Are you battling with soul ties and wonder how to break them? Danielle Tate shares what she has learned:
When I was 17, I naively thought the sexual behavior I partook in was harmless and momentary. I reconciled in my head that because we had intentions on getting married and because our hearts were “right” toward each other that sexual activity was somehow okay.
Two years later when we split, my heart literally ached. I remember standing in the grocery store parking lot where he worked just wanting him to hug me “one last time.” He was like a drug, a good drug that I needed. I was going through withdrawal over a silly boy, but my body ached without him. Friends told me to move on, but I could not get past the feeling that part of me had suddenly been ripped away. Recovery was slow and painful — filled with anger, rebellion and a new tattoo.
“The next time it will be different,” I told myself. Boy, was I right! It was all kinds of different. Seven years of hell ended with exposed lies, infidelity and abuse. Way different from my straight-A, Honor Society, college-bound beau. Yet the old familiar feeling of needing my fix still came even after I dumped his clothes in the driveway. I was addicted, but to what?
Soul Ties Addictions?
This time, unlike before, I initiated the breakup. I knew he was a loser (though I see him differently now) and I knew it was a very unhealthy relationship. Yet for months, we had “conjugal visits.” It seemed I was the prisoner sentenced to a life of longing fulfilled only by someone I didn’t love and didn’t even want to be around.
Twisted, isn’t it?
Yet this is what happens when we have sexual experiences outside the confines of marriage. Actually, it’s what happens when we have sexual experiences regardless of our marital status. Every time we have a sexual experience, we are creating deep-rooted bonds with the other individual. There are a few different terms used to describe these bonds but the most popular, and the one I use in my book is “soul ties.”
The Dynamics of Soul Ties
A soul tie is defined as “A spiritual connection between two people who have been physically intimate with each other or who have had an intense emotional or spiritual association or relationship.” If you think of sex inside the confines of marriage this is a wonderful thing. God created us to have sexual relations with our spouse that in turn create deep-rooted bonds.
See, He knew that after the honeymoon, there’d be morning breath, bills to pay, kids to raise and dirty socks left on the floor. He knew life would happen and so He created us to be deeply bonded with our spouse so that during the crazy seasons of life when we sometimes don’t really like our spouse, we would still be deeply bonded to them.
Soul Ties, Drugs and Super Glue
When we have a sexual experience, our brains produce dopamine, the same chemical that feeds a gambling addiction, your chocolate cravings and the junkie’s need for another fix. Dopamine is often described as the “feel good” chemical of the brain and it plays a major role in our lives (good and bad). You see, our bodies don’t care if it’s cocaine, a cupcake or a sexual experience — dopamine will be produced, and it will bind us.
This is why my former boyfriends were like my drug of choice and why I could not see myself without them. I was addicted to the high. I had created soul ties when I had these feel- good, intimate experiences with guys I wasn’t married to. This is also why it literally hurt when I broke up.
Soul ties are like super glue. If you’ve had sexual encounters outside of marriage, consensual or forced, there is most like a lingering soul tie that needs to be dealt with otherwise you’ll forever be plagued with thoughts, feelings and even actions that are unwanted. I mention forced encounters because, although pleasure is not associated with abuse, our brains still produce chemical reactions, and our soul can still be tied to someone who has abused us. Some symptoms of lingering soul ties include:
• Someone whose voice you hear in your head
• Obsessive daytime thought about someone
Plus:
• Dreaming or waking up at night thinking about someone on a regular basis
• Someone you think of or “see” in your mind when you are intimate with your spouse
A Marriage in Crisis
Speaking of spouses, the hidden soul ties in my life deeply affected the first several years of my marriage. It got so bad that my husband thought I was having an affair. I was distant, I disliked sex… I really disliked sex and I was not fulfilled. Unbeknownst to him, I would cry almost every single time we had sex. The guilt, shame and dirty feelings I had as a sexually active single woman carried right into my marriage.
Those feelings didn’t go away just because we said, “I do.” Ceremony alone was not enough to make my past sexual sins disappear. I needed healing. I needed forgiveness and I need a clean break.
Breaking Soul Ties
There are 4 Key steps to breaking soul ties:
1. Acknowledge
2. Confess and Repent
3. Forgive
4. Break and Remove
First, we need to acknowledge that there is a problem. Ask the Lord to show you who you have ungodly soul ties with. Make a list if you need to. Secondly, we need to confess and repent of our sins. This may involve finding a godly accountability partner that you can confess to and who can help you walk through the process. It may be a church counselor, pastor or elder or a family member.
Next, we need to find forgiveness. We need to accept God’s forgiveness, we need to forgive ourselves and lastly, we need to forgive our former partners or abusers. Remember, “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and hoping the other person dies.”
Finally:
You need to verbalize a prayer to break off the soul ties. You need to speak it out! Life and death are in the power of the tongue so when you speak out you are declaring with your mouth the power of Christ to break the ties to your past. You must also do an inventory and remove any mementoes, gifts or souvenirs from those past relationships.
Danielle Tate, founder of Thrive Ministries, is passionate about sharing her message or restoration with women of all ages. After 13 years in the corporate world, she became a stay-at-home wife and mother and began making natural beauty products and blogging. She is the author of Restoring the Lost Petal: A Journey Through the Loss and Restoration of Sexual Purity.
This article was previously posted on Sheila Wray Gregoire’s web site, To Love Honor and Vacuum. But her web site has been updated and is now found at Baremarriage.com. We encourage you to visit it and see all that Sheila makes available! It’s a great web site with lots available for you!