you are being guided to something else that is for a reason. It's not a coincidence that perhaps your soul contract with that role, with that project is complete. Perhaps you were meant to affect a specific number of people's lives or bring it to a unique demographic or create Some type of project that can live on without you. You know, for example, maybe you created a brand of candles, and it's this really beautiful, sustainable brand of candles that bring so much joy and beauty to the world. And you could feel your soul contract with it is complete. You're no longer excited about it. But there are other people who may be very excited about running this candle company. So you can pass it along to someone else, which is that root chakra phase of your dharma that I write about in Discover your Dharma, when you pass the torch along to someone else, and that opens up space for the next iteration of your dharma. So it really feels like the faucet is like, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And you have to have the courage to turn it off, trusting that another faucet will open up for you. Now, soul contract and friendships. This is one that we don't really talk about in our society. You know, when we enter a relationship, there is an understanding that a relationship may end. The term breakup is everyone knows it. Everyone's experienced a breakup at some point of their lives, most likely. So we understand that romantic relationships, there is a high chance of them ending unless they are the person that we end up marrying and staying with for the rest of our lives. So we have rituals, we have understanding around breakups, but we don't have them around friendships. But friendships also adhere to social contracts. There may be certain people in your life that are meant to be in your life for a season and others for a reason. You know, I think that's a funny saying that people say, but it's true. Some people are meant to be in your life to teach you a specific lesson. And once that lesson is learned or it got you to a certain place, then that friendship may no longer be serving both of you. So, for example, let's say you have a friend that you met when you were really going through a dark time, and. And she really supported you at this time. And then you were able to feel so much better about yourself, and then you were able to support her, and you guys really were allies on each other's healing paths. But then maybe when you've healed and you've gathered other interests, the friendship is no longer needed. Maybe your friendship was there to support each other in that dark time, but now that you have healed, that friendship is no longer needed. And maybe you can even both mutually feel that. But one of you is afraid because, you know, friendships aren't supposed to end. And it's weird, and it feels like a failure, and it feels awkward. Like something's wrong. So oftentimes we keep holding onto a friendship even though it's not serving us. I'm sure many of us could think about friends that we had in high school. You know, we really deeply connected at that season in our lives and really valued and needed each other. But then maybe you went off to college or you moved or you shifted and then you try to hold on to that friendship and sometimes that friend in you, even though you change, you continue to remain in touch. But for other friends it's not that case and it's okay, it's okay to let each other go and know that you played the role that you need to play in each other's lives. I think sometimes it gets tricky when one person feels like the soul contract is complete and another person does not. Sometimes it's the more self aware person that realizes it. It's the person who's like, wait, this conversation feels kind of forced. Or you know, we aren't really jiving the way that we used to and I don't really want to spend my time in conversations or scenarios that aren't serving me, that aren't exciting for me. I don't, I only have so much free time. I don't really want to give it to things that feel like so much work. So you may have had that realization around your friend, but your friend may may be someone who's very, very loyal and you know, more of that kapha, that earth energy. They don't want to give up. They feel like it's hurtful for them for everything that you, they've done for you to let go of the friendship. So you may feel some guilt around moving on because you feel need to be there forever. So sometimes it is that more self aware person who can feel the soul contract is complete and the other person may be holding on because they may have an identity around the friendship or a belief that friendships ending make them a bad or unlovable person. And again, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's a mutual decision. And sometimes, you know, someone may leave the friendship and come back later on. Just because friendships fade out, it doesn't mean that they're totally finished. Maybe your sole contract requires required you to be each other's lives in your early 20s and then you shifted apart. And then in your mid-30s you came together when you had kids and you were able to connect on a different level, whereas in your twenties maybe you were in totally different career paths. So it's hard for you to connect. So it doesn't mean that it's a finite, that the contract is done and that's it. People do weave and out in and out of each other's lives sometimes, but it is important to not force yourself to be in a friendship. Of course, if someone is going through a rough time and it's temporary and