Soulmates: Myth of The Missing Half

When I first heard about Symposium, a philosophical exploration by Plato, I didn’t think much of it. Until another sleepless night, with questions on my mind about human connection and the idea of finding ‘the one’. I found myself landing on Plato’s myth and discovered it was about the idea of humans originally being whole: one entity with two faces, four arms, four legs. Zeus, fearing the strength in their power, split these strong entities into two, then sending them to live on earth while forever longing for their missing half; This is how the idea of ‘soulmates’ was birthed.

The “myth of the missing half” is what they call it. It’s the foundation of everything we believe about love. We all grew up believing that somewhere out there is a person who will make us whole, complete us in ways we felt was missing. We spend years, lifetimes, searching but when we don’t find them, or when the connection turns out to be temporary, we are left with heartbreak or confusion.

What if we’ve been getting it wrong all along? 

What if the soulmate we’ve been searching for isn’t another person? What if it’s the connection between our own mind, body and soul—the very thing we’ve been neglecting by always looking outside of us for the answers? If this is the case, then everyone is on the search that will never end.

At 35 years old, I feel like I’ve spent most of my life trying to piece myself together through connections with other people. A few ‘almosts’, a heartbreak or two, people who didn’t match my core values, my beliefs in life nor did I match theirs. These connections that seemingly fell short, made me feel an emptiness inside that I could only blame myself for. Through it all, I was looking for the same thing: to feel loved, and to love freely, a feeling of wholeness.