We are all different people leading different lives and facing different obstacles, but each and every of our journeys have one thing in common and that’s growth. And as growth is almost synonymous with change – and changes are never easy – it’s almost impossible to avoid the paint it comes with it.
Since you are reading this, I believe that you have already had a little taste of growth and changes. You have experienced pain and emotional trauma, but you have outgrown it and recovered, and came out a much better person. “Better” meaning you are well on the way of becoming who you are meant to be.
If this happens to be a time of hardship, it probably means that you are leaving behind your old self and the habits that serve you nothing anymore.You’re awakening to a new self, one that does not want to be shackled by the old.
Don’t fight the winds and don’t swim against the tides, let go and let the flow carry you.
Here are four sometimes painful indicators that you’re growing and ascending.
1. Career change
Growth is funny in that what was good yesterday might not be so good years later. Maybe you’ve had the same job for ten years, but suddenly you wake up one day and realize that not only is this job that you used to love starting to feel empty, but it’s actually draining you.
Career changes can be sudden and unexpected, or planned out and executed with tact. The fact remains that something is out of alignment and your transition will take place either by your hand or your employer’s. But, do not become fearful. These changes happen because better things are waiting for you just up ahead. So long as you give in to the universe.
2. ‘Friends’ disappear from the map
Friendship often thrives on commonalities. You have your friends because you like discussing the same things, you like doing similar activities and you just seem to get along on a level that you don’t with other people. But, as you grow into your new self, these things can change. So, you must be ready to acknowledge that sometimes friendships come to an end.
It might be that you have a new perspective on life and no longer wish to discuss the same things or be a part of the same activities. You will undoubtedly feel resistance from your friends who may become angry at your newfound growth. The only thing you can do is be yourself and continue moving in a direction that is in alignment with your vibration. This will attract other friends who are more aligned with who you are striving to become.
3. Society doesn’t approve of your spirituality
Spirituality in the modern era comes rife with stigma. The majority of people on this planet seem to think that spirituality is just a word used to describe hippy flower-children who prefer organic foods, wear gemstones, and keep a dream journal. Becoming more spiritual and connected to your inner self will make you vulnerable in this sense.
The best thing to do when confronted with negativity about your spirituality is to simply put it out of mind. It can be uncomfortable hearing people demean your spirituality at first, but eventually your understanding of the world helps you recognize that these people simply live in the dark. Project comfortability and confidence in your spirituality and people will realize they cannot harm you.
4. Loneliness kicks in
As you become more spiritual and begin to grow in new directions, it becomes more and more clear that certain parts of your journey must be traveled alone. If this loneliness is not something you can revel in, reach out to those in the spiritual community. Start going to a yoga class or maybe look for a meditative group. Put yourself out there and the universe will give back. Eventually, you will find that your loneliness has gone, because these new spiritual relationships are providing you with what you need.
Another way to avoid feeling lonely is by practicing meditation. When you look inward you begin to become comfortable just being alone in silence. With meditation, you may be alone, but you will not feel alone.
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Lately, though…I’ve just been feeling like crap. Nothing seems to matter (except this blog), relationships feel restricting, and life’s activities seem like they’re not worth the fuss. I just don’t want to stress myself out over what feel like stupid things.
But they still stress me out greatly. And no matter how many times I try to meditate through it, accept it, embrace it, it doesn’t seem to get better. The feeling of restlessness doesn’t go away.
So what is it? Am I just this unsalvageable person? Am I doomed?
Let me clarify that by spiritual, I’m not talking about anything to do with organized religion. If that speaks to you, then go all in. I’d just like to keep this as secular as possible.
What I’m talking about is a mental and emotional manifestation that makes you feel like something is vastly different than before. You may not be able to put your finger on it, but the change is there.
You might even think that you’re experiencing a mental illness. I’m definitely not advising you not to explore that. But as someone currently on pharmaceuticals, it’s fair to say that meds tend to suppress the feelings, not deal with them.
And you’re gonna want to do that eventually.
So let’s talk about some of the signs that maybe you’re not crazy, maybe you’re just waking up on a higher level.
Restlessness and Lost Sleep
So you’ve had a full day of work, little to no coffee, and you’re exhausted when you come home. You can’t wait to kick off your shoes, shower, and roll up in your covers.
One problem, though…you can’t fall asleep.
You know you need the rest, and you’re getting more and more frustrated with yourself, but you just can’t manage to close your eyes and keep them shut.
This could be a sign that you’re experiencing some kind of awakening…oh, the irony, since you’re actually lying awake in bed, struggling.
Or maybe you can fall asleep. Maybe, to the best of your knowledge, you’re sleeping all the way through the night.
And yet, no matter how much sleep you think you’re getting, you wake up tired and have issues keeping your eyes open throughout the day.
God, I feel like that today…I need a nap and a hug.
Initially, I thought it was symptoms of anxiety and depression. I tend to be really anxious all the time and then crash when I get home, never quite feeling rested enough to start the next day.
People with depression can sometimes sleep a lot, and I’m not feeling great, so I must be depressed, right?
Well, maybe. Part of me still thinks that’s the case. But maybe depression and anxiety are just symptoms of an awakening mind. This feeling that something about the world we’re perceiving is wrong and that there’s something else there.
Feelings of Disconnect from Social Issues, People, Etc.
Well, I still am in a lot of ways. It still makes my stomach turn to stay silent when I feel like injustices are being done, so I often say something.
But what’s changed is that I’m not seeking these battles out anymore. Like, I’m not feeling the need to be vigilant about it all the time.
It’s not because these issues aren’t important. They are. Especially when they continue to cause pain and suffering everyday. But there are better ways for me to use my passion than the way that I have been.
Life is both much more complicated and much simpler than we make it. We tend to focus on surface level things (i.e., individuals, what they do, and how they do it) and what makes us different from other people.
We then take it upon ourselves to overanalyze thosethings, wasting valuable efforts and time. And isolating ourselves inside of a bubble.
We should be focusing on what motivates people to do what they do. How we can identify with them, understand what makes them tick. Only then can we have a hope of reaching the root of our problems and tearing them out.
So basically, I just don’t care to talk about social issues or relationships within the context of how most people talk about them right now.
If you feel like this, too, there’s probably nothing wrong with you. It’s just your mind attempting to push limits and cross boundaries.
Physical Symptoms: Skin Rashes, Aches & Pains
If you try a new activity, switch out a beauty product, or hurt yourself, your body will probably ache and your skin might break out. Just wanted to clarify that those instances are not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about when you’ve been doing everything the same for months or years and all of a sudden your body goes haywire.
You may have lived your entire life believing that you didn’t have sensitive skin. Now all of a sudden trusted products or brands are causing breakouts. Yikes.
Or you may be totally in shape, workout every day, and keep a carefully planned routine. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, your back starts to hurt and it won’t go away.
When your mind is in a state of unrest, it can wreak havoc on the rest of your body in various ways. It’s a sign that something is off or changing.
Could be a dormant part of your mind stirring, trying to wake up.
INSANE Dreams
Ever have a few nights in a row where you don’t remember your dreams? Well, when you start to experience a shift, you’ll find that you actually start to remember more of your dreams.
Why? Because the dreams are becoming clearer, more detailed, and more vivid.
They can be linked to a series of emotions: anger, happiness, sadness, confusion. I like to think it’s your brain helping you get more familiar with yourself.
Honestly, I think this has the most to do with your growing discomfort of boundaries. I mean, really, in the grand scheme of things, none of that matters.
So sure, you lose a job here or some money there. Are you still alive? Can anything worse really happen to you?
Ask yourself these questions:
What’s absolutely imperative for you to do before you die?
What things are getting in the way of doing that?
If there’s any part of you, even the tiniest little voice, that’s thinking, “Why does that matter to people so much? What’s the end game here?”, you might be on the verge of a shift.
You Start Seeing “Signs” Everywhere
Sure, they could be coincidences. Then again, maybe not.
These are the things that in passing seem insignificant, and yet stay in your mind for reasons you can’t explain. Feelings of deja vu, thinking about someone right before they call you, randomly finding something when- oh!- it turns out you’re going to need it!
These are called synchronicities. They’re the little things in life that seem to add up to something greater. It’s like the universe has laid out the pieces of a puzzle for you to find and put together.
Growing Compassion for All Living Things
I sort of mentioned this in another blog post, but I don’t like slugs. They’re gross, they look like snot bubbles to me.
I used to not care if someone stepped on one or even poured salt on one. But now? I genuinely feel guilty, even if it’s someone else. Like, I don’t even have to be the one to do it.
My dad stepped on one by accident on our sidewalk and I felt like he’d just kicked a kitten or something. The sensation in my body was the same.
Weird, huh?
It comes from this creeping understanding that despite my feelings toward this creature, it’s just here trying to survive like I am.
I don’t know if it feels pain the same way, if it has the same emotions, or what its purpose is, but it’s here. And it wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t supposed to.
I don’t really like to say that everything happens for a reason. Mostly because that’s usually interpreted one way.
What I really think is that there is a divine order to things that I can influence but not change.
A tree grows. It will continue to grow how it’s meant to grow. I can chop it down, but there will always be consequences.
I mean, that big-ass tree has to fall somewhere, right? What are the chances that it could fall directly on top of me? That would suck.
So you can chop it down and accept the consequences or let it grow and accept what happens.
Such is life. Some things are within your control, like what you do, but other things are not. And the more you try to change that, the harder it will fall on you.
You start to understand and feel this on a deep level. This isn’t to say that things don’t bother you or that you won’t wish some things were different, but you understand that it’s not your job to determine that.
With this newfound acceptance comes the understanding that people are just like trees.
They are going to be what they are, become what they will become. Maybe they’ll grow straight and tall and beautiful and add to their environment. Or maybe they’ll grow gnarled and curved and detract from it.
Or someone could chop them down and we’ll never know what they would have been.
Either way, it’s not up to us. All we can do is accept them the way they are. Again, that’s not to say that you have to like or even tolerate toxic behavior. It’s just understanding that you can’t change them without their willingness or ability to change…
…and not loving them any less for it.
Increased Sensitivity
I gotta admit, this one kind of sucks.
When your mind starts to shift, you find that you’re more sensitive than you used to be…mentally, physically, and emotionally.
It’s a lot easier to be hurt by the things around you. And man, does it hurt.
But it also means that you’ll be more receptive to the good things in life, too. I mean, you’ll experience joy, love, pleasure, excitement like few others do.
The bad stuff is really bad, but the good stuff is really good. Your life becomes richer. In the end, it’s worth it.
You Get Worse and Worse at “Acting As If” or “Faking It”
It gets harder to do things when you’re not feeling drawn to do them.
Even if you try, it’s usually pretty obvious that you’re faking it. People can sense it.
When that starts happening, it’s time to acknowledge that something in your mind is starting to change.
Everything is becoming more organic, and it becomes a lot harder to hide that. But why would you want to?
So What Do You Think? Are You Shifting?
These signs might be kinda hard to peg at first. You’ll probably miss a lot of them, especially because they’re not the only ones you might experience.
The truth is, a lot of these signs are just heightened versions of what you experience already. You just have to be willing to look for them, acknowledge them, and roll with them.
So after reading, what are your thoughts? Think you might be going through a shift or an awakening yourself?
Drop me a comment below!
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It is evident that everyone is going through changes including personal changes. Whether it is self-conscious or otherwise, spiritual evolution is accompanied by a shift of self-awareness. In many cases, you may not be able to identify some of the personal changes. The following 21 traits will help you identify if you are undergoing any personal shifts.
1. The ability to distinguish between other people’s emotions and those of yourself. Getting influenced by other people’s emotions is easy but when you realize that you are withdrawing to have some time to your own, you are experiencing a personal change.
2. You simply know something without prior knowledge. With this, you just know and you can bet on it that you are right even when the thorough explanation lacks. Commonly referred to an inner intuition, it comes in handy in defining self-capabilities.
3. You begin to detest watching television or other media of passing across entertainment. It seems that the information provided is inhuman and degrading to you and not just entertainment.
4. The ability to distinguish between a lie and the truth. Even when the person is not sure of what exactly you are trying to hide, they will easily identify a lie from the truth. They will also identify if there are any emotions being withheld.
5. The ability to pick other people’s emotions is evident. It goes to the extent that this group of people will feel both your physical and emotional pain. Being able to stomach emotions can be devastating but with the right guidance, you will be able to re-establish your personal emotions.
6. The ability to be compassionate for the underprivileged even we have no idea who they are. These people can also feel the passion and in this, even total strangers will request for our attention in time of trouble or misfortune.
7. While taking on other emotions can be uncontrollable, there is the need to control and set boundaries.
8. In an effort to prevent other people’s emotions, turning to drugs or alcohol becomes evident.
9. Taking on fields that relate to aiding other people are more common. These include reiki, midwifery.
10. The ability to identify the occurrence of an activity before others can as if they had a head start.
11. The ability to exploit creative ventures (singing, writing, dancing) and personal imaginations.
12. Remaining in solitude is more evident as compared to others.
13. While boredom is evident, this group of persons can easily get self-entertained.
14. The belief in doing what is joyous is evident. It makes no sense that you should push yourself to doing what you do not believe in.
15. The ability to question what is wrong is evident.
16. Keeping track of time is next to impossible as long as they are exploiting their imagination.
17. Taking on a life that is the usual routine is next to impossible.
18. Authoritative behavior does not go well with this group of persons.
19. It is their nature to remain kind. However, they will not tolerate rude behavior even when they are not the victims.
20. They hold the ability to tell sources of negative energy.
21. The ability to pretend of personal emotions is difficult. In addition, confrontation is not in their character. Rather, they would rather spend time changing the world for better.
The above traits will help to identify self-awareness and if there are any changes that are worth realizing. They promote self-awareness, enhance clarity, and boost strength
Spirituality is about becoming more connected to the self and to all that is. It is completely beautiful and magical to experience the oneness and magic around you that a spiritual connection brings. The question is though, how do we get to that point? How do we become more spiritual and what is the ride down that spiritual path really like?
There is a dark side to spiritual awakenings and to be frank, most of the time, it’s messy. The road to uncovering your spiritual self is generally pretty bumpy, full of thick mud pits, and there are many roadblocks. I will not sit here and lie to you pretending that I am an enlightened guru with a perfect life. I will not tell you that spirituality is perfect and beautiful all the time. It’s not.
Becoming more spiritual means that you have to be able to look at yourself, other people, and situations with little to no bias. Spirituality teaches us to love those who have hurt us the most. It teaches us to see the lessons in every wound before it can be healed.
That doesn’t quite paint a perfect picture of zen vibes, does it? How are we supposed to love those who have hurt us, manipulated us, and abused us? How can we be grateful for financial despair or losing those that we loved the most? Isn’t spirituality supposed to be calming and make you happier?
A lot of people don’t know this but what usually triggers a spiritual awakening is a life-changing or traumatic event. These eventful seasons in our lives often send us into a spiral, sometimes upward sometimes downward. We then start to look at life from a different perspective and often times this leads to a bit of a spiritual treasure hunt.
We start seeking answers, knowing that there must be a reason for all that is happening.New sensations may show upsuch as hearing, feeling, and seeing more. Finally, we begin to accept the idea that maybe there is more to this experience than what meets the eye. Again we search for answers.
When we start to awakenwe often feel entirely disconnected from those around us as if we are peeling away from our old lives. It is a beautiful, confusing, and painful time all at once.
What is actually happening is that our soul is waking up and it’s looking to unbury who we truly are. How can we unbury our authentic selves without unburying the aspects of ourselves that we dislike the most? How can we heal aspects of ourselves without first acknowledging the wounds?
Becoming spiritually awake is not for the faint of heart but it will grow your heart by leaps and bounds. Waking up means looking at everything in and around you. You must look at yourself, your life, and those in your life. You have to stare deeply into the situations appearing before you. This is when the healing beings and the transformation starts.
We are told that meditation will give us the answers. That meditation can heal the mind and the physical body. Meditation is said to be the ultimate medication. It works for us on all levels. Mind, body, and spirit.
When I first started meditatingI didn’t get much, just a few colors and a few words. I would leave the session more relaxed but nothing extravagant was happening. Eventually, a breakthrough happened and I started seeing memories I had repressed. I was shown things I didn’t want to see about myself and others. No one told me that I could expect such a thing. I had to go back and relive the moments that hurt me the most in these meditations.
