Understanding Soul Contracts

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why are we attracted to some people more than others? Why is it so hard to manifest certain things? It all comes down to our soul contracts. This talk explains Soul Contracts and how to transcend them.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Nicole Bayliss and I'd like to share something with you that may help you understand your life,

Your relationships and your challenges from a different perspective.

From the soul perspective,

Because life is not just a physical and mental journey,

It's a spiritual journey and when you can see your life from this higher perspective,

It starts to make sense.

Today,

From this perspective,

I'm going to answer the questions so many people ask,

Such as why do bad things happen to good people?

Why does life at times seem so unfair?

Why are we attracted to certain people and not others?

Why do we get attracted to people who end up hurting us?

Why do some of us struggle in certain areas of life while others don't?

And why is manifesting a certain thing so difficult?

It all comes down to our soul contracts.

Before I go on,

I ask you to keep an open mind and take from this talk anything that resonates with you and anything that doesn't feel right for you,

Let it go.

Take in only anything that resonates with you.

What are soul contracts?

Soul contracts are the agreements that your soul made before you were born into this life.

Your soul has already lined up all the necessary relationships and experiences for your growth and learning.

Why do we have soul contracts?

In order to explain this,

I'll need to give you some foundational information.

Firstly,

Every soul incarnates so as to transform and ascend higher and closer to the original source.

Some may call this source the universe,

Some may call it God.

This source is the source of all things.

So as to ascend higher and closer to source,

The soul chooses its own particular experiences.

Some are challenges because we learn and grow mostly through difficulties.

This is also known as the universal law of challenges.

And some will be beautiful and rewarding experiences,

But whatever the experience,

It will be synchronistic.

That is,

Nothing happens by accident,

Everything happens for a reason,

And everyone comes in or goes out of your life for a reason too.

Your soul agreed before incarnating that you would have certain experiences with other souls for your growth and learning.

It is only through our interactions with others and our human dramas that we can learn about ourselves and choose to change what is not working.

Some of our relationships may be challenging,

Some will be easy,

But they were all chosen by your soul.

Your soul chose your parents and your family of origin,

And even the country you live in and all the circumstances that you were born into at the time of your birth and the circumstances going forward.

The soul comes in with a divine plan,

Already imprinted within you is your divine soul plan,

That is,

What your soul wished to achieve this lifetime.

Many people ask me,

Are soul contracts the same as karma?

Karma being the universal law that deems whatever you do to someone else will be done to you.

The answer to this is yes and no.

Soul contracts may be related to karma we have come in with at the soul level,

And soul level karma comes from either past lives or ancestors lives or both.

So soul contracts may be karmic but not karma we have created in this life.

They may also be created so as to wake us up from the limiting beliefs that we have come in with.

And this answers the question,

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Their soul contract may involve rebalancing karma from a past life or healing a limiting belief that is creating a certain reality.

By contrast,

Karma from this life is simply that,

What goes around comes around,

You reap what you sow.

For example,

If you rob someone you will likely be robbed too.

Conversely,

If you did a good deed in the past that good karma will come back to you.

The earth's heartbeat is speeding up,

Everything is speeding up and this means that karma is also speeding up.

So we are far more likely to experience karma more immediately now for our choices and actions than we did in the past.

What is the difference between past life and ancestral karma?

Well,

Let me give you an example of each.

Past life karma.

I had a client whose husband had an affair and left her and she was understandably devastated.

In a healing session I was directed to do a past life regression with her and in the regression she saw that she had done the same to him in a past life.

This helped her understand and accept the situation more easily.

The American psychiatrist Brian Weiss wrote the book Many Lives,

Many Masters about his hypnosis sessions with his patients who would be taken back into past lives and resolve a situation in this life that was troubling them.

And now ancestral karma.

A client's teenage son was very troubled.

He was mentally unwell,

Taking drugs and stealing money.

On further investigation the client revealed that she had had a brother who was also very troubled and had committed suicide.

And looking deeper into the family tree she could recognize that were quite a few troubled young men who had struggled with mental health problems and addictions.

Her son had inherited a sole contract from his now deceased uncle.

In the Bible it says the sins of the father will be visited upon seven generations.

