A Woman with Soul: Prithi Gopinath

We will be discontinuing this blog, as our new blog is up at www.TheSoulmateExperience.com — Please visit us there! ~Mali & Joe

Tell us about a deep soul connection you’ve experienced. One deep soul connection that I’ve experienced was with kids in a girl’s orphanage in Bangalore. I celebrated my son’s birthday by taking the kids to McDonald’s for breakfast. There was this one little girl who was deaf and wearing hearing aids. I met her that evening for the second time and felt this deep soul connection when she hugged me and said, “Aunty, I missed you so much.” It touched my soul. Pure innocence… pure bliss. It is fresh in my mind even today.


Describe one of the most soul-opening moments of your life. After my caesarean section I was wide awake on the operation table… And as I lay my eyes on my newborn, the moment was priceless. When I heard my baby cry, my mother’s instinct was to speak to him and pacify him. The newborn infant stopped crying the moment I pampered him. I just couldn’t believe my eyes: he knew me instantly. Loved this most soul-opening moment of my life.


When do you feel your most soulful? I feel most soulful when I touch lives and when the people around me feel good about me being there for them. Times when someone opens up to me about their secret and confines in me expecting me to guide them or show them the way. When my kids hug me and say love you mummy. When I hug my parents.


Describe one of the most soulful people you’ve ever known. Not to flatter but for me it is Mali & Joe, the most soulful people I have ever known. You are soulful as you complete one another. “The Soulmate Experience” created by you goes a long way in saying how soulful you are, as does your unconditional love for the people around you. You are one awesome soulful couple & I love you just the way you are.


What do you feel your soul’s purpose is? All I can say is that my soul has a purpose and I am actually seeking it. I foresee a great purpose as I have learnt to accept my life the way it is with no conditions, and because I know I deserve nothing but the best.

Waiting for Cancer

This is a guest post (and feet!) by Megan Monique of if i were a rainbow, who inspires us regularly with the insights she shares along her own path of self-discovery and transformation.

It's almost been a month since I sat down with the infamous Mali Apple of The Soulmate Experience in the lovely town of San Rafael.

You see, many months prior to this visit Mali and I had began working together on my body image perception.

After both of us got carried away with our work (Mali with her book and me with my Soul Sessions) the conversation around my body got put on the back burner. As it had many other times in my past.

So here we are, Mali & I - sitting as this groovy little pizza joint called Pizza Orgasmica (are you turned on?).

Mali turns to me and says, 'okay - let's talk about this.' I knew right away what she meant because since the last time we were together face to face I had put on a few LBS and at that moment I felt truly disgusted with myself. I was wearing an over-sized T-shirt and jeans that were too tight. I didn't feel cute, sexy or in the least bit appealing to any human eye, especially my own.

As the conversation got rollin', Mali hit a rather strong chord. She said 'So if a doctor came up to you tomorrow and said, Megan - you have cancer and the ONLY way you are going to live through this is if you completely change the way you eat and move your body. Would you do it?' My answer was a loud, clear and sudden OF COURSE! Mali then asked me what I knew was coming, 'so what are you waiting for?'

My answer, cancer.

I let that thought settle in as Mali got really excited about the line we had just come to terms with, 'waiting for cancer'.

I mean, it applies to so many different things. Waiting to leave a bad marriage, waiting to lose weight, to eat healthier, to leave the job that's killing you, to travel the world, to experience financial freedom.

When you think about it, we all have our own version of how we are, in fact, Waiting For Cancer.

To be continued....

A Man with Soul: Matthew Watson

These words of wisdom are from Matthew Watson, a frequent contributor to The Soulmate Experience on Facebook. Thank you, Matthew, for living and loving full out!

Every problem is an opportunity to try a new solution and to open our minds. The very act of thinking brings those things into being, so if all I think of are the problems, then problems and people that share that view come into my life. If, on the other hand, I think of all the wonderful gifts that are being given to me, I find myself surrounded by people that have answers and can help me find a new solution.

The universe has wonderful things for all of us, but as long as we hold on to things that don't work anymore we are unable to receive the gift. Some of the barriers that I had to let go of are fear, black and white thinking, feeling less than, and being a victim. The walls that I had built to protect myself ended up being a prison and I didn't like my cell mate at all (myself). Life is so much better outside of that self-built jail!

If I pick up a snake on monday and it bites me—well, all snakes don't bite, I just didn't know that this one does. But if I pick it up Tuesday and it bites me and I pick it up Wednesday and it bites me and Thursday and it bites me… at some point it is no longer the snake's fault: by now I know that every time I pick it up it will bite me. The solution? Stop picking it up!