Spirit takes us on a journey when we are uncovering our spiritual side. It doesn’t take us down this path to hurt or harm us but instead to heal us and help us to become whole again.
I would go on these journeys through time having to relive even the smallest moments that hurt or angered me. Sometimes I wanted to give up and shut it all down but something inside of me said keep going.
Instead of running from what I was being shown I decided to observe it. I decided to accept those moments and venture into them. I would send love to both myself and whomever else was in the memory. I realized that had to quit running if I ever wanted to heal.
You would think that during this process I would have become more negative, sad, and depressed than before. Actually, though, the opposite happened. My relationships with those that I “hated” seemed to get better or just fade away. Certain people or the words they spoke didn’t bother me so much anymore if even at all.
Things started to get better and I was finally able to experience that spiritual high so many people talked about. I could appreciate the flowers, I could appreciate people that used to be triggers, andI could appreciate my experiences.Most importantly I could appreciate myself.
We have to remember thatraising our vibrationdoesn’t mean just living a positive life and thinking happy thoughts. Trying to think and act positively all the time takes a lot of work if you’re still broken inside. You have to return to your authentic self in order to align your vibration with that of a truly spiritual experience. To return to your authentic self you have to heal all of the wounds you wish not to see.
The road to becoming more spiritual is a messy one. A bumpy one. One full of roadblocks. But the journey is beautiful and the landscape is breathtaking.
Are you awakening and you’re confused about what is going on right now? I am happy to help ease the process with you and coach you through what you can expect!Let’s work togetherone on one to help you have the smoothest and most beautiful spiritual awakening possible!
Spiritual awakening is a notion thrown around quite a bit by many spiritualists. However, what exactly does it mean?
Spiritual awakening, in general, is something that occurs when a person is finally able to see things properly. It is when a person reaches a higher consciousness. They become more aware of who they are and what their place in this world really is.
And while it may sound crazy, you have to admit that people are beginning to question things more. Many people are becoming more awake spiritually and really breaking free from the things that have been holding them back. Spirituality in recent years has been booming.
The more aware we become the more awake we are. Conscious alertness is something becoming increasingly present around the globe and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Eckhart Tolle a prominent figure in the world of spirituality believes that it is rapidly increasing in mankind and will continue to do so.
Proof of change is all around us, whether you can see the difference in now and the past or not it is quite prominent. Frank M. Wanderer wrote an article not too long ago going over some of the research he had done in regards to the presence of conscious alertness in college students and what he found was quite impressive.
From a Tolle basis, he created a scale for conscious alertness and from there surveyed students.
His scale covered things like the reduction of the function of the ego, transcending of the functions of the ego, and alert consciousness in the present.
These things ended up playing out with alert consciousness being the most present and reduction of the function of the ego being right behind it. While this might sound a bit confusing it is very interesting when broken down.
Wanderer wrote as follows in regards to their findings:
Of the students, 9.8% rarely and 3.3% of them never or almost never experienced the longing for something more. Being offended and nursing or sustaining the sense of being offended as the strategies of reinforcing the Ego also had a diminishing tendency among many of the college students (rarely: 6.5%, never or almost never 2.6%; nursing the sense of being offended: rarely 5.2%, never or almost never 2.6%).
The prevalence of experiencing the sense of “I am right” as a strategy of sustaining and reinforcing the Ego also diminished considerably among college students. Of those college students, 5.2% of them rarely and 3.3% of them never or almost never experience this emotion.
Of the college students, 7.8% rarely experience the recklessness and dissatisfaction rooted in dissatisfied want and desires, and 1.3% of them almost never do.
The withdrawal of the Ego was the least spectacular at complaining (rarely 2.6%, never or almost never 1.3% of them complain) and boasting (2.1% boast rarely, 0.7% never or almost never do so). The prevalence of Transcending the functions of Ego was the least common among the components of the Conscious Alertness.
Within that dimension, transcending thinking and emotions were the most frequent patterns of behavior. 3.3% of the students experience this impression daily and 2% several times a day.
Of the students, 2.6% have the impression that their thoughts and emotions constitute only a small fragment of their real personalities, and 0.7% of them encounter this feeling several times a day.
In the frequency of occurrence, this was followed by the detachment from external things, which was experienced by 3.2% of the students every day and 0.7% of them several times a day.
Students appeared to be least capable of transcending the perpetual operation of thinking; only 1.4% of them experienced that the stream of their thinking was aimless and repetitive.
With more and more people being openminded and more and more people actually trying to reach higher levels of consciousness there is no beating around the bush. This is the age of spiritual awakening and things are only going to get more intense as time goes by. What do you think about all of this?
As you move into the new year, 2018, you may feel a greater emphasis within yourself to heal that which has been lingering on the outer edges of your awareness for some time. No matter what this is, whether it is a physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual wounding, it will come to the forefront to be finally acknowledged and transmuted into positive energy, that can be assimilated back into you.
The above graphic displays a very powerful affirmation for healing. I channeled this over the Christmas holiday from my Ancestors and they imparted to me that once this intention is set, healing will come rapidly and in ways you won’t normally expect. This will call for surrender and trust in yourself and in your journey. And of course, you can choose to surrender your fears and doubts about this to your spirit guides and/or Angels. They will help guide you, should you ask for their help, through moving energy blocks and dissolving past cords. It need not be a painful experience, but you have to let it in, in order to let it go.
Please note: Invoking this affirmation will bring about rapid and significant realignment in many areas of your life. You must be ready to face that which has hindered you overall well-being. But it’s worth it. Healing yourself opens you up to realizing your authentic expression. Authenticity yields to real magic.
When you are ready to start the healing process, affirm: “I accept healing on all levels.” Say it as many times as it takes to really feel it throughout. Feel it throughout your whole body and push that intention outwards into your auric field. Then let it go. Don’t give much thought to how this will come about. Surrender and allow it and trust that your guides got your back. This is not going to go how you think it will. And that’s an immensely great thing, because our silly minds analyze too much, often leading to thinking of worst case scenarios – it’s our programming, and we all have it. Surrender without the need to know how, and prepare yourself to be pleasantly surprised.
2018 will also be a year of spiritual advancement
2018 adds up to 11, so it will be an 11 year. 11 is the number of spiritual awakening. This will be a big year for many people in regards to getting in touch with their soul. This will take many forms. The point is, we are realigning our priorities en masse. We are going to expect more from ourselves and from our lives – we will begin to push the barriers of the 5 senses, knowing that we are capable of much more than that – we can perceive and use our intuition to clearly see our past, present and future. The veils have come down, the 3D matrix is deactivated, and now we are building upon a new 5D Earth crystalline grid. So everything is new – we are charting uncharted seas with every living breath and every step we take.
What will you create?
Instant manifestation will pick up speed this year. Watching your thoughts and directing them will become a skill you add to your repertoire, and you will eventually see the necessity of thinking about what you want (positive thinking). The reason why these concepts have been around for some time is because positive thinking has always yielded positive results, it just took a long time for manifestations to take hold in the dense 3rd dimension, which allowed time for doubt or fear to creep in and halt the manifestations. In 2018, manifestations will be instant so it is no longer an option to have doubt, fear, or a negative mindset – that is, not unless you’re looking to have a rough go of it. Many lightworkers have used the 2012-2017 window to practice these concepts in the 4D landscape. Many of us are used to it by now, and it will serve us well in the months to come.
Does it help you to make lists? Write down everything you want in 2018! Get the whole family involved, if you want. It’s fun to dream up your new year. Writing has always helped me formulate my thoughts, intentions and manifestations, and I know it helps many others. Make a commitment to yourself to think good thoughts, want positive outcomes, and above all, shower yourself in unconditional love, be patient with yourself and others. Just like learning a language is easiest if you’re immersed in the country where it is spoken, you will learn the language of love-light very quickly as we go deeper into these divine energies, and you’ll be manifesting your dreams with ease. Trust yourself. Your higher self (which is YOU) knows the way.
YOU ARE LOVED!
Love, Theresa
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Theresa is a psychic intuitive, clear channel, spirit translator and writer. She offers personal e-Book readings in which she channels answers to your submitted questions via your spirit guides, higher self, angels, other lives and/or loved ones in spirit. Learn more about this here. Theresa also offers Tarot and Oracle card readings, complete with spread charts, photos, and intuitive interpretations. Check out Services and Readings for more information about these offerings.
As the vibration of the universe is rising, it is fuelling the spiritual awakening of more and more people.
Even people who loosely understand the meaning of spirituality believe in a higher purpose, a grand scheme that is edging them closer to the meaning of their existence.
Are you one of those people who is going through a spiritual shift? Let us analyse some of the most frequent signs of spiritual awakening to help you answer that question.
10 Common Signs of Spiritual Awakening
Ambivalence and emotional turbulence are the salient features of enlightenment.
Even the slightest of problems may cause you to break down in tears. What’s important is staying true to your feelings, and letting them unravel with time.
You feel a personal connection to nature.
You see things more vividly. You understand the healing aspects of life and how it has the ability to uplift moods. You start to take a curious interest in different colours and shapes.
Vacillating Energy
Vacillating energy levels are quite common in people who are undergoing awakening. At times, they might feel exhausted, and at other times, they might have an attitude that makes them want to conquer the world.
Everything Feels Different
Everything feels different inside of you, from your beliefs and thoughts to physiological processes. A wave of disillusionment disrupts your senses.
You start to gather the courage to break free from social templates and karmic relationships. As your vibration rises, you no longer tolerate negative influences in your life.
Shift Towards Healthy Life Style
Everything around us has energy, including food. The dishes that you used to adore are no longer be liked by you. You start to shift towards a healthy lifestyle.
Change Of Career
If you’re stuck in a job that you hate, you’ll have this intense urge to quit it.
You will no longer feel bound to a desk job that steers you away from your latent talents. You’ll rediscover yourself, and only have a natural inclination towards those professions you have a natural flair for.
Nothing in this universe is accidental.
On the contrary, everything coincidental heralds a major shift. This is how the universe propels towards spiritual awakening.
So, as you’re progressing towards a heightened state, you’ll stumble across more and more inexplicable happenings.
Heightened Physical Symptoms
Physical and mental symptoms, such as a headache, flu, depression and anxiety are quite common during spiritual awakening. Don’t worry! You’re going to be all right. Your endurance will come to fruition.
Stronger Intuition
It will become exceptionally more natural for you to judge the moods and behaviours of people around you.
You’ll know when they’re sad, happy, lost etc. This happens because as our vibration rises, our intuition becomes more equipped to pick up emotional signals.
Conclusion
These 10 common signs of spiritual awakening can have different effects on different people.
What’s important is to embrace them and try to understand what they’re trying to change within you. Not only will this catalyse the process of spiritual awakening but also help you stabilise much faster.
If you are feeling lost after your spiritual awakening, then don’t worry, because you are not alone.
Every person who gets blessed by attaining this higher form has to suffer the same consequences. We are humans who have a good memory.
We can remember things that we have learned them in our childhood. After being spiritually awake, it is not easy to separate your past from the present.
The process of spiritual awakening comes with lots of pain. You need to shed off layer after layer of your old beliefs which leads to the ultimate fight within you that you have never witnessed before.
Your ego tells you that if you leave your past, you will get nothing in the future; while your mind and heart assure you that you will not regret your decision.
When you are spiritually awakened, you lose your identity and the world as you know it. It is same as being born from your mother’s womb again.
You have no trace of where to go and how to complete the journey because there is so much going on in your mind.
It is very likely that you will disconnect entirely with the world until you are completely stable. That means you have to fight the world as well as yourself.
You are not blind anymore – you are not hiding in your comfort zone. You have popped the bubble of cosiness, and you came out to see the reality of the world.
You can clearly see what is going on around you and it is hard for you to accept your negligence. Being spiritual awaken means you know your real purpose in life, and you need to become an excellent example for everyone around.
But you also know that your past is full of mistakes that no one can compensate. You have done lots of things that you shouldn’t have. You feel lost because you don’t know how to amend them.
Things that you used to love don’t mean anything to you anymore. You are not materialistic any longer. You find peace in places that you have never been.
Your friends don’t look the same now. You crave for better company. You like being alone, although you were a social person.
Even your job doesn’t feel okay, and you want to do a lot for the betterment of society. You feel confused because you don’t know where to start.
You will feel lost, you might feel crazy, but remember that things will improve over time. You have achieved the best thing in your life, and you will know it after a while.
If you want to overcome this insanity, then flow with the flow. You need to surrender and stop fighting. The sooner you accept your new cravings and choices, without thinking about your previous identity, the better your days will become.
Don’t worry about the people around you. The person who is faithful to you will remain by your side no matter what. For those who don’t understand your situation, it is better to leave them for your new life.
If you’re either planning to go into recovery or are in recovery and just entering your journey into being clean or sober, you’ll likely often hear about people having a spiritual awakening. This is especially true if you’re following a 12-step or similar program, where spirituality and religion are embraced as strong factors in addiction recovery. No matter which path you follow, understanding what is meant by a spiritual awakening will help you to realize that recovery means going well beyond simply quitting drugs and alcohol.
While a spiritual awakening will naturally differ for everyone, it’s an important part of moving to a stage where you don’t rely on drugs or alcohol to enjoy life. More importantly, it’s part of the process of learning to enjoy little things in life which you might find boring or irrelevant while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
A Spiritual Awakening in 12-Step Treatment
For the millions of people following some form of 12 step, a spiritual awakening refers to not just the process of recovery but is a necessary step in the journey from being an addict to being in recovery. Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous stated, “An alcoholic is a fellow who is ‘trying to get his religion out of a bottle,’ when what he really wants is unity within himself, unity with God. . .”
Spiritual Awakening is a necessary and important part of recovering from addiction in 12-step, and often one which is the final goal of treatment.
Does Addiction Have a Spiritual Element?
It’s well understood that addiction is a chronic and relapsing disorder, with mental and cognitive effects changing how the brain things, acts, and functions. While there are naturally many physical repercussions as well, including trauma and PTSD, damage to the gastrointestinal tract, often lack of sleep and nutrition, and consistent harmful levels of chemicals in the body, the mental and cognitive effects can be more harmful. For example, most substances contribute to a phenomenon known as emotional blunting, where the “high” or the increased levels of dopamine, serotonin, opioid, or GABA receptor stimulation in the brain during the high result in a crash afterwards. Without the artificial stimulation, many people are left feeling bored, restless, or depressed without the drug, which contributes to further substance abuse. Addiction eventually results in a vicious cycle of using substances to create a sense of self and to feel good, where your only goal is to get high again and continue to feel good.
This is naturally extremely bad for you on a spiritual level, even under the modern definition which does not include religion, only the deep values and meanings by which people live.
What is a Spiritual Awakening in Recovery?
Most 12-step groups define a spiritual awakening as the shift away from looking to alcohol or drugs to solve life problems such as stress and boredom and towards actively working to improve, to enjoy yourself, and to create a better life for yourself. While this exact process will vary depending on you, where you started, and how you started, there are often clear signs you are going through or have experienced a spiritual awakening.
Experiencing and Sharing Emotions – Emotional blunting prevents you from fully experiencing or sharing emotions, leading many to withdraw from friends and family or fail to enjoy experiences with friends and family while with them. Many people experience this through increased joy, more expression, an ability to enjoy smaller things, and being less closed off around others.
A Changing Attitude – Many people enter recovery defiant and unwilling to change. Even if you chose recovery for yourself, it’s not something most people experience or accept easily. Chances are you still suffered from the cognitive effects of substance abuse, the behavioral implications of substance abuse, and your health was in bad shape, contributing to anxiety and depression. As your health recovers, you go through behavioral therapy, and you are able to distance yourself from the mental attitudes contributing to substance abuse, your attitude begins to change. For many people, this means you can accept criticism, are eager to share and listen, and are willing to accept advice and help from others.
Improved Outlook – As you experience a spiritual awakening, your perception of yourself and the world around you will change. While this does tie into emotional blunting and chemical imbalances in the brain, it is a process that will change who you are at the deepest level. For example, you begin to recognize what you are good at and why, to appreciate yourself and the work you’re putting into sobriety, and your ability to change. You’ll also recognize that good and bad things happen, you’ll have to deal with them, but drugs and alcohol don’t have to be involved.
Improved Well-Being – During addiction, the chances of you waking up just feeling happy or good would be very low. After a spiritual awakening, it should be normal. The shift from feeling numb and depressed to feeling alive and energetic is one that takes time, but it will happen.