What this means is whatever is not resolved by one generation will be handed onto the next and the next until someone heals and resolves the wounding and transcends the contract.

Ancestral karma also known as generational karma was first recognized by psychologists when the children of Holocaust survivors were displaying signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

In his book It Didn't Start With You.

Mark Wallen tells many stories of children and adults who have come in with generational karma that needed to be healed.

How do you know whether an experience is a sole contract or karma?

A challenging sole contract may be a situation that seems really unfair.

And in such a situation you can ask yourself,

Is there anything I've done in this life that I could be paying for karmically now?

If the answer is no,

You can be pretty sure it is a sole contract,

Whether from a past life or an ancestor that needs to be addressed.

A sole contract could also be a very positive experience or relationship where you think,

Wow,

How lucky am I?

What did I do to deserve this?

And if you cannot think of why this is,

It's probably a sole contract,

Good karma from a past life or an ancestor that is bestowing itself upon you now.

In terms of sole contract relationships,

You will know you have a sole contract with someone else when you feel a strong attraction,

A pull,

A buzz,

And a strong wish to be around that person,

Whether this be a romantic relationship,

A friendship,

Or a work situation.

And so this answers the question,

Why are we attracted to some people more than others?

If you feel a strong attraction,

It's a sole contract.

A sole contract relationship can also be the opposite,

A strong feeling of repulsion or dislike for another person,

But for whatever reason you are forced to have to relate to them or be around them.

Sole contracts will always involve strong emotions,

Whether positive or negative.

In terms of sole contracts of purpose,

You will know you are on track with your soul's purpose when you feel a strong sense of inspiration and excitement when you're doing a certain thing.

Why do we call them sole contracts?

Because sole contracts are just that,

They are contracted to us,

There is no getting out of the contract.

Some challenging contracts can be avoided if we are taking a very proactive approach to our growth and learning,

Because the need to experience the contract dissolves.

But many are inevitable and these sole contracts are an important experience on our soul's journey.

There are no shortcuts on the soul's journey.

Contracts appear exactly when they are meant to,

Not a moment before,

Nor a moment after,

This is the universal law of divine timing,

And usually they will disappear exactly when they are meant to as well,

Because we have achieved,

Experienced and learned what we needed to learn or achieve or experience from that experience.

Why is knowing about sole contracts important?

Well,

Sole contracts have the power to influence every area of your life in either a positive or a negative way,

Depending on how you deal with them.

They are always growth experiences,

So if you choose to learn and grow,

You will transcend the contract.

Sole contracts are the cards you are dealt and your destiny depends upon how you play those cards.

Sole contracts will influence many areas of your life but not necessarily all of them.

Your relationships with others,

Your relationship with yourself,

Work and purpose,

Health,

Money and abundance.

And this answers another question I hear a lot.

Why is it so difficult for me to manifest certain things while others find it easy?

For example,

You may find it hard to find the right life partner,

But your friends seem to find it easy.

Or it's difficult to find work that you love while most people around you seem to be content with their careers.

Or you struggle to have enough money while others seem abundant.

In whatever area of life you are challenged,

You can be sure you have a sole contract in that area of your life.

Your soul has chosen this so as to wake you up and go deeper with your growth and learning.

Know that we all have such sole contracts,

Even if you do not recognize it in others.

So often we do not recognize others' struggles because they are not ours.

And this is why it is pointless to compare ourselves and our lives with others.

We are all unique human beings with unique soul contracts that we have come to transcend.

I'd like to give you some examples of soul contracts,

Beginning with relationship soul contracts.

You may have heard the old saying,

People come into your life for a reason,

A season or a lifetime.

This is true.

We do not necessarily know what one it's going to be.

In love so often we hope that it's for a lifetime,

Only to find that it was for a reason or a season.

But even if a relationship is just for a reason or a season,

Doesn't mean that that relationship is not important.

Reason contracts.

Sometimes having a strong crazy attraction towards someone can lead us to assume that this person is the one,

The soulmate,

The forever person.

And yet so often it turns out to be quite the opposite.

The relationship is painful.

The person hurts us.

Why would you have a soul contract with that person?

Painful relationships are soul contracts that manifest as a reflection of something we must heal within ourselves.