If you don't forgive people that have hurt you then you live in the pain. Forgive, look for the lesson, and move on with a glad heart!!!

So many of us were wounded by early experiences, perhaps things our parents said or teachers and classmates. It is so easy to carry those hurts into adulthood and allow them to poison our relationships. Until I went back and looked at those things with an adult's eyes and an adult's thoughts I reacted to others with a child's fears and a child's coping skills. The journey from child to adult is not measured in years but rather in emotional growth. Today I am able to attract friends into my life that reaffirm the idea that I am a good person and I can accept myself for who I am.

When my wife left me because of my addiction it forced me to look at where my life was going, with the help of a 12 step group I now have 17 years clean.... It also allowed her and I to be friends. Thank goodness that she had the courage to leave me and the compassion to love herself, to embrace the lesson and learn from the pain.

After a couple of years of working on me I was able to make public amends to each of my former wives for the part I had played in the breakup of my marriages. My becoming friends with my ex's cleared away much of the emotional wreckage that had me blocked and I was able to let go of the pain. As a big bonus I have a wonderful relationship with my three children today…

I can't agree with the idea that pain and pleasure are opposites. Look at the smile of a new mother moments after giving birth, feel the pain of turning down a big slice of cheesecake so I might lose a pound or two… Pain is often part of the pleasure in life, I can't have one without the other—so when I try to avoid the pain I must often forgo the pleasure. We don't have to suffer though; as the Buddha taught, suffering is holding on to that which has already changed. In the past I have often held onto things that had stopped working for me and then suffered trying to hold onto something that was gone. If I find myself suffering today, I remind myself that this is a choice and I can change how I chose to feel. Dr Seuss said it best: "Don't cry because it's over, be happy that it was!"

I haven't giving up working on me and I haven't given up the dream of finding the soulmate meant for me!

Leslie on Living Life Full Out

This is a guest post (and painting!) by Leslie Gibford Escoto, a frequent contributor to The Soulmate Experience on Facebook who inspires others with her transparency and vulnerability as she shares the insights and challenges she encounters along her own path of awakening. 

On Being Open to Others
Age is a factor in how we feel about ourselves, about each other and about how we fit in today's American culture. There are times when I look in the mirror and see someone I don't know any more... I think to myself, "Who the hell are you?" It's like I don't even recognize myself because I'm the same on the inside as I was when I was a child but my face, my body are falling apart and I have lost control. It's all cultural. Our culture does not value age, in fact, we have a tendency to discard anything of age. We get new cars every couple of years, new homes every five years, and even new noses, faces, breasts, tushes... we throw away people too. Recently my dad had to spend time in a skilled nursing facility and it is heartbreaking to see the elderly people there who are just there, with no one to care. We have gone from a culture of respecting our elders and living as extended families to one of putting our elderly in facilities so that we don't have to be bothered with them. When we truly think about it, yes we were much more together on the outside when we were twenty but just think how clueless most of us were then... Now that we are older, I'm 58, we are wiser, smarter, less judgmental, more accepting, more peaceful, more forgiving. If I had to choose between spending my life with a stunning 20 year old or a wise, caring, kind, and loving 60 year old with a few extra pounds, gray hair and wrinkles, it would be a no brainer. So why don't we all here on SME and FB make a pact to show the world that people of any age, race, ethnicity, size, intellect, religion, gender are valuable, wonderful people and we should respect and show love to each and every one.

Each time we open our hearts and share of ourselves we not only find out important things about ourselves but we gain a bit more understanding of the varied perspectives of human beings. We learn that one does not have to think like us, feel like us, dream like us in order to be worthy and have individual value in our life. I am learning to view each encounter, be it friendship, romantic or intimate as something precious to be cherished, respected and held dear regardless of the outcome. I can learn from every single person I meet as long as I have an open mind and heart.

On Living Life Full Out
Walk in the rain without an umbrella, jump into the puddles without galoshes, bask in the sun without sunglasses, wander through the soft grass without shoes, lay in the sand without a towel, and experience all life has to offer without a life vest or parachute. Only then can one truly say they have seen, felt, touched, smelled, and dreamed all the wonders of this life.

Everything, every stimuli, every encounter, every experience, every feeling, thought, emotion are keys to a deeper understanding and if we take the time to actually think about them, we may just get to where we want to go.

What my life and the people I have encountered in it have shown me is that in every period of joy, every tribulation, every rough spot in the road there is a lesson to be learned and the lesson usually comes with a concrete or subtle choice... choosing wisely can only be accomplished if you live with eyes, mind, and heart wide open.