they need our support, and even though it doesn't feel fun in the moment, they're going through a hard time, it is important to be there for our friends. However, if this is just an ongoing thing or it's an identity shift, and it's just really not in either of your best interest to be in this friendship, then that may be the time to honor that that soul contract is complete. And you can, you know, there's so many ways of doing so. You can either have a conversation depending on, on how tight you guys were. You know, if you guys were best friends and you're feeling like the soul contract is complete, then it may be great to have a con. And if they're not spiritual or they don't resonate with the word soul contract, you could just share how you feel. You could just share how it feels. Just doesn't feel the same or whatever feels true for you. But some friendships do require a conversation around. You know, I don't even like the term friendship breakup because it's not necessarily an end, it's just. It's just a re. Coordination. Or if it's someone that you kind of knew you weren't really friends with, but you guys would see each other sometimes, but just something really isn't landing right with you about them, then that may just be your opportunity to focus on friends that you are excited about or do want to learn more about and are allowing you to blossom into your highest self. Now, soul contracts also happen for relationships. And in relationships, I think that this is the way that we really can see them the most clearly. Because relationships really teach us so many lessons. They're so embedded with truths about ourselves, with our blind spots, with our shadows, with our wounds, with our traumas, with our hopes, hopes, fears all ingrained into, you know, a one on one relationship that really activates all dormant energies within yourself. So relationships are a really beautiful way to learn about yourself. The beauty and also the shadows. So with soul contracts and relationships, it's tricky because we live in a society that we're kind of trained as kids that every single person should try to be the one. Like, like if this person's not the one, just go, leave them alone, move on. Because we need to just find the one. And I remember as a kid I would definitely watch these Disney movies etc and dream about my wedding and my husband and this was like the highlight of my life. And you know, for many of us, especially as feminine beings, we do have this deep yearning to be reunited with our divine masculine, which is very normal and healthy. However, we also must understand that not every relationship in our life is going to be the one. Because I mean, if you even think about the term the one means there's only one of them. And most people in today's day and age are not going to only be in relationship with one person their entire lives. And you know, some people do marry their middle school or high school sweetheart and remain married forever. But I would say that's probably less than, than, you know, 0.1% of the population. So we must open up to the possibilities that there are different soul contracts. So you may have entered into a relationship with someone and like I mentioned, the beginning of a soul contract, it's harder to see. You may just have met someone, they may have been a friend of yours. You may have been circling around their sphere for a while, or you may have just matched with them on social media, on Bumble or something. So you don't really know like I'm entering into a soul contract. It's just like you're following the fun, you're following the excitement, you're following the joy. And you may start dating and things are flowing and things are can be moving really fast or feeling really open and easy. And you may enter into a relationship or it may not even be an official relationship. It could just be you're in each other's lives and it, it may be for a weekend and it's just that weekend that the soul contract needed. You may have just needed to support each other in some sort of way that weekend or have some type of experience or romance or bliss or whatever it looked like, or maybe it was a week or a month or a year or 10 years, or 20 years, or 50 years or a hundred years. You know, soul contracts that have so many different lengths and shapes and forms and it's not that one is better than another. I tend to find that relationships or love interests are woven into our path by spirit to bring us to places that we may not have gone on our own. So for example, let's say you were thinking about moving to Costa Rica and it's something that you didn't feel like you could ever do on your own. You wouldn't really feel safe Doing it. But maybe you met this man and you guys entered into a relationship and it was really beautiful. And his dream was also to move to Costa Rica. So you guys both moved to Costa Rica together and started this beautiful life there. And then maybe after some time you realize that this relationship is not, not right for you guys, or maybe one of you realized it or another. So it may feel like, you know, the 3D world that we're in may be like, oh my God, what a failure. Like, that sucks. You moved to Costa Rica with someone and then you guys broke up. However, on a spiritual five dimensional level, we could see you needed to get to Costa Rica and that relationship gave you the feeling of safety, of partnership, of support to get there. And then once you were there and you felt grounded and rooted and you had a home and you knew this was right for you, the soul contract was complete, it was