They are reflecting back to us our wounding and where we lack self love.

For example,

A person with an abandonment wound is likely to feel very attracted to someone who abandons them,

Whether emotionally or physically or both.

These strong crazy attractions are often archetypal in nature,

Such as the attraction between the narcissist and the empath.

The narcissist is drawn to the empath's light and the empath is drawn to the narcissist's woundedness,

Even if she or he is not aware of it.

Another common archetypal contract is between a rescuer and a person who needs rescuing,

Such as an addict or a person with a lot of problems.

Another is between a person who constantly seeks love and approval and a person who will never give it.

The reason the attraction is so strong is because your soul wants you to experience this for your growth and learning,

As does the other person's soul.

Your relationship is your healing opportunity to address your wounding and heal yourself.

The contract was always going to be for this reason,

Even though you may have been hoping that this was the big love of a lifetime.

Your soul signed up for this contract for your growth.

The purpose of the contract is to wake you up and out of old patterns that do not serve you.

Another person's love will only ever match the level of love we have for ourselves.

Wanting someone else to love us because we don't love ourselves will inevitably mean that we will have soul contracts with others to show us just this.

And this is why we may experience such soul contracts over and over again until we seek to change and heal ourselves.

Feeling drawn to another doesn't have to be romantic.

It can be inspirational and creative.

In the early 1960s,

Four souls were drawn together to create the Beatles.

What they created together was a gift to the world.

And the souls of two alcoholic salesmen,

Bill Wilson and Robert Smith,

Met in a bar and were drawn together by their wish to heal themselves.

This led them to create Alcoholics Anonymous.

The basic principles of Alcoholics Anonymous have healed millions of people.

Collaborations where there is a sense of purpose and excitement are always soul contracts.

Friends and colleagues may also come into your life for a reason.

You have a contract to learn,

Experience or perhaps create something with that person or people.

Season Contracts Many reason contracts are also season contracts.

They last just a season,

That is a period of time.

Short term relationships,

Whether it's friendship or dating,

Can be seasonal.

A person comes into your life so that you can share particular experiences together but the contract does not involve them staying for a lifetime.

When the lessons and growth are complete,

The contract is complete.

The Beatles eventually broke up,

As did many other great bands,

When their creative contract was complete.

Many marriages and long term relationships break up too.

This does not mean that the relationship was a failure.

Would we say the Beatles were a failure for breaking up?

We can still enjoy what they created.

We could say the same for a marriage that ends.

There is always a legacy left,

The growth,

The learning,

The shared memories,

Perhaps children,

But most of us find it difficult to view the end of a marriage or a long term relationship this way.

How do you know when a contract has ended?

The ending may come in different ways.

Number one,

A person may exit your life by leaving or through death.

Two,

A person may act up or change until the situation feels intolerable and you leave.

Number three,

The feelings of excitement,

Inspiration or other positive feelings begin to die.

No matter what you do to resurrect them.

The relationship goes from passion to indifference,

Excitement to boredom.

The writer Sarah Van Breithnak wrote,

The opposite of love is not hate,

It's indifference.

This is a sign that your soul has learned and experienced all that you need to and it is time to let go.

And then there are lifetime contracts.

Lifetime contracts will include lifetime marriages or relationships,

Lifetime friendships and lifetime family relationships.

You've probably heard the saying,

You can choose your friends but not your family.

How true.

And yet on a soul level,

We all choose our family.

If you were born into a difficult family,

This was a soul contract you chose so as to experience maximum growth and transformation this lifetime.

If you choose to embrace it that way.

These lifetime relationship contracts will involve karmic contracts as well.

For example,

Families often keep reincarnating together,

Sometimes swapping roles.

Have you ever felt more like the parent to your own parent?

You probably were in a past life or perhaps your child seems more of an adult than you are.

Now I'd like to share a little bit about purpose and soul contracts.

We all come in with a purpose.

In fact,

There may be a number of purposes.

You can be sure you are on purpose when you feel inspired and excited by what you are doing or plan to do.

With regards to the work you do,

You will know you are on purpose when you do what you love and love what you do.

As Joseph Campbell said,

Follow your bliss and doors will open where once there were walls.

Many of us will not know what our soul purpose is until later in life.