A spiritual awakening is the process of facing emotional and physical truths about yourself, learning, and moving on. It’s not something that will happen overnight, but with time, support from your 12-step or recovery group, actively working on yourself with behavioral therapy and stress management, and learning to move back into life, you will experience the personal journey towards spiritual awakening. Even in 12-step groups, this process doesn’t necessarily have to include God, as many 12-step groups now support your higher power being whatever you like, even yourself and your confidence in your own ability to stay clean or sober. While this often includes God, many people choose to believe in whatever adds purpose, structure, and guidance to their lives, even if that’s their own sense of discipline.
Spiritual awakening is normally the process of moving beyond the person who used substances to live. It often means becoming a new person, because your personality, motivation, and outlook on life will change. The longer you’ve been addicted to a substance the bigger the transformation will be, and the more noticeable it will be. Religion and spirituality can positively affect mental health, especially for recovering addicts who need the grounding and structure provided by a spiritual practice (even if it is just meditation), to figure out who they are and what they want.
No matter where you are on the journey to recovery, getting help is the first step. A good rehabilitation facility will give you the tools and background to recognize and recover from the behaviors and underlying problems resulting in addiction. Cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, and group therapy, alongside complementary therapies like stress management and family therapy, will give you the tools to move forward after detox. And, after you’ve completed rehab, you can easily move into a sober living home or into a 12-step group to ensure that you continue to receive mental and emotional support as you move along your journey to recovery and spiritual awakening.
Millions of people in the United States are addicted to substances, millions more have recovered. You are not alone, and there is help when you are ready to recover.
“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished… that will be the beginning.” ~ Louis L’amour
Those knee deep in the awakening/ascension process know it is not for the faint of heart. There is perhaps nothing more terrifying and painful to the human being than being confronted physically and energetically with the very things it has judged, been afraid of, or attempted to avoid for years.
In order for the integration of our ego to take place we must go through the very belief systems we have about ourselves and life that have been preventing us from discovering our true nature.
On the physical level this integration may manifest as detrimental circumstances that incite the emotions within us that still need to be healed, while on the energetic level it may manifest as tightness in our chest, the inability to breathe properly or just an underlying tingling sensation in different parts of our body.
Those that are experiencing the shift in consciousness first, are not only here healing their own emotional “stuff”, but for a time they are also healing the emotional upsets of the entire planet. A “lightworker” is one who is filtering the energies for the human collective by using the light that they have accredited to heal lower vibrational energies for the collective unconscious.
Although those going through the awakening process may experience somewhat similar symptoms, each person will experience each symptom in their own personal way and to the extreme that is relevant for their individual process.
Nonetheless, there are some symptoms that you may have been experiencing that you had no idea were due to your awakening journey. Below are 5 unique awakening symptoms that you may be experiencing.
1) Depression
“Many people who are going through the early stages of the awakening process are no longer certain of what their outer purpose is. What drives the world no longer drives them. Seeing the madness of our civilization so clearly, they feel somewhat alienated from the culture around them. Some feel that they inhabit a no mans land between two worlds. They are no longer run by the ego, yet the arising awareness has not yet become fully integrated into their lives. Inner and outer purpose have not merged.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
As drop by the wayside only to be replaced with nothing but emptiness, the initial reaction by our conscious mind may be to judge this as sadness or deep depression.
As our inner chatter begins to quiet down and we have long periods of silence, it can begin to feel oddly strange or even boring comparatively, to the incessant self-talk that once was. We are making way for an entire new reality and sense of being to emerge but in order for that to happen we must lose what we thought we were.
This transition period of the ego being integrated into the light of our being can at times feel deeply depressing, but rest assured that all is well and this is a completely normal symptom. Soon stillness becomes a feeling of tranquil peace that we carry within us at all times.
2) Illness
We often don’t listen to the calls of our body to slow down, take time out and rest. Since we are shifting energetically quite rapidly our body needs this downtime in order for our physical body to catch up. Since we often are the last person to give ourselves the tender loving care that our bodies need, the universe often puts us into a situation in which we are forced to take a break, and this can often externalize as sickness or an illness.
Being sick is never fun, but we are never put into circumstances that are not ultimately making us better in some way. Even if the illness becomes the transition period that we are shifted from this life to the afterlife, it is important to remember that nothing has gone “wrong”. Everything is happening exactly as it should and we should never blame ourselves for “manifesting” a time out of sorts.
3) Confusion
“In the process of burning out the confusions, we discover enlightenment. If the process were otherwise, the awakened state of mind would be a product dependent on cause and effect and therefore liable to dissolution. Anything that is created must, sooner or later, die. If enlightenment were created in such a way, there would always be a possibility of ego reasserting itself, returning to the confused state. Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it; we have merely discovered it.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa
Another symptom that can actually become quite terrifying at times is confusion. The ego that we are integrating is based in ideas and beliefs, as it unravels it can become quite disorienting to no longer have any idea who we “are”, and what we are doing here or with our life in general.
As our conscious mind desperately tries to cling to the concepts and ideas that once filled our being, it can begin to feel like we are trying to hold on to water. The minute we look for these ideas they completely slip out of our awareness and we are left with a completely confused state of consciousness that quite literally has no idea what to do, or what to “believe” in, so to speak. Again, this is another stage that gets better over time and one that leads to us being completely at peace with uncertainty.
4) Apathy
Another stage that happens upon us as we are merging into our true nature is apathy.
We may have felt completely ambitious, motivated and excited about our awakening process when it first began only to later begin to feel completely un-enthused as we get into the depths of it. This is all perfectly normal.
We are coming into alignment with not only our true nature but also our true purpose in life and the goals and dreams we once had for ourselves may be completely out of alignment with what we are really here to do.
The transition period between what we once thought our life would be to becoming the person that we are destined to be can have us feeling slightly out of sorts and even unexcited about life. As we become our awareness over time, we begin to shift with the tides of our destiny in perfect relaxation, knowing that all is well.
5) Life feels as though it has slowed down
As the inner stillness of our being starts to become our natural state, it can feel as though someone has pressed the slow motion button on our reality.
We are beginning to resonate with the soft simplicity of reality and with this we can also begin to recognize small little “gifts” from the universe that we may not have noticed before.
It may be seeing a beautiful butterfly dancing in the wind or feeling completely at peace and calm watching people at a busy airport, but nonetheless as the hurried reality that once was our life becomes replaced with an underlying stillness, we begin to see life from an entirely new perspective.
The concept of Twin Flames is not as simple as it seems. When Twin Souls find and recognize each other in the Earth plane, they trigger a strong and powerful awakening process that brings many beautiful and many not as beautiful things that the partners need to experience in order to achieve higher consciousness.
Twin Flames are actually one soul that decided to incarnate in two different bodies, so it’s very understandable that these two parts will constantly be drawn to one another, which usually results in great changes on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level.
So, here we give you some of the most notable changes that a person can go through after they meet their Twin Flame and their awakening process is triggered.
Deep Sadness and Disappointment:
Before meeting its Twin Flame, a soul often feels incomplete, like a part of it has been displaced or taken away. Once the Twins reunite, the soul starts discovering the true purpose of its reincarnation.
This is a moment when your soul starts feeling bad about your past experiences, sadness takes over and a strange feeling of nostalgia for the time you’ve spent alone, without your twin.
Sometimes, sadness is all you see, and you start to cry. You want to stop, but it is out of your hands; tears drain the old and negative energy out of you.
However, this feeling, fortunately, doesn’t stick around for long.
Friends and Family Feel Distant:
Past karma connects you and your biological family. Meeting your twin releases you from your karmic cycle; the breaking of the bond will make you feel that your family doesn’t feel same and so will your old friends.
But once your soul gains power again, you won’t feel distant from them and may initiate a new relationship with them that has no karmic background, but it is built solely on love and care you have for them.
Sleeping Patterns Become Unusual:
Spiritual awakening is not a simple task and requires lots of energy. As so much is going on within you, you find it hard to sleep properly at night especially between 2:00 and 4:00 AM. At this time, the veil between our world and the spiritual world is the thinnest, and your soul wants you to gain more.
Feeling Drained And Without Energy:
When you are under the energy shift, sometimes your body is unable to come up with new energy transitions, and that causes physical disorientation. You don’t feel like leaving your bed, walking becomes quite hard, and you feel lazy. When your body learns to ground the new energy, you will feel active again. Your neck, shoulders and back also hurt for no apparent reason.
Nothing Excites You Anymore:
Nothing seems to excite you at all. You don’t want to do anything. As you are in the process of spiritual awakening, you need to reboot. It’s just like shutting your computer down and then restarting it. There could also be a change in career or job because nothing seems to fit anymore and you want to change.
Your dreams turn into a freakshow. Nightmares become part of your every-day life, and seeing war, monsters, and suffering is almost normal to you. Don’t worry, this is a sign that some old and stale energy is being released.
Extreme Desire To Go Back Home:
Even though the earth is your home, you don’t feel like it. You want to go away somewhere out of this world; you wish to go home. As you have finished your karmic cycles, old energies are drained from you. You have changed with new energy, and your old life didn’t make sense. You want to leave everything behind and move ahead with your twin to achieve your higher self.
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“Awakening is not changing who you are but discarding who you are not.” – Deepak Chopra
A spiritual awakening means something different to everyone, but most of us have a few signs in common when we do go through changes on this level. Awakening spiritually has a lot to do with shedding your old self and beliefs and coming into a fuller understanding of who you are on a deep cosmic level. It doesn’t mean you’ve changed, as the wise Chopra said above, but rather, you’ve shifted your perspective and no longer see the world and yourself through a limited lens. You see the big picture, and understand that you’re a small part of a grander plan and the whole plan at the same time. With all of these spiritual changes and new understandings come changes both mentally and physically, as well.
We’ll go over some of the symptoms you may experience as you go through a spiritual awakening.
Here are 6 physical signs of a spiritual awakening:
1. Your senses are magnified.
You’ll feel, hear, see, smell, and taste everything much more vividly. You might taste more flavors in the foods you eat, and actually be able to distinguish between them. Colors will seem more vibrant to you, and the world may seem “sharper.” You might hear more conversations going on with other people in public than you had before, simply because your hearing is amplified. Smells, both good and bad, are more apparent to you now. All of these changes occur because your vibration, or frequency, is rising rapidly, which comes with the ability to sense everything more intensely.
2. A desire for a healthier lifestyle.
As you continue to go down your spiritual path, you might have a desire to feel “lighter.” You’ll want to eliminate everything from your life that weighs you down, including poor diet and lifestyle habits. The foods we eat have a great impact on how we feel mentally and emotionally, and you will likely have an inclination to eat a much more clean diet. Your vibration is increasing, so naturally, you’ll want to give your body the foods it needs to keep your energy levels up. Even if you haven’t been much of a fan of exercise, you might find yourself engaging in more physical activities, as well.
3. Weird sleeping patterns.
With all of the energetic changes happening to you, you might find yourself having odd sleeping routines. Some nights, it could take you hours to go to sleep, and other nights, you might get into bed and fall asleep immediately. You may find yourself waking in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and have difficulty falling back asleep. If you’ve never suffered from insomnia before, you may find that it’s now becoming an issue. Simply put, you’ll have nights where you can’t wait to get into bed and go to sleep, and others where you don’t feel tired at all. It’s all a normal part of your spiritual awakening, so don’t worry too much. If you do have difficulty getting to sleep, try to have a relaxing bedtime routine and stay off electronics a couple hours before bed.
4. Tingling sensation in your head.
As your consciousness literally expands, this will cause inevitable changes in your brain. New information and knowledge is passing through your brain every day, and this may result in “funny” feelings in your brain. As long as you don’t have co-occurring migraines with the tingling sensations, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The pressure in your head is simply trying to balance itself out due to the expansion of consciousness that you’re experiencing.
5. Your emotions are more turbulent.
You might ask “How is this a physical sensation?”Well, emotions have a very real physical response in our bodies. You might feel exuberant one day, leading to increased energy and more feel-good chemicals being released. However, you might feel moody and depressed the next day, which would result in low energy and more cortisol in your body. All of these chemical reactions in your body will also have an effect on your emotions, which creates a vicious cycle indeed. Don’t try to fight your emotions; just go with the flow and allow them to pass through you without judgement. Then, release them gently and make sure to take time for self-care and healing during this time.
6. Cravings for certain foods.
As you become more in touch with your mind, body, and spirit, you’ll start to know exactly what your body needs to function optimally. If you find yourself craving salty foods, this means you need to include more vegetables in your diet. If you crave something sweet, go for an apple or banana. You will start to learn the ins and outs of your body and will begin to listen to it for information about what it requires nutritionally. You might also have a sudden distaste for foods you used to love, such as pizza, ice cream, or anything “heavy.” Food intolerances might creep up on you as well, due to your DNA literally changing as you continue to evolve spiritually.
Spiritual awakening after meeting soulmate: Most people experience spiritual awakening after meeting their soulmate. The concept of love has been misinterpreted now and again. To most people, love is an undying energy.
Well, in this article, I want to set the record straight. Not every love weathers the crushing tide of time. Sometimes, love enters into our lives to propel us towards spiritual awakening.
Most of us are cynics because we don’t understand the arrival and departure of love. Tell me, if a meaningful thing departs from your life, will its impact on your life fade away as well? Of course not! Spiritual awakening extricates us from the materialistic dump of the world.
It opens our heart to unceasing love and light. And sometimes the medium of this spiritual awakening is transitory soulmate unions.
Just because our relationship with our soulmates doesn’t last, it doesn’t mean that the time we spent with them was useless.
Spiritual Awakening after Meeting Soulmate: Siblings, friends, family and loved ones
Soulmates can be our siblings, friends, family, loved ones or even complete strangers. Most people believe that they will only have one soulmate in their lives, but that is farther from the truth.
We have so many soulmates in our lives, and each one of them teaches us valuable lessons about love, betrayal, joy and grief, raising our vibration in the process.
Forget about the “till-death-do-us-part” romanticism for a bit and try to grasp the importance of fleeting relationships. Most of us our relationships turn bitter fast, but they also make us spiritually stronger. In a way, soulmates are a vehicle of spiritual ascension.
How? Let’s expand on this topic and understand this further.
It’s emotionally overwhelming and teeters between borderline happiness and euphoria. But, this powerful spark sometimes misleads people into thinking that this person is “the one”.
However, this is not always true. Let me make it clear to you, earlier in this post; soulmates are not your destined beloved to be. Your fated partners are your twin flames.
But let’s not deviate from the topic at hand and keep the discussion centred at soulmates.
Soulmates and emotional baggage
Soulmates partially complement you. You might feel as if they’re the missing puzzle of your soul.
They might have complementary beliefs, concepts, traits and that might make you think that they complete you. But, that line of thinking is driven by cultural stereotypes.
Your soulmate is not here to complete you. They are here to give you the power to make yourself whole. Your soulmate mirrors your pain.
There are so many emotional conflicts within us that need resolution. We never resolve them until we muster up the courage to face them head-on. Our soulmate drives us, or sometimes even coerces us, to face these dark energies within us.
Most people undergo the dark night of the soul after meeting their soul mates. The dark night of the soul is a period of constant anguish.
During this period, you struggle against your deepest insecurities. After successfully navigating the dark night of the soul, you emerge as a changed person.
You spiritually illuminate and leave emotional scars, obsolete beliefs, and manipulative influences behind you.
But is it really? Is Spiritual Awakening a destination or an endless pursuit? To sustain a perpetual state of spiritual awakening, there’s a lot that still needs to be done.
You need emotional consistency and resolve to stay true to your purpose. After knowing the meaning of your existence, you must strive to carve it into reality. And that takes a lifetime.
There’s more to life than meets the eye. The first stage of spiritual awakening is spiritual disillusionment.
Shedding of old beliefs. After it completes, your new perspective of the world ends in a spiritual plateau, and then monotony settles in. Staying in that static state of inner peace and happiness is a demanding ordeal in itself.
But there are some things that you can do to extricate yourself out of that apathy, and use your enlightenment for the greater good. Here’s what you can do.
Coexist with other Enlightened Beings
Spiritual Awakening is a highly subjective experience. The means and ends vary for different people. Interacting with enlightened people can give you valuable insight into the world of spirituality.
You can learn more about enlightenment than you already know, through their experiences.
For me, Interactions with likeminded people proved to be a turning point in my life. It propelled me to help the people around me and spread the message of love and life.