no longer needed. So you didn't need to be in each other's lives any longer. So this is a beautiful example of how spirit works to support us through romantic partnerships to actually get us to where we belong on our soul path. Or for another example, maybe you went on a retreat for a week in Bali or India or somewhere and you felt really hesitant about the retreat. You were a little bit scared, you were going by yourself, you weren't really sure. And then when you were there, you met someone and you and this person are really diving deep. You're diving into the practices and you now feel so much more open to learn and receive and dive into this information now that you're in this, even if it's a one week long romantic partnership, but having that there allowed you to feel so much more comfortable and dive deeper into what it was that you were studying. And then when the retreat is done, the soul contract may be done as well. Perhaps you stay in touch, you remain in each other's lives forever. Perhaps you stay in touch and you fade out of each other's lives. Or perhaps you don't and you could feel that was what it needed to be and you move on. So again, it doesn't mean it's a failure or you wasted your time, or why did I open my heart for someone if they weren't the one? You just needed that experience to be with this person that week, for you to fully dive into your own practice. So in relationships too, they can help us in so many ways activate different parts of ourselves that we may not have on our own or could have taken us much longer. We may have a soul contract with Someone that required us to learn how to speak our truth or how to require us to be strong or stand up for ourselves. Or we may have had one that opened up our hearts and allowed us to receive or allowed to us us to be more in our feminine. You know, they can look in so many different shapes, ways and forms. And the beauty of them is they're always there to support us. They're always there to ignite our paths and make our lives more beautiful. And sometimes to make our life more beautiful, it does require this harsh letting go. You know, for example, maybe you were engaged to someone and everything felt right and looked right on paper. But then closer and closer to the wedding, you could feel, you know what? I'm not the same person as I was when I entered into a relationship with this person. And I feel like it's holding me back from who I'm meant to become. And even though everything feels right and our families expect us to get married and our friends are entwined and all of these things, this doesn't feel right for me. So you can feel that that soul contract is done, even if that marriage contract hasn't even begun. So it takes immense strength for you to walk away from that, to honor what it was and trust that if you are feeling it right now, it's only going to get louder and louder and louder until you do something. Now, again, does this mean every single time we feel uncomfortable that, oh, it's a soul contract being complete? No. Absolutely not. You know, I'm in a marriage. I'm married. I've been with my husband for six years, and I was definitely, you know, a different person when I met him, when I was 24 years old. But I am still actively choosing this relationship. Even if I met him today, I would still choose him. And even though I'm shifting and even though there may be times that we need to communicate, times that different experiences may come up, I can feel that the soul contract is not complete because I still want to be with him and I still want to grow. So it's important for us to also not use spiritual bypass every single time things get hard. To be like, soul contract complete, get out of my face. You know, oftentimes you don't actually feel the soul contract is complete in conflict. You feel it when things are going fine and you still don't feel complete. That's really when you can feel the soul contract is done. Because when there's conflict, of course, you know you're going to feel intense in every single way. However, when Things are fine, but you still are wondering, is this really it? There has to be something more. I don't know if I could go on like this. That is how you know the soul contract may be complete. So know that sometimes it's difficult to speak your truth when a soul contract is complete, but you really do owe it to yourself and that other person to be honest, because no one will want to be in a relationship with someone who doesn't truly want to be in a relationship with them. And also note that soul contracts can exist in many other ways. Another type of soul contract is moving or living in a certain place. So, for example, in my own life, I moved to India. I started traveling back and forth to India when I was in college, and I moved there after college for two years. And I still love India so much. It is my soul's home. However, I could feel, especially that second year of living there, that it wasn't the right place for me. I needed to live in a place that I had a lot more freedom, that I felt more safe to travel around as a young female on her own. And I wanted to be around lush nature and ecstatic dance and conscious community and the ocean. And where I was living in New Delhi, India, was definitely not that. So I was trying to figure out how I can make it work, how I could make it work. And then I started to get really sick and I didn't really have the same energy to do things and I was sort of isolating myself from everyone. And I remember one time I got really bad food poisoning there and I was just so