The contract will show itself when the time is right.

If you feel you haven't found your soul's purpose,

Relax.

If it's not apparent yet,

It's not meant to be.

Do a job that's good enough for now and in your spare time,

Do the things you love to do because your soul purpose will be connected to where you feel drawn.

Surrender and trust that everything will be shown to you at the right time.

And let go of the belief that to do something you love will not support you financially.

Many of us have many limiting beliefs in this area.

If there is something you want to do but fear you cannot do it because it won't pay the bills,

Know that this is one of your soul contracts to clear away the old programming and beliefs that are preventing you from doing what your soul came here to do.

And know that moving into your soul purpose is a process,

A transformational journey in itself.

What about health and soul contracts?

I have a client who has a chronic degenerative illness and he said to me,

I feel like God is punishing me.

I must have done something really bad in a past life.

In a healing session,

I told him what came through.

This was not a karmic payback.

It was an experience chosen by his soul for his growth and evolution.

This person gives constantly to everyone else and puts himself last.

His soul contract was to manifest illness as a gift because there was no way he was ever going to put himself first unless he became ill.

Illness can be a huge wake up call for all of us and it will always involve the realization that our own health and well-being is the most important thing.

Without our health and well-being,

We cannot help others.

Most illnesses are the result of a soul contract.

The contract is to put yourself first and to nurture yourself.

No more sacrificing for others.

And so I strongly advise that if you are not putting your health and well-being at the top of your list,

Please do so and this way you may not have to experience a soul contract of illness.

A soul contract of ill health can also be an ancestral contract,

Also known as a genetic predisposition.

Epigenetics is now showing us that we can change our genes and that it is possible to change a genetic predisposition.

Many of us have made karmic choices in this life that may be harmful to our health in the long run and this is karma and not contract.

There are many underlying causes of illness.

Some are physical,

Some are emotional,

Some are spiritual.

Becoming ill can lead you to go on a journey of exploration,

Seeking physical,

Emotional and spiritual healing.

A soul contract of illness can broaden your understanding of yourself in quite wondrous ways.

Healing can happen even if a person dies from an illness.

Our soul has already made a contract on when we are leaving this world and how.

The soul is in charge of our departure and not us.

When we can understand and accept this,

We can feel a sense of relief.

All we need to do is look after ourselves the best we can in this life and the rest is up to our soul.

And now let's talk about money and abundance in soul contracts.

Why is it that some people are born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths while others are born into poverty?

This hardly seems fair.

The answer is because they have chosen different soul contracts.

Being born into poverty is a soul contract that can be transcended if you want to transcend it.

The contract will involve being willing to look at your family's beliefs about money and abundance and how these beliefs are recreating the same reality for you.

A person who is born into wealth will not,

Of course,

Have the same soul contract,

But this does not mean that they will not have their soul contract challenges.

You only have to look at people such as Christina Onassis,

Conrad Nicky Hilton Jr.

,

Andrew Getty and David Kennedy to know that being born into money is not necessarily a blessing.

Now I'd like to share with you how to work with your soul contracts and how to transcend them.

Firstly,

Become conscious and aware.

If we do not become conscious and aware,

We will stay stuck in the low vibration of victim consciousness,

Whereby we perceive the world at the unconscious level,

Seeing events as random and unfair.

Meditation is the best way that I know to become conscious and aware because through meditation you gain a spaciousness of mind and are able to observe everything in a more detached way.

And taking time out alone to reflect and be present will assist you in becoming more conscious and aware.

Secondly,

Accept your soul contracts,

That is,

Accept the what is,

Both positive and negative,

And then you work with your soul contracts.

Of course,

On a human level,

You wouldn't pick your challenges and negative experiences,

But on a soul level you have.

Trust that everything that happens in your life is being sent to you by the universe that loves you.

And there's a very good reason behind everything.

Thirdly,

Forgive anyone who hurts you.

Forgiveness sets you free.

And forgive yourself if you need to.

Forgiveness clears karma.

Forgiveness doesn't necessarily mean keeping someone in your life or even being friendly with them,

Nor does it mean condoning the behavior.

It means consciously deciding that you are not going to let the toxic emotions of unforgiveness ruin you and your life.