Every day, I was discovering something new about love and life through them. A curious mind, as I am, I was inclined to stay true to my path.
Stay Alert to the Rise of your Self-Ego
Some people forget that our self-ego. The powerful force that births negativities like self-hatred, never really dies. It can resurrect itself. However, after a spiritual awakening, it’s much easier to identify its resurrection and kill it in its wake.
It’s important to remember the triggers and factors that breathe life into it. Even after enlightenment, you can’t show apathy or take anything for granted.
Every day is a struggle, remember that. Although, the battle is much more directed and purposeful after you’ve awakened.
It takes many years before we acclimatise to the after effects of spiritual awakening. Sorrow, emptiness, demotivation and depression persist.
To condition yourself to your enlightened state, you must eliminate repetitive patterns that break your awakened state. For example, you mustn’t let the same derogatory opinions and thoughts spring up in your mind. Allowing them through the front door might lay waste to years of endless struggle.
Life after spiritual awakening is demanding and arduous, but it’s worth it. At least you know you’re facing the challenges of life for a higher purpose, one that’s greater than you and me.
“Creating The Golden Head” Is A Sufi Phrase Which Comes Before Illumination. It Refers To The Practise Of Samadhi (Sam – With, Adhi – The Light) Burning Out All The Impurities.
Spiritual Gold, “The More You Heat It – The More It Shines” Thiruvalluvar, Tamil Siddha
If We Can Get Our Bodies Square To The Earth, Base Chakra Rooted In The Earths Center, Head In The Central Spiritual Sun.. Speed Up! Power Up!
Why Do No Other Courses Have These Polarities Inbuilt –
Why Do They Make You Search For 20 Years In Order To Find Them?
The Golden Head – Base Chakra Rooted In The Earths Center, Head In The Central Spiritual Sun
Has Been Removed From All Traditional Meditations – Thus “Traditional Forms Of Meditation Are Designed To Fail!!”
Read All The Techniques Taken Out Of Traditional Meditations And Put Back By Energy Enhancement!!
Power Up!!
With Energy Enhancement!!
The Energy Enhancement Connection
“Connect, Only Connect” – Goethe
Electricity Needs Two Polarities In Order To Flow – Rooted In The Earth – Head In The Center Of The Universe – If You Are Not Connected, If You Are Blocked At Either Pole – Electricity Will Not Flow
Buddha Knew About The Golden Head Too But All World Religion Is Run By, “Those Who Came After”
“If The Map Is Correct – Spiritual Experience Surely Follows” – Satchidanand
Golden Light Surges Into My Brain…
“A Point Of Light Explodes, It Opens And Golden Light Surges In To My Brain From The Center Of My Head. Like Liquid Light It Fills Me Up And At The Same Time The Universe Is Born, The Light Expands Forming Energies That Divide And Merge Forming Particles Eventually Forming Atoms, Molecules Which Form Stardust Stars Solar Systems Galaxies, Planets And The They Form Life, Living Cells That Connect To Form A Physical Brain, Manifestation Of The Cosmic Mind And Consciousness, Eventually Reaching My Cortex And I Open My Eyes And Remember My Self.
My Center Is The Center Of The Universe, The Circle Is Complete! I Am Absolutely Everything. All Time Is Curved Around Me, All Galactic Systems Are Me, All Life Is Me And I Am Through This Small Body I Am Complete. My Personal Mind Goes In To Absolute Shock, Into Hysterical Laughter That I Cannot Stop. I Am Overflowing Billion Times Billion. Infinite Amount Of Information Fills Me In A Timeless Time, My Consciousness Is Flowing From The Beginningless Beginning Of All Reaching The Final Destination Of All.
The Grand Cycle Is Complete And I Encounter All The Infinite Forms Of Existence As Well As The Formless Forms Of Enlightenment Beings, The Future. I Am, One With My Self From The Future! From The Times Of Conscious Creation. There Is Only Space, All Of My Meridians Are One! Stretching Through All The Creation. Then I Leave My Body And I Am Guided Through Many Things That I Cannot Explain Or Remember In My Current State.”
As We Were Talking Well Into The Night At The End Of Our Energy Enhancement Course At Iguassu Together.
After He Has Removed Many Energy Blockages Over The Last Four Weeks. Blockages Above The Crown Chakra In The Antahkarana Which Were Preventing Him From Re-connecting With The Source Of All Life. He Described One Of The Blockages Between One Million And Infinity Of Chakras Above The Head As A Dense Translucent Crystal Which Was Incredibly Difficult To Remove, Different From The Other Blockages Which He Had Found Below It Which Were Dense And Covered With A Black Tarry Substance Or Blood And Which Were More Easy To Transmute And Dissolve.
We Eventually Get Into A State Of Energy Transfer. We Both Feel It As White Light Flowing From One To The Other In An Incredibly Intense Way Which Lasts For Two Hours. At The End Of That Time I Perceive An Initiation Which Is Taking Place On The Astral Plane. Surrounded By A Group Of Ascended Masters I Introduce Him To The Chief Initiator Who Uses The Rod Of Initiation To Touch His Third Eye With The Intense Energies Of Initiation So That His Energies Can Never Again Drop Into That State We Call Normal Waking Consciousness.
Never To Lose The Light Of Enlightenment, Ever Again!!
Technology has enabled us to access a wealth of information from all fields of knowledge with just a few computer keystrokes. But with all this compiled knowledge, are there questions for which you still cannot find answers?
There is a source of wisdom within you that cannot be accessed through an internet search. It is awaiting deep within you. Instead of logging on to the computer, you can log into your own inner essence, or soul, through meditation. This will lead you to a source of wisdom that will enrich your life. What is spiritual awakening?
Maybe you wonder about your spirit or soul, if you are more than just a body and mind. Spiritual awakening is the moment you begin asking these questions.
It marks the start of your quest to find answers. If you find that what is available through outer knowledge, whether from books or the internet, is not satisfying, you may wish to learn a way to explore further by looking within, where all wisdom awaits. Learning how to meditate is a technique that can help you find what you are looking for.
When you seek answers and can’t find them, you may feel restless or frustrated. You may be seeking answers to your purpose in life, who you are, and why you are here. This restlessness is often the start of your spiritual awakening.
The answers are already within you, waiting to be unlocked through the practice of meditation. Discover how to enter your personal sanctuary of bliss and joy through meditation, leading to inner and outer peace.
DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author’s own.
Going through a spiritual awakening is one of the most confusing, lonely, alienating, but also supremely beautiful experiences in life.
Put simply, spiritual awakenings mark the beginning of your initiation on the spiritual path. Without experiencing a spiritual awakening, we go throughout life pursuing the emptiness of money, fame, power, and respect in an attempt to find “happiness.”
If you have experienced a spiritual awakening, you have come to see through the lies and illusions of this world. Deep in your soul, you realize that nothing external has ever, and can ever, bring you true happiness or fulfillment. This profound realization leaves you craving for something richer, more fulfilling, and something that will make you feel whole once again.
If you’re looking for answers, if you’re thirsting for a direction in life, this page will share with you everything you need to know. On this page, you will find all the possible resources you need for the beginning of your journey including what spiritual awakening is, common spiritual awakening symptoms, and much more.
If you feel this page may help a friend or family member close to you, please share it and pass along this vital information.
What is a Spiritual Awakening?
So, what is the process of spiritual awakening, and how can you know that you’ve experienced one?
When we have a spiritual awakening, we literally “wake up” to life. We begin to question our old beliefs, habits, and ideals, and see that there is much more to life than what we have been taught.
It is common to ask questions such as, “Why am I here?” “What is the purpose of my life?” “What happens after death?” “Why do good people suffer?” and other questions that examine the fundamental nature of life during your awakening. Spiritual awakenings stir the deepest and most significant questions within us that we have been putting off asking or have been too scared to touch.
If you’ve experienced a spiritual awakening, you might crave to find the meaning of your life and whether there is a “higher state” of being. Searching for God, or for the Divine, is a common desire during this experience.
Why Do Spiritual Awakenings Happen?
So, why do spiritual awakenings happen in the first place?
Spiritual awakenings happen as a natural product of soulful maturity. Soulful maturity is the process of inner growth, maturation, and expansion. Just as everything in life grows, so too does our connection with our Souls.
The more you connect to your Souls, the more you experience transformation. The more you come to embody your Soul, the more you taste true and lasting joy, peace, fulfillment, freedom, and love.
While the spiritual awakening process can feel painful and disturbing at first, it ultimately helps you to live a more meaningful life. The sensation that your life doesn’t make sense anymore is the product of having all of your former beliefs, desires, and paradigms challenged, and often disproven. This is traumatic, but a necessary part of your expansion.
What Triggers the Spiritual Awakening Process?
You might be curious to know what activates spiritual awakenings.
The answer is that a lot of circumstances can! There really is no one answer.
Spiritual awakenings can happen at any moment or period in your life. They can be spontaneous, but they can also be triggered by major life changes, illnesses, tragedies, and traumas such as life-threatening illnesses, car accidents, divorces, war, midlife crises, and much more.
Generally speaking, the spiritual awakening process happens in conjunction with an experience known as The Dark Night of the Soul. The Dark Night of the Soul is a period in life when we feel completely cut off from God/Divinity. The more conscious we become of the intense suffering in the world, the more chance the experience of The Dark Night of the Soul is likely to occur.
If you’re highly sensitive to the suffering of others and are a deep thinker by nature, it is possible that you have gone through, or are currently going through, a Dark Night of the Soul. Likely, this experience has triggered a spiritual awakening within you – or the pursuit to make sense of life, and end the suffering within yourself and others.
10 Spiritual Awakening Symptoms
There are many spiritual awakening symptoms. In fact, spiritual awakening symptoms are not only emotional but also psychological and even physical. Here are ten of the most common symptoms out there. See how many you can identify with:
Feeling as though your life has changed forever
Uncertainty and fear
No longer liking what you once liked to do
Extreme desire for solitude
Feeling greater empathy for others
Becoming more sensitive
Asking questions such as “Why am I here?” and “What is my life purpose?”
Thirst for truth and spiritual self-fulfillment
Spiritual awakenings mark the beginning of our spiritual paths. However, spiritual awakenings can be shocking, painful and extremely unsettling periods of our lives. Often people who experience spiritual awakenings feel as though their entire lives have been turned upside down and inside out. This experience can therefore lead to self-isolation and even problems such as depression and chronic anxiety.
This whole website is dedicated to helping you navigate through this difficult, but intensely meaningful, part of your life. Both of us know how harrowing this experience can be, and we want you to know that you are most definitely not alone.
The main way we can help you through this experience is through a path we call Soulwork. Soulwork is the practice of reconnecting with your Soul, and by learning how to reconnect with your Soul, you will grow into the Awakened being you’re destined to become.
We write a lot about Soulwork on this website and have many resources that can help you through this period of your life. You can find them all below.
Both of us have experienced the spiritual awakening process, and the best advice we can give you in this very moment is to learn to treat yourself with love and compassion. You deserve your own kindness and compassion more than anyone else at this point in your life. And by learning to take care of yourself, you’ll be able to genuinely care for others.
We hope with all our heart that this page helps open a new sacred door in your life and provide some much-needed answers.
Did life suddenly become easier for you? Is everything you observe in this world now clear? In a way it is, but with that clarity, you now have much angst about the world you are living in. This is because you see everything and everyone for who and what they are and not through a lens of illusion that everyone else is looking through.
How we get these insights The italic text within this post is the channeled information from Linda’s spirit guide angels.
You see what people do and why they do it. You see through what’s being said. You have turned off the relentless broadcasting of all types from bombarding you.
But you cannot turn off a spiritual awakening.
What has happened is that your life just added new dimensions that you must learn to balance in this world. You are living in two worlds. You are now having more and more memories of things you forgot when you first came here. The amnesia that you were assigned when you were born isn’t gone, but it is wearing off little by little. The memories you have from your last spiritual life before you got here are seeping through and you are starting to remember – remember you. Once you remember you must learn to balance living in two worlds at the same time; the world you were born into and the world you left to get here.
The first thing you will notice changing is your relationships.
Things you did and said to tolerate being in relationships with disconnected people will change. You may find yourself choosing to be alone. You will gravitate toward new friends who have also undergone a spiritual awakening.
Once you remember your Spirit family, the family you came from, the one where unconditional love and understanding is the norm, you may have trouble trusting or loving the people in this world. It’s because most people only operate in a conditional single world existence. They came here, they were assigned their amnesia, they lost their bliss and creativity by succumbing to parental and societal pressures that told them what to do, how to think, along with a lot of judgment about what they should and should not do.
These beliefs are mindlessly passed down from parent to child, to grandchild, to greatgrandchildren until someone in the lineage breaks the pattern by having a spiritual awakening and sticks out like a sore thumb. They may even be labeled the designated “black sheep” of the family. The odd one. The one who has all those crazy ideas and even sees or speaks to their Spirit family.
The moment of truth resides in the common denominator that will impact all earth-based families and happens the moment they cross over. By default, when they are released from this world and return to their Spirit family, they instantly realize what they missed while they were here.”
SUMMARY:
You have two families that you are part of, your earthly family and your eternal family.
Your Spirit family is the one you left behind when you chose to incarnate into this world.
Once you got here all excited and convinced you could do anything, you soon found out otherwise.
How It Works: Once you have a spiritual awakening you begin to feel like a victim of events rather than a willing participant. You are out of sync with everything that is the norm in this world. The inner urge that drives you to be a creator rather than a spectator will flip your present life over. Everything you used to feel in sync with in this world now makes you feel like a victim of it because you awakened and can no longer live in this world the way you used to. This is a consequence of awakening and seeing things for what they are. One of the most disappointing consequences of your awakening will show up in relationships. You will see that they are far too superficial and conditional to be a part of. In this world, many times love is used as a weapon to get something. These are just some of the reasons you would rather be alone because compared to the relationship you have with your Spirit family, people here in this world have a lot to learn about what a real relationship is. ~Linda Deir
Ask your Guides … where your spiritual awakening is taking you.Talk with your Spirit Guide Angels like I do? Angel Coaching with Linda guidance from “those” who know you best!
Today, it is clear for almost every spiritual seeker that we live in the era of spiritual awakening. However, what is the awakening is often misinterpreted. Many people think that awakening and enlightenment are the same; a single-time event that happens once and you are done! On the contrary, the truth is that enlightenment is a process that is actually a series of awakenings.
Let’s take a look at three of the most important turning points during spiritual awakening:
Awakening from Identification
Every waking moment of our life fits a personal history with our own Self in its focus. Our life can only be interpreted within the framework of that history. The reason for that is that we identify with the voice of the Ego, the narrator of our own story, so closely that our personal history becomes the foundation of our entire life.
What does this identification mean? It means that we identify with a form (e. g. our name) that originally did not belong to us (we are all born without a name), but through identification this specific form has become a part of our existence.
A closer look at that personal history will, reveal that our internal story consists of a fabric of experiences and thoughts. Thoughts that explain our experiences, thoughts that we believe and with which we identified, thoughts that will thus provide the foundations of our self-determination.
Our personal history keeps us under its spell, in a hypnotic state in which all our attention is devoted to the inner voice and story it tells. In this way we give up our alertness, the world passes by us, because we only concentrate on the elements of reality that appear to confirm our personal history. We therefore lose our grip on the deeper dimensions of life. The deeper dimensions are present in our life, but we lose contact with them because of our lack of alertness.
The question may arise in us whether we are really identical with our own personal history, or perhaps we are more than that? Everybody has some vague suspicion that our personal history does not reflect reality, we are in fact at a deeper level than that.
When everything is apparently all right in our personal history, we achieve our goals, we are happy, and the vague suspicion vanishes entirely in us, and our identification with our personal history becomes more powerful. There are, however, moments in our life when nothing appears to succeed, so we are unhappy and we suffer. The suspicion then reinforces in us, and we tend to believe that we are more than the cluster of thoughts that constitute our personal history. We realize that we are more than mere thoughts.
If we become aware and conscious of our own personal history that we are telling ourselves, we have a chance to wake up from the hypnotic spell of our personal history. This is the first major turning point in the process of spiritual awakening.
Awakening from Ego
When the Consciousness identifies with a form, the Ego appears. The Ego always means some sort of an identification, self-determination (I am a man, I am a father, I am an Englishman, I am Christian etc.) The Ego therefore rests upon our identification with things that are important for us Ego.
