1. Wisdom comes at a steep price. And that price is experience.
2. Old souls are often born into families who don’t understand them. This, of course, is a tremendous growing tool (and really, only fellow old souls will ever ‘get’ each other fully) but it makes for a tumultuous upbringing. Those formative years then end up impacting their adult relationships a lot more than is often realized.
3. They’re highly empathetic, which leaves them frequently “taking on” other people’s pain. Old souls are healers, and sometimes don’t know when to draw the line between what’s their responsibility to take on, and what’s not.
4. They’re naturally more self-aware. While most of the time this is a tremendously good thing, in other ways it can be devastatingly limiting. People who are more conscious of their attributes are also more aware of their weaknesses, and how other people perceive those weaknesses.
5. They are irrationally hard on themselves. Old souls are in many ways aware of their true selves – their highest selves – and so everything else that happens, by comparison, feels like “failure.”
6. They’re more attuned to their emotions. While this means they are more capable of being intuitive, inspired, loving, kind and aware, it also means they’re more capable of becoming depressed, angry, afraid, or paranoid.
7. It’s difficult for them to determine whether “being” is better than “becoming.” They know that life is about love and relationships and inner-growth, but it’s also about creating yourself, and overcoming obstacles, and persevering. Ironically, old souls have the easiest time becoming over-workers, almost feeling guilty if they don’t use all of the energy they have to create.
8. It’s easier for them to engage in social comparisons. Understanding the human condition at a deeper level makes them more conscious of how people judge, rate and give/take love from one another.
9. Being aware of love does not make you immune to fear (or pain). Though people with older souls have an easier time seeing the bigger picture, finding their center, believing in peace, and having a rational head on their shoulders, that doesn’t immunize them to being subject to all of life’s pain (and the subsequent fear that develops from having painful experiences).
10. They’re constantly being pushed to grow. Again: a wonderful thing, in theory. A difficult thing, in practice.
11. They take responsibility for their lives. It’s not productive to play the victim, but it does take an emotional weight off your shoulders, which is why people do it.
12. Old souls are often unique, or “in the spotlight.” Therefore, they are frequently outcasted or at least picked on. People who are less inclined to be conditioned by society and more expressive of who they really are naturally make themselves more vulnerable to judgement and hate. Other old souls who do healing or creative work likewise put themselves in a position to be seen more. Of course, this is the purpose of their lives – but that doesn’t make it much less difficult to bear.
13. They have a harder time finding love. There are many reasons for this, mostly to do with attracting people who need healing, not a partner; or simply having too much “growth work” to do to find their forever person.
14. It’s impossible for them to ignore all the devastation in the world. While this leads them to becoming the very people who work on changing it all, in the interim, it is difficult to not feel as though you can “shut off” other people’s pain.
15. Old souls often become ambitious to a fault. They understand the limitless nature of their potential, and can be hard on themselves when they don’t achieve everything they want and know they are capable of.
16. They have more karma to work through. They’ve lived more, so they have more to resolve, amend for, grow from, or experience as a result.
17. They can struggle between determining when their strong feelings about something are “intuition” vs. when they are fear. They’re aware of their near-psychic levels of awareness, but unless they know how to hone it, and work through their strong emotions in a healthy, productive way, they often hold themselves back out of fear they are convinced is fact. 