If you need to forgive yourself for any past mistakes,

Understand that there are no mistakes,

Only lessons.

Life is a school,

And we are here to learn,

And many of our soul contracts involve making mistakes so that we can learn at the deepest level possible.

You did what you felt was right at the time,

And so it was right at the time.

Soul contracts sometimes involve making choices that don't work out,

But everything that came from that choice was a necessary experience to your growth and your learning.

There is no point in holding onto self-blame,

Guilt,

And shame.

Take in the lessons,

Apologize to anyone you need to,

And move on.

Number four.

You may find it helpful to see a counselor,

A healer,

Or a coach if you are feeling lost or stuck or cannot find your way in a contract.

We all have blind spots,

Especially where we are wounded,

Because where we are wounded,

We are often unconscious.

Counselors,

Coaches,

And healers can see what you cannot necessarily see.

They are objective.

In a course in miracles,

We are told,

Miracles are performed by those who temporarily have more for those who temporarily have less.

And number five.

If you choose to contend with your soul contracts yourself,

Become curious.

Ask yourself,

What am I meant to learn from this experience?

You may not get the answer immediately.

In fact,

It's unlikely you will.

But know if you ask the question,

The answer will show itself when the time is right.

Have patience and know that all answers do come when the time is right.

In the words of Rainer Maria Rilke,

Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.

Don't search for the answers,

Which could not be given to you now,

Because you would not be able to live them.

And the point is to live everything.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps then,

Someday,

Far in the future,

You will gradually,

Without even noticing it,

Live your way into the answer.

I'm Nicole Bayliss.

Thank you for listening.

Reviews

This is a powerful and enlightening talk. There is a lot to unpack and you did it beautifully. It has provided much food for thought and also the inspiration to ask the questions and search for more meaning in my life. I found many correlations in my relationships, with both family and friendships. Thank you so much for this, I'll be returning again for more inspiration. Namaste and many blessings, Nicole🙏🕊️❤️

Thank you for this very enlightening talk. Now I can understand why I’ve had such sadness in my life, and why I sought out people who have consistently hurt me. Many blessings, and thank you again ✨🍃🙏🏻😌

Thank you so much! This validated what I have felt about my life so far. As a 67 year old, my life's purpose is to live in joy moving forward. I plan to revisit this talk regularly.

Beautifully complex and enlightening.
Will visit/listen often to integrate all your powerful teaching! Thank you!

Thank you for this informative session. Great explanations and insights

Excellent and agrees with everything I've read on this subject. Once you understand that there are soul contracts, so many things will make sense in your life...situations that recur over and over until you finally resolve them in a healthy way...

Very insightful. I hesitated to listen. This is usually something more in line with what my wife is interested in. I am glad I did. I have some things to ponder. Thank you 🙏

This answered a lot of questions I had about myself and my life.
Things as I now see them look totally different. Thank you for this lesson. A lesson I didn’t realise I needed. 🙏🏼🦋🙏🏼

Thank you for helping us understand and appreciate our life and learnings along the path.

Thank you for taking the time to bring this to us it was Very interesting and supports a book I read on the subject
I will definitely come back to this again as I check in with myself especially following a ‘bump’ in the road or a ‘smooth’ journey . 😊

Wonderful Nicole thank you so much for this understanding of soul contracts.

Wow! Did this land at the right time.
So grateful. Thank you.

Thank you. This was extremely illuminating for me and practically helpful.

A very interesting podcast, simple and easy to understand explanation that lays down the basic concepts behind soul contracts.

Profound! Lots of resonating & A-Ha moments that I need to listen several times again. Thank you for blessing me with sharing your wise words.

Thank you Nicole. Very enlightening and I felt your truth shine through for me.

Beautiful description of soul contracts , exactly what I needed

Beautiful and supportive talk, thanks for the wisdom!

This was so enlightening. It helps me understand my journey in life until now. It's hard to accept it all. And to forgive. But I have learned so much. I literally feel as if I was a puppet in my own life ... until recently. Thank you. 🙏

Beautifully explained. Wow. Kind of mind boggled right now, yet pieces are falling in place after listening to you, Nicole.
Timing. It’s always about timing. Remarkable.
Thank you!