The Ego is the central figure of our personal history, based upon the past and looking into the future. The components of the Ego are thoughts, emotions, memories (with which the person identifies as “my story”), fixed unconscious roles and collective identifications (nationality, religion, etc.). Most people completely identify with these components of the Ego, and for them no self “outside” of this exists.
The identification of the Ego with things (object, the person’s own body, way of thinking) creates the link of the individual to various things. The Ego (and thus the spiritually unconscious person) experiences his/her existence through the possession of various objects. The satisfaction provided by the sense of possession is, however, short, so the individual usually carries on the pursuit for new objects. There is a powerful motivation behind this activity of the individual, a psychological demand to obtain more, the unconscious sense of “not yet enough,” and this feeling surfaces in a want for more. This want is a more powerful driving force for the Ego than the desire to possess. The uneasy feelings, recklessness, boredom, stress and dissatisfaction are all largely the products of the dissatisfied longing for more.
The thoughts such as “it’s mine,” “I want it,” “I need it,” “it is not enough,” belong to the structure of the Ego. The content of the Ego changes with time; it is replaced with new contents. No content is, however, able to lastingly satisfy the Ego as long as the structure of the Ego remains in its place. The individual keeps looking for something different, something that promises a greater satisfaction, making the sense of self of the individual more complete.
The Ego intends to elevate the forms (including its own form) to eternity, which is impossible. This intention of the Ego will be the source of all sufferings, because its world of forms and shapes shall collapse like a sandcastle after a while, until death snatches away the last of the forms: its body from it. It came empty-handed from Nothing, and that is how it is going to return there.
The only treasure it could take along with it is its wakefulness, but the Ego considers that worthless in the world of forms and shapes, as it was not a means of increasing the power the Ego
The Ego is not bad, it is simply unconscious. Ego is the deepest dream of the Consciousness. If an individual is able to notice and observe the functions of the Ego, he or she will be able to transcend it. In that case, the individual who has been looking for a more complete perception of the self will recognize that it has always been there, but the functions of the Ego—identification with objects and thoughts—has pushed it into the background. One of the ways of transcending the Ego is not reacting wholeheartedly to the ever-changing kaleidoscope of thoughts and emotions, but concentrating on the alert Consciousness in the background instead.
In most people, the term “consciousness” identifies with that socially conditioned Ego. At a number of people this identification is so powerful that they are unaware that their life is governed by a socially conditioned mind.
Those who are able to go beyond that identification with the mind recognize this state of being socially conditioned, and are also able to leave the social conditioning behind. Such a person will not identify with the mind but, increasingly, with the Consciousness. The Alertness shall, therefore, control the mind to an increasing extent and will be manifested through the tranquilized mind
When our identification with a form ceases, a new space is generated between us and the form and we are able to see and recognize that we are not identical with that form. With the dissolution of the identification, the Ego also disappears. This is the second major turning point in the process of spiritual Awakening.
Awakening Into Alertness
The gateway leading us to the deeper dimensions of Life is Alertness, which appears as a result of the release of our attention from the hypnotic state of listening to our personal story. The new Alertness enables us to learn about ourselves without identifying with our thoughts and emotions.
What we first experience in this new, alert state beyond our thoughts and emotions is the completeness of existence. In that state all fragmentation disappears from our life, we recognize the inner spaciousness of our existence, our inner happiness and tranquility. We feel at home in our own skin, and we realize that our alert Consciousness is free from all kinds of thoughts and emotions.
In that state of Consciousness an entirely new dimension of existence opens up for us, showing us Existence from a completely new perspective. The unity behind the controversies is revealed in front of our eyes, and we no longer insist on looking on the sunny side of life, as we are able to discover beauty on the dark side, too.
We accept life as it is, and it is not done under pressure, since that acceptance is the result of our complete freedom. The freedom is, in turn, a fruit of our escape from the world of Shapes and Forms. We have understood and experienced the process of awakening. The time has come for us to take control over our mind whenever it is required by the circumstances. When we do not need the work of the mind directly, let us give it some rest.
Everything will be quiet and peaceful in us. We are beyond all good and evil, we are a mere Consciousness that does not analyze or judge, only contemplates. We realize that the same contemplating soul lives in everybody, so the differences between human beings are only superficial, and deep inside we are all the same. Experiencing that unity will bring us the ecstasy of Life, the perfect joy of Existence.
Frank M. Wanderer, Ph.D is a professor of psychology, a consciousness researcher and writer. With a lifelong interest in the mystery of human existence, Frank’s work is to help others wake up from identification with our personal history and the illusory world of the forms and shapes, and to find our identity in what he calls “the Miracle”, the mystery of the Consciousness.
You can follow Frank online at:
Frank is also the author of the following books:
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“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep.” – Rumi Waking up at the same time every night without an alarm clock might be a sign that you need to pay attention to. You are a human being with energies flowing through your body that you may be unaware of. Previous articles have explained energy meridians that are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine. These energy meridians are important for the practices of acupuncture and acupressure. The energy meridians of the body are also connected to a clock system that according to ancient Chinese medicine is energizing different parts of your body at different times of the day. Waking between 3am and 5am every night is a sign that energies in that corresponding part of your body are blocked or weak. TROUBLE SLEEPING BETWEEN 9:00PM AND 11:00PM Between 9 and 11pm is typically bedtime for most people. Difficulty falling asleep during this time is a sign of excess stress and worries from the day. Positive mantras, meditation, or successive muscle tension and relaxation exercises are recommended to help you sleep. WAKING BETWEEN 11:00PM AND 1:00AM According to ancient Chinese medicine, this time frame is the time that the energy meridian of the gall bladder is active. Waking up at this time frame is associated with emotional disappointment. Practice unconditional self-acceptance and forgiveness of others in order to get back to sleep. WAKING BETWEEN 1:00AM AND 3:00AM This is the energy meridian associated with the Chinese medicine body clock and the liver. Waking up at this time is associated with the emotions of anger and excess yang energy. Try drinking cool water and taking ownership of the situation that caused you to feel angry in order to rest peacefully through the night. WAKING BETWEEN 3:00AM AND 5:00AM Waking up between 3am and 5am is associated with the energy meridian that runs through the lungs and the emotion of sadness. To help yourself get back to sleep, try some slow, deep breathing and express faith in your Higher Power to help you. If the time that you awaken is between 3:00 am and 5:00am, it could also be a sign of your Higher Power alerting you to pay attention to messages that are being sent to align you with your higher purpose. Read more below about this important time frame for wakefulness. WAKING BETWEEN 5:00AM AND 7:00AM The energy flow is in the large intestines during this time of the morning. Emotional blockages are also associated with this time of the early morning. Try stretching your muscles or using the restroom to help yourself get back to sleep. IF YOU WAKE UP AT THE SAME TIME EVERY NIGHT, THIS MAY BE WHY BRAIN FUNCTION AND WAKING UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT Our brains are not quite fully awake when we suddenly awaken at night. According to The NewYorker.com ‘One of the consequences of waking up suddenly, and too early, is a phenomenon called sleep inertia. First given a name in 1976, sleep inertia refers to that period between waking and being fully awake when you feel groggy. The more abruptly you are awakened, the more severe the sleep inertia.’ When we suddenly wake in the night, the prefrontal cortex part of the brain that is involved in decision-making and self-control is not awake yet. We are not capable of intelligent thoughts when we wake in the night so avoid making any important decisions. WAKING UP AND FULFILLING YOUR HIGHER PURPOSE Your sleep cycle is a time when you dream and you can also receive messages from the Divine about your path. Dreams can reveal details about the spiritual journey that you are on. As a human being on a spiritual journey, you need to be aware of the signs that your Higher Power is sending to you. In the same way that emotional problems can manifest in the body as pain, your spirituality can also manifest in bodily form as well. The divine inner spark that we all posses is being called upon at the time that you are waking up. This signal from your Higher Power is something to tune into. Many people believe that we are here to learn and develop our being and to become the best versions of ourselves. Some people call this process of moving to a higher level of awareness or consciousness an ascension. Being aware of your higher purpose is part of this process.
The process of spiritual awakening can be a very unsettling one for our physical bodies.
This is because our body is suddenly experiencing a massive intake of energy which is enough to disrupt the balance at which it was functioning earlier.
This is sort of a physical rendering of the spiritual experience. How the spiritual realm manifests itself into physical terms. Heart palpitations are one of the most common and the first visible physical signs of spiritual ascension.
We gain spiritual awakening when there is suddenly a lot of spiritual energy that finds its way into our body. Our body is gaining energy, the likes of which it never experienced before. Our body is used to vibrating at a certain harmony.
In spiritual ascension there is a drastic shift and our body is moved up an entire frequency band. Now, our body is only used to a certain amount of energy. When it experiences all this extra energy, one or more of our chakras get overwhelmed.
This is when symptoms of the awakening manifest in physical form. These symptoms too are necessary. Sometimes without them it won’t even be possible to know when one is undergoing spiritual ascension.
The normal rate of our heart beats is approximately once per second. This rhythm is always maintained, from our birth right up to our death. If there is any irregularity in this, it would be called heart palpitations.
It is something that is very hard to miss and you’d know immediately if you are experiencing this while not being aware of it. It can be experienced without any spiritual reason behind it, but then it will be gone away very quickly.
There is not much to do if you feel it say once a week or so. But if it becomes more frequent with greater intensity then it is a sign of awakening.
The best way to let this energy settle down is by listening to the desires of your heart chakra. It wants for you to make new connections and new relations so that it can spread its warmth to them as well.
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Spiritual awakening is a notion thrown around quite a bit by many spiritualists. However, what exactly does it mean?
Spiritual awakening, in general, is something that occurs when a person is finally able to see things properly. It is when a person reaches a higher consciousness. They become more aware of who they are and what their place in this world really is.
And while it may sound crazy, you have to admit that people are beginning to question things more. Many people are becoming more awake spiritually and really breaking free from the things that have been holding them back. Spirituality in recent years has been booming.
The more aware we become the more awake we are. Conscious alertness is something becoming increasingly present around the globe and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Eckhart Tolle a prominent figure in the world of spirituality believes that it is rapidly increasing in mankind and will continue to do so.
Proof of change is all around us, whether you can see the difference in now and the past or not it is quite prominent. Frank M. Wanderer wrote an article not too long ago going over some of the research he had done in regards to the presence of conscious alertness in college students and what he found was quite impressive. From a Tolle basis, he created a scale for conscious alertness and from there surveyed students.
His scale covered things like the reduction of the function of the ego, transcending of the functions of the ego, and alert consciousness in the present. These things ended up playing out with alert consciousness being the most present and reduction of the function of the ego being right behind it. While this might sound a bit confusing it is very interesting when broken down.
Of the students, 9.8% rarely and 3.3% of them never or almost never experienced the longing for something more. Being offended and nursing or sustaining the sense of being offended as the strategies of reinforcing the Ego also had a diminishing tendency among many of the college students (rarely: 6.5%, never or almost never 2.6%; nursing the sense of being offended: rarely 5.2%, never or almost never 2.6%). The prevalence of experiencing the sense of “I am right” as a strategy of sustaining and reinforcing the Ego also diminished considerably among college students. Of those college students, 5.2% of them rarely and 3.3% of them never or almost never experience this emotion.
Of the college students, 7.8% rarely experience the recklessness and dissatisfaction rooted in dissatisfied want and desires, and 1.3% of them almost never do. The withdrawal of the Ego was the least spectacular at complaining (rarely 2.6%, never or almost never 1.3% of them complain) and boasting (2.1% boast rarely, 0.7% never or almost never do so). The prevalence of Transcending the functions of Ego was the least common among the components of the Conscious Alertness.
Within that dimension, transcending thinking and emotions were the most frequent patterns of behavior. 3.3% of the students experience this impression daily and 2% several times a day. Of the students, 2.6% have the impression that their thoughts and emotions constitute only a small fragment of their real personalities, and 0.7% of them encounter this feeling several times a day. In the frequency of occurrence, this was followed by the detachment from external things, which was experienced by 3.2% of the students every day and 0.7% of them several times a day. Students appeared to be least capable of transcending the perpetual operation of thinking; only 1.4% of them experienced that the stream of their thinking was aimless and repetitive.
With more and more people being openminded and more and more people actually trying to reach higher levels of consciousness there is no beating around the bush. This is the age of spiritual awakening and things are only going to get more intense as time goes by. What do you think about all of this?
When it comes to the ‘stages’ or ‘levels’ of awakening, you will see a lot of different perspectives on what the process itself may be like. To be completely honest, no two awakening experiences are the same.
Awakening experiences are completely unique to each and every individual so my experience may be nothing like yours and vice versa. That being said, I have found that the following list of levels can come in handy. While our orders may be a bit different and some levels may hold more for you than they did me being aware of them can and will help you grow.
Do not take this as a ‘set in stone’ guide to go by but instead treat it as a cheat sheet so to speak, it is something you can use to see where you may be on your path to becoming truly awakened. We can all gain a lot from being as educated as possible and yet open-minded.
The 7 Levels of Becoming ‘Awakened’:
1. The Sleeping State
This is where most begin but not all. It is the state of existing and not really questioning anything. At this state, we are mostly children or teens but once we grow older we move forward usually. That being said, this state can be for any age, I know some people in their later years still going through life as if they are sleeping.
2. The False Self
This level is a bit tricky, it is the point where you are learning more and more but not questioning anything. You are going with the flow but still trying to somewhat find yourself. This is a state of negative energy that a lot of us get stuck in. If you find yourself here you will be following false gurus and possibly ignoring those who are trying to help you on your journey.
3. The Questioner
This is a level most people really enjoy. You are now questioning things and learning that nothing in life is truly constant. You are finding soul connections and reconnecting with people from your ‘soul family.’ You are no longer stuck following those who only wish to profit from your path and you are working towards something amazing.
4. The Traveler
A lot of people find that their journey takes them far from home. For some this level is non-existent. It just depends on the person and where they are going spiritually in life. In order to find yourself, sometimes, you don’t have to leave your backyard.
Once you have been through the other stages you will feel as if you have learned a lot because you have. We never stop learning and reflecting on those things you have learned is a level in itself. You just have to remember what you have learned and why you have come so far.
6. The Resolution Stage
You have let go of everything that was holding you back and are resolving the problems that occur in your life without letting them take over your mind. Your brain is operating at a level that most people never see. Your emotions are no longer in control of your being and you are in the seat of your soul.
This point is one that a lot of people will also never see. It is the moment when you realize that no one is ever truly awakened. It is when you peak but also understand that no one is ever done learning. You are intuitively connected with the universe and aware of that but also able to remain in this physical world for the remainder of your life. Most people live hundreds of lives over before they ever see this level and some are not so lucky.
People now have renewed interests in spirituality. They have started to wonder if all the internal shifts in their bodies can be explained by the awakening in their lives.
Most of us have started feeling that we all are undergoing a huge growth as far as our own awareness is concerned. When a person says that someone is spiritually awakened, it does not necessarily mean that he or she is more evolved or open-minded.
Being spiritually awakened means that we are now in touch with our higher consciousness and things like ego or low amounts of self-esteem are not a part of our life anymore. By being spiritually awakened, we can picture the reality in a better way and it is not a blur anymore.
Being spiritually awakened means being able to see and learn the truth about love and power that is there in every human being. We see how everything is connected and how one thing leads to another.
As people go through the process of spiritual awakening, everything in life gets bewildering. Everything appears to be very different than it used to be and we end up questioning every aspect of our lives. This includes questioning our relationships, career and also the connections that we have made over the years.
Given below are a few things that will signal us if we are going through a spiritual awakening:
We find ourselves in the middle of meaningful and magical coincidences. We cannot explain how things are falling into the right places and how we always end up in the right place at the right time.
We notice number patterns everywhere. On televisions, clocks etc. The numbers include 11:11, 222, 333, and 444.
Whenever we are watching television, listening to songs or interacting with animals, it feels like they are addressing the real issues that are going on in our lives.
We feel like we are transforming into a completely new person and our old personality is somehow being overshadowed by the new one.
When we do not jump to conclusions immediately and do not believe whatever the media is telling us. We delve deep into the matter and then come to conclusions.
Spiritual awakening teaches us to accept the darkness that exists or existed in us. It is only then when we can do that, we will feel good about the light in our body. As we go deeper into the process of spiritual awakening, it teaches us to understand and fight the darkness in us so that the darkness cannot manipulate our inner powers.
