Soul Plans and the Choices We Make

This post is part of our new monthly column from Alicia Young. Read her first post on soul planning HERE.

What are life themes?

While on the Other Side, I observed that we choose overarching themes as a primary learning ground this time around. Common themes include Self Worth, Leadership, Activist, or Emotional Independence. But while these broad terms might hint at the lessons within, they are also very nuanced. 

For example, a Life Theme of Leadership will not automatically present endless opportunities to lead. Nor will it promise an unending series of progressive success in formal leadership roles. It might mean settings where we experience working or living under poor leadership, which in turn shows us the type of leader we wish to be. These encounters shape our roles, whether in family life, at school or at work. 

Life Themes can show up and unfold in unexpected ways. For example, consider a ‘Winner’ life theme, in which a person seems to enjoy every conceivable advantage in life. A prime example would be children of celebrities or world leaders. We might see these people and assume life is golden, completely without struggle. Yet if we drew the curtain, we might find someone who struggles to emerge from the shadow of a famous parent. They might feel their identity is defined only in relation to another. And amid their vast privilege, their problems are mocked. 

Whatever we design as a Life Theme in our Soul Plans, I do not believe we automatically have to struggle with that theme until we take our last breath. The Universe is always watching, and genuinely celebrates our efforts. And of course, our free will underpins not only our plans, but our lives.

Photo by Jake Hills

What are soul contracts?

Let’s move from the general to the specific. If Life Themes provide the broad strokes of our Soul Plans, then Soul Contracts infuse the detail. In short, Soul Contracts are agreements we make with other souls for our mutual spiritual growth. 

Let’s imagine that you arrived here to work on a Life Theme of Self Worth. You want to discover and truly understand what it means to develop self-love and self-compassion. This is not an exercise in ego, but in celebrating your worth among others. 

You always have a choice. You might choose to arrive in a family of natural cheerleaders who praise your every move; that sounds lovely—but would you be coasting? Imagine instead that you ask your mother to help you build and strengthen your Self Worth muscle. You asked her to be generally loving toward you, but also somewhat critical. In fact, imagine that you ask her (before you each arrive here) to sharply question your life choices at critical junctures? Perhaps she agrees to use tools such as sarcasm, or guilt or brute verbal force to belittle who you marry, if you marry at all? Or perhaps she will question your choice of career, or whether you travel or settle down.

In each interaction, your Soul Contract is playing out. You are gifted a choice as you are mothered by soul playing your parent: you can acquiesce to her opinions or demands, or you rise above them, defining yourself on your own terms, rather than by someone else.

In this sense, it can take the sting out of painful relationships to consider them through the prism of Soul Plans. What if this relationship is through your design, and the person is simply playing a role you asked them to assume? 

I’ve been reading about soul groups. What if I die, and then return home only to find that my loved ones have headed off again on another soul plan?

That’s a great question, and a natural concern. With respect, I don’t believe it happens that way. When we make Soul Contracts to be in each other’s lives, we see it through to the end. Even if a relationship appears to recede or end altogether here on earth, we don’t lose that connection at a soul level. 

Naturally, each of us will return home at different times, at different ages and stages, and amid different circumstances. But it is a pivotal part of the ‘spiritual debrief’ that we joyfully ensure we gather to learn from our shared experience.

Why come here at all? And why come back?

Fair question. My understanding is that first and foremost, it is always, always our choice to come at all. I believe that our free will allows us to be born here once, or not all (in which case we would evolve, slowly but surely, through different spiritual realms).  

So why would a soul choose to come not once, but many times? 

From the perspective of eternity, a human life is the blink of an eye. It can be as simple but as potent as that; we know that whatever we plan to pack into our upcoming life, we will be back on the Other Side before we know it. Add to that, we design our Soul Plans amid astounding depths of love, support and non-judgment. Our angels and guides provide such soul-stirring care, it’s little wonder that we feel emboldened to plan moments of high drama, deep joy and equally deep pain as we seek to “Bring it on!”.

I hope that might reassure you, and perhaps make the prospect of multiple lifetimes a bit less daunting. 

ALICIA YOUNG

Alicia Young is an Australian broadcast journalist and author who met her guardian angel at age three. She has written six awarding-winning nonfiction books (and is working on her seventh title). The latest, Visit from Heaven: A Soul’s Message of Love, Loss & Family recounts a transformative experience in which she met the soul of a little boy on the Other Side. Today, she speaks and consults on Soul Plans around the world, both privately and to groups (often virtually, in a Covid-19 world). Learn more at www.soulplans.net. Alicia welcomes your questions at: [email protected] (her central email address). This column does not seek to substitute professional support.