in and out of consciousness, you know how really, really bad food poisoning is. And I looked out of the window and I saw a peacock staring back at me. And this is in the middle of New Delhi, India, which is a very big city. And there is a peacock outside of my window. And I just looked at that peacock and I knew it was a message for me that my soul contract with Delhi at this time was complete and it was time for me to spread my wings and to move on. So that is when I bought a one way ticket to Bali, where I ended up staying for the next six months and radically shifting my life and who I am. And for those of you who know my story, you know what happens next. And if you don't, you can listen to other podcast episodes. But the feeling of that soul contract being complete was. Was finally becoming clear to me when I saw it reflected to me in that peacock. However, I could feel the soul contract was complete when I was getting sick when I was isolating myself, when I didn't have the energy, all of these different things that were my body shutting down. But then it took an actual animal to show up for me in spirit form to show me, spread your wings and fly. So sometimes you may have animals show up for you. You may have angel numbers, you may have beautiful synchronicities, coincidences, you may have an intuitive instinct or something show up for you in a meditation or breath work. So really honor that. And the more that you have your sacred practices, the more you open yourself up to receive and channel, the more that you will feel. What are your soul contracts that you're in right now and which soul contracts are completing? And really the more important part is what soul contracts are completing. Because if you're in a soul contract and it's going well, then keep going for it. However, if it's the first thing you keep stressing about and worrying about, or you catch yourself daydreaming about friendship breaking up, or romantically breaking up with this person, or leaving this town, or quitting this job, then most likely the solar contract has already ended and you are still holding on. And this happens so much in all of those examples. But I think in relationships, we could really feel it of. You could feel that relationship wasn't really right for you. You knew it. You knew it months before, but you kept trying to change the person. You kept trying to make it work. You kept trying to hold on or think things will maybe change. And then those very things that felt wrong get louder and louder and louder until it turns into a huge instance that you have no choice but to let go. It could look like cheating, or it could look like a really bad breakup or something else else. But deep down inside, you knew months and months or maybe even years before that that relationship was not right. Or in your career, you may have that anxious, anxious feeling, but you keep holding on and holding on until you get fired or until you have a panic attack at work or something like that happens. So it's important for us to honor those nudges and those intuitive feelings. And the more that we can connect with our intuition, the more we can can feel them when they are whispers so they don't have to get to those loud shouts, because those loud shouts are really uncomfortable and intense. And it's not that the world is out to get us, it's that we weren't listening, we weren't adjusting. So it had to get that loud for us to make a change. So I'm really Excited because this month in Rose Gold Goddesses, my membership community, I'm going to be sharing a circle specifically about how to open up to channel. So I will be sharing for the very first time and this is the only place that I share about spirituality in a in an actual like educational and closed container. So in this Opening to Channel circle, I'm going to be taking you through my practices to open up to channel from meditation to breath work to movement, automatic writing, journaling. And then you're actually going to get a chance to practice channeling with a small group of other people. Live on Zoom. So this is a really powerful experience if you are someone who does want to open up and channel, whether it is through through speaking, through writing, through voice, through music, through art, or just having more connectivity in your life. For me, my channeling is my greatest gift. That is how I am speaking here today with you, just looking out the window, letting it come through. That's how I've written my four books and how I live my life is by opening up to receive. So I'm very excited because for the first time I will be sharing how to Open to Channel with you in Rose Gold Goddesses. So if you are interested in joining us, head over to rosegoldgoddesses.com that link is in the show notes. You'll be able to join and as soon as you join as well, you'll have access to all of the other circles workshops and masterclasses that I have done. They are all available for you. So you will have really over $5,000 worth of spiritual content specifically curated for your evolvement as soon as you join us in Rose Gold Goddesses. Again, that link is is rosegoldgoddesses.com and I'm so excited to have you there. The circle is taking place May 2nd live on Zoom, so be sure to join us before then if you want to be on the Circle live and if not, you'll be able to access the replay after I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'm excited to see how this information will help you weave through the soul contracts in your life with more joy, ease, grace and flow. Thanks so much for listening. Namaste.