Facing the darkness can be very challenging and intrinsic for some people. It is as disturbing as going through the process of grieving. The different phases that people have to go through are anger, denial, acceptance, and sadness. The process itself is very long and people often tend to get stuck between phases. This makes the process longer.
Being spiritually awakened is like getting a reality check. Since the process takes a lot of time to complete, we want to share our stories and struggles with a lot of people. The problem is that most of the people do not understand what we want to say. Some think we are crazy and others are disobedient.
Not everyone is meant to awaken at the same pace. Some have to struggle more and some take a longer time. But working through these negative aspects of our life is important so that we can shed some light on those people who are about to begin their journey of being spiritually awakened.
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Most people think of a spiritual awakening as diving into the darkness of the mind with the full light of conscious thought. Some think it just means a new way of thinking. Although there are many ways of defining what a spiritual awakening is, one truth is that anyone truly wishing to delve into it should know that it is not an easy thing to do.
It’s hard, and often painful, to confront our own inner emotions and egos. We open ourselves to pain as we face each of our demons head-on. Only in this manner can one let go of any attachments to people or negative emotions.
Five Things You May Experience During A Spiritual Awakening
1. Release The Ego/False Self
Most people don’t realize that the ego is in full charge of our lives. The ego hides who we really are, allowing us to let others (as well as our own self) place labels on us: social status, wealth level, and job titles do not define who we are as spiritual beings. These labels distract us from searching for the potential miracle beings we truly can be.
As you travel the path to enlightenment, you will run across the ego again and again. Each time it with beg for power. Now is the time to starve your ego and feed your soul in order to reach your true self.
It is really a hard step to let go of things that you always took for granted. Be brave: once you strip away the false ego, you can become the spiritual being you strive to be.
2. Rid Yourself Of Past Wounds
Every journey to enlightenment means cleansing yourself of past pains. It is never easy to open old wounds, but in order to heal you must face the past, and finally accept that it happened, and it is now time to move on. Think of the past as the first chapters in your life story; now it is time to create new, happier, more fulfilling chapters.
Spend time alone meditating about where you were, where you are, and where you wish to go. These will help you connect to your true self.
3. Learn To Forgive
Forgiving those who caused you pain is also a hard thing to do. However, carrying those negative emotions inside just feeds the ego. Your ego will try to fight you as you work to forgive and forget the past. Stay strong. Give yourself permission to thank those who wronged you; for they brought you to the point where you seek to move beyond all pain.
When you remove thoughts of resentment and revenge from your mind, you release the grudge from deep inside your consciousness. This allows positive thoughts to grow.
When your safe world begins to crumble around you, it is only natural to feel more confused, exposed, and isolated from what is near and dear. At the same time you will begin to see the hidden world within your mind, and understand the truth of who you really are. You will feel torn between staying with the familiar, or trying on this new persona.
One nice thing about leaving the past behind is that you don’t have to go back to your old ways of thinking. Give yourself time and soon you will feel like you always belonged in this new world you’ve discovered.
5. Let Go Of Anything That Serves No Purpose
There comes a time when your intuition lets you know that certain people, jobs, relationships, or other parts of your life are just not working out for you. There is no shame in letting go of things and people who no longer serve any purpose of fulfillment in your life. Start by thanking them for the help they gave you on your journey, and just move on without them in your life.
The higher you go towards spiritual awakening, the more of the old you will let go. Soon, you will be seeking out new people and experiences that match your current expectations of life.
Enlightenment seems ever elusive when you are putting your heart and soul into raising your spiritual vibrations. And yet for some, it just happens, out of the blue when they least expected it.
One thing is true though, once you have been enlightened, there is no going back. It is a enriching and sometimes troubling load to bear. But those who have truly been enlightened wouldn’t have it any other way.
These people have shared with us the experiences that they recount from the time of their enlightenment. And there were some signs which were common to almost all of them. Here they are:
1. You feel a heightened sense of perception as well as an empty and calm mind
When you are nearing your enlightenment, you’d find that you no longer view things the way you used to. You are also more appreciative of nature and her offerings. There is also a sense of calmness and peace and general lack of chaos in your thoughts and mind.
2. You don’t mind being alone
In fact, it brings with it a surreal sense of contentment. Being on your own doesn’t worry or trouble you at all. It is also natural to want to prevent human contact.
3. You feel inspired
This means that you have a comparatively positive attitude towards life and all its’ experiences. This would be a general sense of inspiration. Alternatively, it is also possible that your inspiration is directed towards a particular thing that you want to pursue. Or it could be Spiritual as well.
4. You experience quite a few changes in your life
You would be bombarded with changes, both in your professional life as well as personal. And it might be a tad bit too difficult to process them. But stay strong and in time you’ll see how all of it was for the best.
5. You feel more empathetic and compassionate towards others
Empathy is when you not just acknowledge, but actually experience the pain and troubles of others. A spiritual awakening in the near future definitely grants for this altered perspective. And this might be one of the most empowering and blessed experience of all, to feel one with your fellow humans and all of creation.
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I like to think of a spiritual awakening as a dissolution of that which has been planted by outside influence. A spiritual awakening is not the attainment of a thing or something that is learnt, it is more a removal of conditioned behaviour that is not true to us in nature.
Don’t get me wrong, you often reach this level of spiritual awareness through knowledge, guidance and learning, but all this information is doing is leading you back to that which deeply resonates from within.
A spiritual awakening is a journey that many will not understand, it can be scary, confusing, alienating and is not always a positive experience. However it can also be rewarding, connecting and most importantly honest.
A spiritual awakening is different for everyone, for some it is great, for others it is painful. Some people come to the realisation that they have everything they need right where they are and for others, they feel the need to up and leave to travel the world in search of adventure.
As each awakening differs it is hard to give blanket indications that fit everyone, but here are 8 indications that you are experiencing a spiritual awakening.
Thirst For Knowledge/Understanding
I am not talking about ego learning, where we try to consume information just for the sake of knowing, I am talking about trying to find a deep understanding of information that relates to your calling and that which has significance in your life.
Living spiritually can slow you down (although not always), let you connect to that which resonates with you and give you a student mentality. This mindset comes with the acceptance that Rome was not built in a day and if you want to learn, you have to always remain a student.
Realisation Of How Little You Know
This can go hand in hand with a thirst for knowledge, the more you learn the less you realise you know.
Even in achieving mastery in a subject you will never know it all and you should always remain a student in your craft.
For some it may seem a little uncomfortable to not have the answers, especially if you are looked upon as a teacher of some kind. The reality is your students can teach you just as much about your craft as you can teach them.
We all look at problems differently and we all have a unique approach, don’t be afraid to learn something from someone who may be considered an amateur in comparison to you by most.
A prime example of this is our children, we are here to guide them, take them by the hand and lead them in this world, that doesn’t mean you cannot learn a lot about yourself through their wisdom.
Connection To Things You Are Passionate About
Collectively we are disconnected, we go to jobs we dislike, attend social gatherings that we are not interested in and engage in habits that do not serve our best interests. Most of these are conditioned and things we feel like we should be doing.
When you have a spiritual awakening it is a dissolution of the conditioning that has brought you to this point in your life, so to continue to live against your true nature can cause significant discomfort.
The funny or not so funny thing is- these moments of awakening are often dismissed as some kind of crisis. Someone who enters their mid-forties and all of a sudden wants to get into music or start traveling the world could be categorised as “having a mid-life crisis”.
Often family will get together and try to return you on the straight and narrow and give you some Prozac to help you to be “normal” again. I call bullshit, if you feel like getting a tattoo, shaving your head and attending festivals in the Caribbean, go for it, you only get one life so don’t live it trying to please the world.
Pain, Inner Turmoil & Overwhelm
I said in the intro that a spiritual awakening it is not always an all-round positive experience and this is an example-
If you go from one lifestyle to another it’s like learning to walk again. Sometimes it can be embarrassing living differently to the way you are accustomed to, sometimes it can be confusing because you don’t know which direction you are moving in and sometimes you can doubt yourself.
The best thing you can do is keep riding the waves, trust the process and know that what you are doing it true to you.
Inner Peace & Balance
On the other hand you can experience massive amounts of peace, tranquillity and balance. When all the dots connect and you learn to live in flow with that which matters to you, it can feel like you are flying through life, without a care.
Synchronicity- (the more you follow the more good things start to happen)
If you keep getting strange and synchronistic messages like 11:11, 22:22 or in my case 33 you are getting a nudge telling you to keep going. Synchronicity in abundance is a great sign you are on the right track. The thing about synchronicity is it is always there, it is when you actively follow it that you really start to see the magic.
If you are trying to find information and it falls in your lap, you need to communicate with someone and they randomly call or the perfect person at the perfect time shows up follow it! It can be a little weird to start with, but the more you follow, the more good things will start to happen.
Better Communication
You may just find the ability to shut up and listen, we all like to share what we have with the world, but you can never learn while you are talking.
It is okay to listen, it is okay to spend an entire evening absorbing what other people have to offer, it is okay to observe. It is also okay to have input when it is necessary. Finding that balance can be tricky, but when you open up spiritually it opens up your senses and you get a much better vibe of where you are with people.
Heightened Intuition
Logic has its place, but so does intuition and when you find yourself deeply connected you will find a heightened sense of intuition.
It can be hard to base decisions on how you feel, especially when you are used to weighing things up logically, but take the plunge, trust your gut and go with your intuitive feel. You may get things wrong, there may even be some consequences for your mistakes, but you will always be able to draw some positive out of every experience.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, if you are going to do one thing today just make sure you live your life with true purpose and be brave enough to take risks and move forward, much love, Luke!
About the Author
My name is Luke Miller & I am the owner & creator of Potential For Change. I believe that spirituality is the foundations for good health & I like to blend psychology & spirituality to help you find more purpose & happiness in your life. My other interests include health, not just on a physical level but also on a collective level & have a keen interest in education & truth seeking. You can find my Facebook page HERE, YouTube HERE & Twitter HERE.
Spirituality is the foundations for good health. When you spiritually connect to that which is important to you magical and amazing things start to happen.
But while a lot of people seem to be getting into spirituality for personal gain and development, it is actually what you lose as a result of spiritual connection that has the most impact.
I have to say that you will never completely lose the things I speak about in this article, and while they are quite negative, they are also natural feelings that come up from time to time.
We all have the same capacity to feel what any other person feels and act in ways any other person acts, what will make a difference in your life is the level of attention you project onto these areas.
A spiritual awakening is by no means the end; it in fact asks more questions than it answers. But when you reach that more enlightened state here are 6 things you will start to see a lot less of!
Hatred
You usually hate in others what you see a part of in yourself or what you want to see more of in yourself. A spiritual awakening helps you to hold up the mirror and see yourself stripped down to the bare bones.
There will always be people in the world who have characteristics which are unpleasant to you, but the people who are expressing these traits are doing so at their current level of mind and it is up to you if you want to allow that person to dominate your consciousness.
Spiritual connection helps you to show compassion for those who do you wrong and give you the ability to at least start the process of tolerance and forgiveness!
Jealousy
An awakened mind allows you to show admiration for those who do well and strive to follow in their footsteps. It also helps to remove any malicious or jealousy and appreciate the accomplishments of others.
When another person attains that which you desire, it is quite easy to feel envious, even if there are no bad intentions. Being spiritually awakened will help you to realise that we are all part of the same organism and another persons success is your success and when you see the accomplishments of others they can help motivate you to reach the same heights!
Anxiety
Anxiety manifests as a result of living a life that you are not connected to. Your hobbies, your friends, your job and how you spend your time can contribute to that heavy feeling of anxiety.
Spirituality helps you connect to your true purpose and that which matters to you. When you spend your life living on your terms, fully connected to things that have importance to you, anxiety is a lot less prevalent.
Spirituality also helps you to relax, which is the complete opposite of anxiety.
Anger
Anger is usually a very unconscious type of behaviour. For example losing your temper, this is not a well thought out process.
Spirituality however is a very conscious process that teaches you to be present and in the moment. It also helps you to confront and deal with your problems, leaving you with less unresolved issues to be angry about.
Insecurity
It is hard to feel insecure, when you are deeply connected to your values and you know what you stand for.
Spirituality helps you connect with your identity and remove the layers which may have been left by following the wrong dreams, society, loved ones or any other influence you may have been in contact with.
It helps you to know yourself and when you truly know who you are, you are far less likely to go against you true nature, just so you can please other people!
Fear Of Failure
This goes hand in hand with insecurity, because once you remove those layers of insecurity and actually know what you want from life you can relentlessly move towards your goals.
Your goals are supposed to be scary. If they are not then you might want to consider some bigger ones! And failing on the way to achieving what you want out of life is also normal.
But being spiritually connected helps you to not be afraid of being a failure, while accepting you will fail along the way.
It is easy to search for external answers in life, as it seems that the answers are just out there waiting to be found. The reality is that losing things or finding what already exists within you is the key to living a healthy, happy and balanced life!
Thanks for reading, let me know what you have lost as a result of your spiritual awakening by leaving me a comment below! And if you think anyone you know could benefit from reading this share it on social media, tag your friends or email it out!
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“Make no mistake about it – enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of… untruth. It’s seeing through the façade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.” – Adyashanti
Spiritual awakening means being awake to your real nature and that is not a walk in the park because being aware of our true nature means we need to let go of all the old paradigms and conditioning of who we think we are.
When we are on the threshold of being united with the infinite, our ego-self faces the crisis of death and does everything in its power to dissuade us from seeing the truth. And hence starts the dark night of the soul, but once we get through this dark night, we open up wider and embody our true self.
Here are five signs we may encounter during the dark night of the soul and tips on how to overcome them:
1). Ego death
“As you grow up, you form a mental image of who you are, based on your personal and cultural conditioning. We may call this phantom self the ego. The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it here it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind.” – Eckhart Tolle
When we begin to awaken to our true nature, our ego goes faces a state of death crisis and tries everything in its power to maintain the status quo. When we awaken all of our worldviews are shaken and we begin to see the illusory aspects of the ego and come to understand our role in the cosmos.
Ego death is kind of a rite of passage wherein we realize we are the infinite soul and ego is just an instrument that we use.
2). You feel alone
It is sometimes mentioned that spirituality is a lonely journey. During the initial phases of our spiritual journey we may feel very alone as our worldview is changing, we have a lot of questions and we don’t find a lot of people to discuss things with. It is important to spend this time alone in solitude or meditation to deepen our understanding of our true nature. Once we start deepening our practice, we will discover that we are not as alone as we think we are and are always connected and supported by the infinite.
The answers that we have been looking for appear before us, either in meditation or through a book or any person.T he cosmos has its own ways.
Once you are awakened you will not get entangled in relationships that are codependent because you have learned the art of solitude and are whole on your own. This is when you get connected to your soul tribe.
“The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it’s not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of another person–without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.” ~ Osho
3). You undergo huge cognitive dissonance
“In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.” - Wikipedia
When we are awakening and going through the process of actualization of the soul, we are forming a new worldview and it is entirely different from how we have learned to view things through our conditioning.
Spirituality is about becoming more connected to the self and to all that is. It is completely beautiful and magical to experience the oneness and magic around you that a spiritual connection brings. The question is though, how do we get to that point? How do we become more spiritual and what is the ride down that spiritual path really like?
There is a dark side to spiritual awakenings and to be frank, most of the time, it’s messy. The road to uncovering your spiritual self is generally pretty bumpy, full of thick mud pits, and there are many roadblocks. I will not sit here and lie to you pretending that I am an enlightened guru with a perfect life. I will not tell you that spirituality is perfect and beautiful all the time. It’s not. Spirituality becomes beautiful once you realize that the journey is what you make it. Once you accept yourself, others, and your experiences for who and what they are.
Becoming more spiritual means that you have to be able to look at yourself, other people, and situations with little to no bias. Spirituality teaches us to love those who have hurt us the most. It teaches us to see the lessons in every wound before it can be healed. That doesn’t quite paint a perfect picture of zen vibes, does it? How are we supposed to love those who have hurt us, manipulated us, and abused us? How can we be grateful for financial despair or losing those that we loved the most? Isn’t spirituality supposed to be calming and make you happier?
A lot of people don’t know this but what usually triggers a spiritual awakening is a life-changing or traumatic event. These eventful seasons in our lives often send us into a spiral, sometimes upward sometimes downward. We then start to look at life from a different perspective and often times this leads to a bit of a spiritual treasure hunt.
We start seeking answers, knowing that there must be a reason for all that is happening. New sensations may show up such as hearing, feeling, and seeing more. Finally, we begin to accept the idea that maybe there is more to this experience than what meets the eye. Again we search for answers.
When we start to awaken we often feel entirely disconnected from those around us as if we are peeling away from our old lives. It is a beautiful, confusing, and painful time all at once. What is actually happening is that our soul is waking up and it’s looking to unbury who we truly are. How can we unbury our authentic selves without unburying the aspects of ourselves that we dislike the most? How can we heal aspects of ourselves without first acknowledging the wounds?
Becoming spiritually awake is not for the faint of heart but it will grow your heart by leaps and bounds. Waking up means looking at everything in and around you. You must look at yourself, your life, and those in your life. You have to stare deeply into the situations appearing before you. This is when the healing beings and the transformation starts.
We are told that meditation will give us the answers. That meditation can heal the mind and the physical body. Meditation is said to be the ultimate medication. It works for us on all levels. Mind, body, and spirit.
When I first started meditating I didn’t get much, just a few colors and a few words. I would leave the session more relaxed but nothing extravagant was happening. Eventually, a breakthrough happened and I started seeing memories I had repressed. I was shown things I didn’t want to see about myself and others. No one told me that I could expect such a thing. I had to go back and relive the moments that hurt me the most in these meditations.
Spirit takes us on a journey when we are uncovering our spiritual side. It doesn’t take us down this path to hurt or harm us but instead to heal us and help us to become whole again.
I would go on these journeys through time having to relive even the smallest moments that hurt or angered me. Sometimes I wanted to give up and shut it all down but something inside of me said keep going.
Instead of running from what I was being shown I decided to observe it. I decided to accept those moments and venture into them. I would send love to both myself and whomever else was in the memory. I realized that had to quit running if I ever wanted to heal.
You would think that during this process I would have become more negative, sad, and depressed than before. Actually, though, the opposite happened. My relationships with those that I “hated” seemed to get better or just fade away. Certain people or the words they spoke didn’t bother me so much anymore if even at all.
Things started to get better and I was finally able to experience that spiritual high so many people talked about. I could appreciate the flowers, I could appreciate people that used to be triggers, and I could appreciate my experiences. Most importantly I could appreciate myself.
We have to remember that raising our vibration doesn’t mean just living a positive life and thinking happy thoughts. Trying to think and act positively all the time takes a lot of work if you’re still broken inside. You have to return to your authentic self in order to align your vibration with that of a truly spiritual experience. To return to your authentic self you have to heal all of the wounds you wish not to see.
The road to becoming more spiritual is a messy one. A bumpy one. One full of roadblocks. But the journey is beautiful and the landscape is breathtaking.
Are you awakening and you’re confused about what is going on right now? I am happy to help ease the process with you and coach you through what you can expect! Let’s work together one on one to help you have the smoothest and most beautiful spiritual awakening possible!
In an attempt to express the nature of an exploratory journey of awareness and subsequent discovery, a reference to Plato’s famous cave prisoner story seems to metaphorically describe the reality of the expansion of consciousness.
As the story goes, prisoners in a cave spent their entire lives in such a way that they could only see the cave wall in front of them. The prisoners were unable to see the fire glowing behind them, nor could they see the group of actors casting shadows on the cave walls. For these prisoners, these shadows would consist of their entire world.
One day, one of the prisoners was released and taken outside. At first, blinded by the light, his eyes then adjusted to see the brilliance and depth of the colors that make up “real” reality. Having experienced a new and expansive landscape, his former ideas about the world were shattered. He then excitedly returned to the cave to explain to the other prisoners that the shadows were just an illusion. There was a richer, intensely luminous world just beyond the cave walls. But regardless of what he said, or arguments that he used to try to convince the other prisoners that the reality of the cave was a pale cartoon in comparison to real reality, the other prisoners thought he had gone mad.
Plato’s use of this allegory was to reference the difference between the everyday appearance of the world, shaped by everyday language, concepts, and beliefs, and the true nature of the world. Common sense provides a poor device for knowing the true nature of reality.
To progress toward the knowledge and inner-standing of this ultimate nature, we must suspend our disbelief, if only to allow for a subtle metamorphosis to occur. That which does not fit into our preconceived notion of the nature of reality is not necessarily of falsehood, or “woo woo.” By releasing attachments to ideologies and opening up to see, clairvoyantly, the value that exists in recognizing the nature of a thought itself, will serve to catalyze the opening of the doors of perception. By way of experience, our awareness expands its bandwidth to comprehend, more thoroughly, the nature of our existence. Just like the prisoner who experiences the outside world just beyond the cave walls, this experience resides right under our noses and its gift is an expansion of unconditional love for all of life*
We often think of spirituality as something wholly outside of science. Though they seem diametrically opposed, could there ever be a marriage between the two? Might not science inform spirituality and vice-versa? One problem is, there’s a great range of opinions on what exactly spirituality is. It also varies across cultures and has been interpreted differently at different times in history. Generally speaking, a spiritual experience is one that transcends the self and connects the person to the universe in a profound and meaningful way. This is separate from religion which often includes dogma, religious texts, and some sort of institution.
Traditionally, we’ve known very little about the neurobiological mechanisms responsible for a spiritual awakening. In the last few decades, neuroscientists have been seeking out what such experiences look like, from their perspective. One recent study sheds light on this. The results were published in the journal Cerebral Cortex. In it, Oxford University professor Lisa Miller and colleagues at Yale and Columbia universities, isolated spirituality-related activity in a part of the brain called the parietal cortex. This region is responsible for our attention.
French “sake samurai” Sylvain Huet, offers a branch from a sacred tree for a Shinto ceremony. Shigamo shrine. Kyoto, Japan. Image credit: Getty Images.
To conduct the study, researchers recruited 27 young adults from in and around New Haven, Connecticut. They were each asked to recall a time when they had a spiritual experience. This helped build what researchers called their “imagery script.” Volunteers were asked to recall stressful and peaceful experiences. One week later, participants were put into an fMRI machine and made to listen to a recording of a neutral female voice, who recount their experiences back to them.
The neurological pattern exhibited when a spiritual experience was recounted was the same across all volunteers. While more activity was shown in the parietal cortex (i.e. increased attention), less activity occurred in the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL). This regions is responsible for self-awareness and awareness of others. Researchers believe this is why we lose ourselves during a spiritual awakening, in union with the divine. The medial thalamus and caudate, areas which process sensory input and emotions, also displayed reduced activity.
Psychiatry and neuroscience professor Marc Potenza, worked on this study. He said in a press release, “Spiritual experiences are robust states that may have profound impacts on people’s lives. Understanding the neural bases of spiritual experiences may help us better understand their roles in resilience and recovery from mental health and addictive disorders.” Some limitations are that the volunteer pool was small and that they all came from the same city.
Pythagoreans celebrate sunrise. Fyodor Bronnikov, 1869. Image credit: Wikipedia Commons.
In a previous study, Miller and colleagues found that a spiritual awakening and depression shared the same pathway, which they called, “two sides of the same coin.” Also, habitual spiritual practices they found, seemed to thicken the the prefrontal cortex, while depression thinned it. This is the part of the brain responsible for executive function, planning, behavior modification, and self-explanation.
What is interesting about their latest study, is that researchers were able to identify the neural mechanisms that take place during any spiritual experience, regardless of what background or tradition the person came from. Still, it used a very small participant pool. A much larger study will be needed to verify these results, and one with a volunteer base that is more varied. Still, these results are promising. One wonders, if and when the neurological origins of the spiritual experience are in fact proven, will it have a profound effect on religion or spirituality, and if so, what?
To further explore the crossroads of neuroscience and spirituality, click here:
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
Swami Vivekananda
Dabbling in Spirituality
I started dabbling in spirituality years ago. I had no idea what was coming, I wasn’t familiar with a spiritual awakening, I didn’t know breaking into a million pieces could be a good thing. I wasn’t expecting to be reborn.
It started 11 years ago, I picked up a book called “The Secret”. It sparked curiosity and I absorbed enough to intermittently experience the results of intention, aligning thoughts, feelings and stillness. But due to the irregularity of my practice I lost steam and went back to pushing and pulling my life into submission.
I spent the next 7 years pushing, pulling, blaming when things went wrong, taking all the credit when things went right, spinning around in the same ole unconscious patterns. I was incredible at wishful thinking, always praying for a thing to show up to make me feel good. Ya know, how most live.
I had no idea I was about to make two life-altering decisions. These decisions would be catalysts to my begging for mercy and screaming hallelujah all in the course of 3 years.
Spiritual Awakening
At first it felt like angst. I wanted to extinguish the angst so I looked for fixes. The search led me to meditation. I picked up the spiritual practice as a “why not” to assist with stress and anxiety. I turned to people like Gabby Bernstein and Deepak Chopra to stabilize my meditation practice. Next, a dear friend gifted me Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”, I read it and “A New Earth” on a plane to Iceland. This sparked something in me.
It began happening. I had no idea what it was, something was off. I was agitated, sick of same old scripts that’d become my life and I wanted out. I’d been meditating and receiving guidance but the amount of crap I was processing felt too heavy to bear.
I was embarking on what would be my spiritual awakening. The process included stages, at times it looked like anger, sometimes depression, at times despair but all came with clarity and understanding. To the outside world it may have looked like something to manage or stop. But I knew in the deepest parts of my soul that this wasn’t a mistake. I had prayed for it but didn’t know how to navigate the depths within my body.
My soul awakening experience is uniquely mine as yours will be uniquely yours. With that in mind I want to share the 10 stages of my spiritual awakening process. My hope is you recognize a bit of you, judge yourself less in the hard times, trust more in the weird times and celebrate your growth through it all.
10 stages of my spiritual awakening process
The Wall
You reach a point of heightened trauma and response. This can be a huge event like a death or prolonged toxicity with a point of no return. You stop functioning normally and enter survival mode. You’re despondent and unhappy with the state of your life. You feel unsupported or frustrated by those around you. You’re feeling deeply challenged and unable to process the magnitude of what’s happening. You no longer want to rely on others or things for your happiness. You begin to pull away from the outside world knowing the answers you seek aren’t there. It’s the “darkness of the soul” and you’re unsure where to find the light. The awakening has begun.
Curiosity
You get curious as you see the holes in what you were taught to believe. Reading, listening, researching, absorbing, you’re taking in as much new information as you can. This can cause those around you to get uncomfortable or even confrontational. You begin to get frustrated by those who continue to live with a “veil”. You’re pulling back from family and friends, feeling isolated and not understood. You begin to see new light in old patterns; you have intermittent hope in new experiences. But with this new light you still have deep rooted pain. You begin confrontation of emotions surrounding your past and those involved. You have curiosity around the way you chose to live your life. You begin to question everything.
Cross Road
This is the stage most people go back to sleep. You’ve come face to face with darkness and you can’t see the end. Fear begins begging you to turn back. Others may ask you to seek help so it all goes away. Fear says; “The worst will happen if you stay on this path”. Moving forward means taking a leap of faith over a dark canyon. Things around you are collapsing. Your beliefs, the way you’ve lived your life, the things that meant something all start to become meaningless or misrepresented. You feel caged. The ground you walk on tremors, you want to turn back. But what if you stay? Something shaky within you says stay.
Darkest of the Dark
It has all imploded. Everything has crumbled into your darkness. You resist the state of the world, the lies, the conditional love, the broken raising broken. You’re growing irritated and wonder the point of it all. You feel depressed and wonder how you can integrate into such a loveless world. You have the desire to be a lone wolf, to escape, to be with nature. The people around you don’t get it, and you’re done explaining. Suddenly there is no satisfaction in your life. You feel alone and lost, you start to question, “Is life worth it?”
Realization
You begin to realize changing the world doesn’t work but you’re unsure how to acclimate in the world like it is. You start looking within and applying self-awareness and compassion. With this small shift you change how you see the world and your world begins to change. You start feeling a greater sense of connectedness to something bigger. You’re referencing your higher self and you begin seeing others as inward beings. You may dive deeper into spirituality or study things like quantum physics. You’ve begun tapping into the feeling that you’re here for something bigger.
You’re so much more
You start to feel heightened connection to new things, nature, animals, the stars, the phases of the moon. You begin to feel connected to more than your eyes can see. Your consciousness is expanding and you save your time for deeper connections with those who get you. Your intuition and psychic gifts expand and you begin to feel your power. You begin to see the tiny miracles life serves to you daily. You can no longer deny that your thoughts, emotions and feelings shape your reality. Your life slowly begins shifting to support this.
What’s the Purpose?
This new awareness allows you to feel inner peace. You start understanding your highest purpose. Shifting away from the push and pull, you begin to relax into the greater power of energy and intention. You start seeing that your path to higher purpose is to be your authentic self. Your true self was hidden in the dark and it’s begging to come out.
And there she is
Alignment with your true self has begun and ideas are bursting from you like a hot kernel of corn. Inspiration is never far away. Your life is flowering, your path becomes clearer. Abundance flows into your life through your passion and ideas. Your life is transformed and experiences you have reflect your higher vibe. Rough spots rise up, but you’re better equipped and process them differently.
Not Alone
As your life unfolds you realize you’re not alone. Source is your partner in all you create. You realize when you surrender control and outcome life is better than imagined and flows. You know without a shadow of doubt you are being guided. Your spiritual gifts and intuition grow stronger and you stand firmly where you are.
Finally Unconditional Love
You understand that the entire awakening process was to bring you back to your natural state, unconditional love. You’re now able to experience what the world couldn’t give you. You have realization beyond your physical body. Understanding beyond labels and past conditioning. Peace with all that is.
Summing it up
There you have it, my spiritual awakening experience thus far, broken into stages. I still teeter between stage 9 and 10, thankful for the journey, happy I stayed the course and open to more unknown.
My spiritual awakening experience wasn’t easy-peasy but it led me to a more peaceful fulfilled life.
Do you feel like you’re going through a spiritual awakening?
If you are, you’ll sense it. You’ll feel a bit off and won’t know whether to solider on or retreat.
How does your experience differ from mine?
Last thing before I go. You’re not alone. Once it begins, pick up your head and look around. There’s millions of us.
by Gregg Prescott, M.S. Founder, Webmaster, & Editor, In5D.com
Have you noticed a change in your relationships with other people lately? Is it sometimes difficult or awkward to talk to others about spiritual topics? Do you, at times, feel alone in your beliefs? Have you lost contact with any long time friends recently? You are not alone!
I’m fortunate to have a lot of Facebook friends who post similar types of links. Too many times, I see a lot of people who talk the talk but are afraid to walk the walk, due to being ridiculed for their thoughts and posts (GROUPTHINK). I’ve lost some longtime friends because of this but have made many, many new ones. Once the ego is released, you no longer worry about conformity and peer pressure.
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that structures various belief systems within a group of people while discouraging individual creativity and independent thinking. Even within a group of individuals who are spiritually awakened, you will find groupthink.
If you look at the recorded history of mankind, you’ll find that this history is merely someone’s interpretation of a landmark event or evolutionary process, backed by eyewitness testimonial, scientific data, video or faith. The actual truth may be hidden or distorted for many reasons, but mostly for control and power. Look no further than the origins of mankind and you’ll find a plethora of creation myths from all cultures with varying dates of our existence. Who’s right?
When you talk to people about the creation myth, they tend to remain inside the box with a belief system that supports religion’s story of creation, which dates mankind back to 4,000 B.C. If you raise questions about our true origins, it tends to separate people and relationships between those who think outside the box versus those who think inside the box. When these topics arise within relationships, they often create dissension. It’s hard for anyone to admit they’ve been deceived for so long and even more difficult to admit they were possibly wrong in their assumptions.
This is a prime example of how our educational systems keep us locked inside the box without questioning anything about what we’ve been taught. Those who remain inside the box are afraid of what others might think if they venture outside the box, so they remain complacent and subservient while conforming to what society dictates rather than relying on their own discernment and judgment. People could live their entire lives pretending to be what society expects them to be and not even know it!
From an ego perspective, our thoughts are basically cultivated by what we’ve learned from our family, friends, educational systems and religious beliefs, but what have we truly been taught? What can we say about anything that wasn’t regurgitated to us by someone else?
As evidenced by past life regressions, our previous lives and soul history remain dormant in our cellular DNA and can be recalled through our subconscious minds through hypnotherapy. Within your cellular DNA, you actually remember being back with the Source along with all of the things you wanted to accomplish during this incarnation, as well as all of the challenges you wanted to overcome and all of the people who would lead you to where you are. This includes the people that have come and gone from our lives.
Sometimes, we project to be someone that we expect others to see in us. In psychology, this is referred to as the shadow self, where we project an identity that conforms to how other people may perceive us versus being true to who we really are. Some people may find out that they never knew who they were because they lived their lives through the expectations of how others will perceive them.
Those who have begun their spiritual journeys may also be confronting these issues, which initially creates cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when you get an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. This is the transition period that many of us have gone through, where our beliefs have changed, yet we’re unsure about relating these new ideas to our friends and family, due to fear or rejection.
As our spiritual journeys continue, we become more comfortable within our own beliefs and less concerned about how our friends and family view this awakening. This is when the ego becomes separated from the self and fear is dissolved by love. At this juncture, we begin to talk to acquaintances, as well as friends and family, about spiritual and metaphysical topics, with less regard about what they might think of us or how we may be perceived by others.
In time, spirituality will be the predominant frame of mind and it’s likely that those who have strayed from us will be the first in line to ask for help in adjusting to the new paradigm.
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Remember this: You are not alone! Those who truly love you will stand by you, no matter what. Those people who are no longer part of our lives have already played their role in helping us find out who we truly are. Sometimes, it takes polarity to be able to differentiate who we are and where we’re going. This is where the unawakened help immensely, by providing that contrast which allows us to see the differences.
Envision each awakened person across the planet holding a candle. While your individual candle may not seem like a lot of light, it greatly contributes to making the world FULL of light and keeps us connected, no matter how far apart we may be. While it may be painful to lose some dear friends, think about what they have brought to your life and why.
Chances are, you’ll end a few old relationships with people who were, at one time, very close to you, only to create new relationships with like-minded people. Forgive yourself, as well as your friends, if you feel badly about this. They came into your life for a reason a season or a lifetime:
Reason, Season, or Lifetime
People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know what to do for each person.
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty; to provide you with guidance and support; to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be.
Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.
Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it. It is real. But only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
Author Unknown
Have you lost any friends after your awakening? Comment below!!!
About the Author: Gregg Prescott, M.S. is the founder and editor of In5D and BodyMindSoulSpirit. You can find his In5D Radio shows on the In5D Youtube channel. He is a visionary, author, a transformational speaker, and promotes spiritual, metaphysical and esoteric conferences in the United States through In5dEvents. His love and faith for humanity motivates him to work in humanity’s best interests 12-15+ hours a day, 365 days a year. Please like and follow In5D on Facebook as well as BodyMindSoulSpirit on Facebook!
In5d’s New Earth News is your hottest source of news on the waves of energy washing over the planet in preparation for the shift to the New Earth! Become a contributor by e-mailing us at Newearth@In5d.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl9R5KP55Tw If you’re on the path to enlightenment and want to know if your getting close to achieving a complete spiritual awakening, you MUST watch this short video! Many of the graphics are as captivating as
Spiritual awakening takes place in all different shapes, sizes, and forms.
Some people experience an awakening, also known as enlightenment, suddenly and without warning, often without even aiming to achieve it. For others, such enlightenment comes more slowly.
Building over years with hard work and lots of effort thrown into the process.No matter how your awakening takes place, or when it occurs in your life, most people experience many of the same signs.
Here are the top 5 signs that what you’re experiencing is a true spiritual awakening:
1) Empty Mind and Intensified Perception
According to Conscious Lifestyle Magazine, the most major sign of oncoming enlightenment is a change in your overall thinking patterns. These changes are often highlighted by an empty mind and intensified perception.
A sense of peace often follows these changes. You might also notice a greater appreciation for the world around you. You might be more drawn to nature and eager to spend more time within it.
Most importantly, you feel at ease and comfortable. Your worries are starting to ease and you feel much less stress in all aspects of your life. In other words, you feel at once more perceptive of the world around you and less filled with negative thoughts
2) Content with Aloneness
Contentment follows true spiritual awakening. Many of those in the middle of awakening spiritually begin to feel a greater sense of contentment in all facets of their life. This sense of contentment – a sense of just truly being okay in this world – extends to aloneness.
When you might’ve once felt lonely spending hours, days, or even weeks with little to nocontact with others, you are now okay with this aloneness. In fact, this aloneness makes you feel even more peaceful and content. It makes you feel even happier with the life you are leading.
During the beginnings of this process, some people even find it difficult to go out in public, especially to crowded areas or events.
3) Greater Inspiration
Spirituality author Natasha Tae states that another early sign of enlightenment is greater feelings of inspiration. Perhaps you feel more inspired overall. More positive and willing to live each day to its fullest. Or perhaps your inspiration is more targeted.
Maybe you are creating more art, whether that’s music, painting, or something else altogether.Perhaps your inspiration is spiritual in nature.
You are feeling inspired to connect with greater forces, meditate, and communicate with a higher power. Whatever the target of your inspiration, having these newly inspired thoughts and feelings is a key sign of enlightenment.
4) Sudden Changes
Sudden changes in life can be difficult to deal with. There’s no denying that sudden changes in life are often stressful and difficult. Yet these sudden changes are often a sign of an oncoming awakening.
Sometimes these changes force you to change things inside yourself.Often sudden changes, especially job or career changes, force you to contemplate what really matters most to you in this world.
As difficult as these experiences might be to get through, there’s little denying that they often have long-lasting positive repercussions.
Even more serious life events, like the loss of a loved one, can have positive benefits, even though it might not seem like it at first. Any change that promotes a change in your way of thinking can lead towards greater peace, happiness, and overall wisdom.
5) Empathy, Compassion, and Bliss
According to Power of Positivity, an awakening doesn’t just change your own perception of yourself and your own life. It also affects your perceptions towards others.
Enlightenment changes the way you think about other people by increasing your empathy and compassion. You begin to truly care for others more. And not only that, but you also begin to experience what they’re feeling and thinking.
You learn to look at problems from their point of view instead of solely from your own. Empathy and compassion often extend beyond humans towards animals, plants, and the universe at large.
This increase in empathy and compassion is often accompanied by a feeling of bliss.
The process of spiritual awakening is often depicted as smiles and rainbows scattered with organic juice and yoga classes. It has often been portrayed as 100% positivity and the renunciation of all darkness- the truth can often be very far from this perception.
When we open up spiritually, it can start off smiley and euphoric, but as we peel back the layers of the metaphorical onion we often see parts of ourselves we didn’t know existed and the darkness we have is brought to light.
This can often be a lonely process as many of our friends and family can be in a completely different space, and this is beautifully portrayed by Instagram artist @casualtyofcool showing the lonely process of being initiated into a different level of understanding that many are not used too.
There is a paradoxical nature to the process of spiritual awakening, on one hand it is you alone dealing with the lessons and process you need to go through. But on the other there are many who are simultaneously going through the same thing. The people appear the moment you are ready for them too, so just know you are not alone in this. Thanks for listening to my words and thanks to @casualtyofcool for the thought provoking work! Much love, Luke
I am Luke Miller a poet, writer and deep thinker! Everything I do is centred around the rebalance of the power structure to one that is harmonious, loving and benefits humanity in its entirety. We are entering a new age of love and I am here to encourage others to be a part of it! (Rev)olution R(evol)ution R(evolution) Revolut(ion) R(evolve)ut(ion) Or (Revolve)ut(ion)
With a third of American adults reportedly not getting the recommended amount of sleep, waking up periodically throughout the night is not unexpected. However, the time that you find yourself waking up may provide some insight into your life.
Sure, there are always going to be outside distractions in life that have the ability to negatively impact our quality of sleep, like a crying baby or a new puppy that’s determined its time to go out. However, if you notice yourself regularly waking up at the same time with no reasonable explanation, your body may be trying to send you a message. The only way to return to a restful and uninterrupted sleep? To identify what your body is trying to tell you, and address its concerns.
The concept is based on a traditional Chinese belief that the body contains an ‘energy highway’ throughout which the Qi, or life energy, flows. Throughout the body, there are ‘channels’ or ‘meridians’ through which this energy flows. Each is associated with the distribution of energy for various aspects of our lives, such as the energy necessary for the optimal function of major organs, or to the brain, the help regulate mood and stress levels. This is the foundation for traditional acupuncture practices, using these points to relieve ailments throughout the body.
When these meridians are experiencing distress, they send signals to the brain to warn us. For example, if you are currently experiencing an upset stomach, the associated meridian (in this case, the Leg Yang Ming) will alert us that something is wrong. This is a system designed to encourage quick and effective treatment of all ailments.
If you are routinely waking up at the same time night after night, there is a good chance that this is the efforts of a specific energy meridian to get your attention. By tracking the time that you wake up each night, you can identify patterns of behavior.
If you wake up at the same time every night, what is your body trying to tell you?
9 PM to 11 PM: Stress
If you find that you have a very hard time falling asleep and staying asleep between the hours of 9 PM and 11 PM, this is a good indicator that you are experiencing an extreme amount of stress in your life. This could come in the form of a stressful situation at work, or simply working too hard, difficulties in your relationship, family struggles or financial problems. Whatever the cause, the sooner you alleviate that stress factor in your life, the sooner you’ll find yourself falling asleep with ease. In the meantime, meditation and breathing exercises have been found effective in the management of stress.
11 PM to 1 AM: Heightened Emotions or Gallbladder Issues
If you are dealing with a highly emotional time in your life right now, such as a failed relationship or the loss of a job, this can impact your ability to sleep between the hours of 11 PM and 1 AM. This may also reflect ongoing emotional struggles, such as those individuals who struggle with feelings of self-confidence and self-worth. Focus on positive affirmations to help boost your mood and invite positivity into your life. On the physical side, this is also the time that is associated with the function of your gallbladder. Other signs and symptoms of gallbladder problems include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, unusual stools or urine, fever or chills, and abdominal pain.
1 AM to 3 AM: Anger and Frustration or Trouble with the Liver
We often overlook the incredible impact that anger and frustration can have on our lives. Whether you’re holding onto resentment from a situation in the past or a stressful and frustrating situation that you are currently faced with, you don’t have to allow this negative and toxic energy to infect your life. Take a deep breath and try to focus on the positive. Remember that holding onto grudges and resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will hurt someone else – you’re the one that’s going to pay the ultimate price. This may also indicate that something is preventing your liver from functioning at its optimal level. If you notice signs of liver disease or failure including jaundice, fatigue, diarrhea, loss of appetite, nausea, or mental confusion, seek medical attention immediately.
3 AM to 5 AM: Spiritual Awakening, Sadness or Ailments of the Lungs
There are a few causes that could be associated with waking up at this time, so you are going to have to reflect and consider which may apply to your life. If you are waking up due to a physical ailment, it is likely associated with the function of your lungs. Have you been feeling out of breath, or struggling to keep up with your usual daily routine? If so, contact a medical professional. If you haven’t, the next consideration is an emotional struggle, specifically feelings of sadness and/or depression. Those who feel as though they are living under a dark cloud often find themselves waking up at this time. Finally, if you have eliminated both other potential causes, this may not be a sign of a struggle at all. Practitioners believe that the energy meridians associated with the spirit and spiritual awakening may be active at this specific time in the morning. Take a deep breath and embrace the experience, opening your heart and your mind to the changes you are currently undergoing. You will come out of this a more evolved version of yourself.
5 AM to 7 AM: Emotional Blockages or Digestive Issues, Specifically the Large Intestine
You may notice that you not only are waking up at this specific time in the morning, but you’re also experiencing signs of digestive upset including nausea, heartburn, bloating, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting or changes to your bowel movements. If so, then you are likely dealing with an issue relating to the digestive tract. These ailments are incredibly common; however, they can also be pretty serious if they are left unaddressed. The best thing you can do is to seek the opinion of a medical professional for the next steps. If this is not the case, you may be struggling with unresolved or suppressed emotions. Take a deep breath, find a quiet place alone and do some serious self-reflection. Are there emotions you are avoiding expressing? Unfortunately, while it may seem like the easy solution these emotions will continue to fester beneath the surface until they are addressed. The only way to be free of them is to work through them and release them once and for all.
We all know how the road to spiritual awakening can be quite a difficult process, and sometimes when you manage to achieve it, other things may become harder and more complicated, especially our relationships with other people, and there are many reasons why.
Without a doubt spiritual awakening it’s an amazing experience, that makes you grow as a human being, overcome certain fears and issues, but at times you might feel lost and misunderstood.
This happens because most of the people that you interact with, friends, family or your partner have not yet experienced the spiritual awakening and haven’t seen the truth like you, and they might have a bad reaction to the new you which can result with a lot of disagreements.
Even though the path to spiritual awakening, as previously mentioned, can be quite difficult and painful, the end goal can be very rewarding. If you choose to face your inner fears and your darkest sides, you’ll be capable of anything. You’ll see the world and humanity with a clear and sharp vision and you’ll become stronger than ever.
No matter how dark things may look, you should always have in mind that they’ll pass and that there is always light at the and of the tunnel. And not only that but after every bad experience, you will only become stronger and unbreakable.
Your tolerance level will be much higher than before. Because when you’ve been through a spiritual awakening, you are not like the rest of the world but much, much stronger.
Unfortunately, most of the people cannot see that there are other things out there and that there are different perspectives on life. They choose to live shallow lives filled with only fundamental physical needs and are unable to see the bigger picture.
Nevertheless, you know that you’re not like the most people and you can clearly see that something with this standard of living isn’t working and that change is inevitable for progress and prosperity.
And as you’re walking through the path to enlightenment, these wrong things become very clear and difficult to ignore, and more than ever you know that this painful process must be finished, and sometimes people in your surrounding knowingly or not can be an obstacle to your spiritual awakening because they have very little understanding of it.
This being said, maintaining your relationships with people, especially with your loved one can become very challenging because you are so aware of things and your partner doesn’t know how to deal with the change.
The process of spiritual awakening requires time and patience because most of all this is a healing process, that heals your body and soul, and it takes quality alone time and devotion, and when this becomes priority, other things like relationships come second, and more importantly, you are not at the same level with your loved one as before.
It’s clear that you cannot have this type of relationship, at least not until you are fully healed from your old life, and the process cannot happen when you are in that relationship because sadly the emotions will come in the way of your spiritual awakening.
You have to find your twin flame so you can have a mutual understanding and tolerance because twin flames function on a higher level than the regular relationship. You have to be sure that you’re with the one that is destined for you, and the only way to do that is to get rid of all of the unnecessary emotions that drain your energy, such as neediness, possessiveness, and jealousy, and replace them with love and harmony.
Given these points, you know what to. Don’t cling to that person that’s on your way to your spiritual awakening, but let them go without fear and have faith in yourself. You have to open your soul to the new energies, and in time your pain will disappear.
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Thank you to #Emerging Proud film subject, Lori, for this wonderful article…
More and more people are asking themselves this question and thankfully western culture is becoming better equipped with some answers. Spiritual awaking can be a glamorous term but the reality is that an awakening can be life altering and chaotic. When that happens it is called a spiritual emergency. There are many things that can trigger a spiritual emergency:
1.) Societal pressures: When people have been living their lives for the perception of others, their true selves lies hidden. Trying to fit the mold of society can limit the souls journey and an awakening is the emergence of the truth of a person. A shattering of limiting beliefs and the realization that there is more to what is seen can stimulate a change of perception of the world that leads to a shrugging off of the old and stepping into a new vision.
2.) Is there more to life? When you start asking the bigger questions and wanting to know more about your existence, your purpose, your place in the cosmic view of things you make be at a juncture of a spiritual awakening. Twelve astronauts have spoken of their shift in how they see themselves in the world after trips to space. This is called the overview effect. They have spoken about the awe they have and the transcendence into an understanding of connectedness. Here is a video about this phenomenon.
3.) Depression: Many times depression can be precipitated by not living your true existence. The soul weeps that you have lost touch with the recognition of the purpose of being here.
4.) Trauma: Many spiritual emergencies occur after a near death experience, death of a loved one or a very fearful incident.
5.) Childbirth: Many women will realize that bigger picture after giving birth. The act of what occurs brings to light the feeling of miracles and phenomena and a total unity and oneness with another human being.
6.) Intensive spiritual practice: Many of the great world wisdoms have known of the possibilites of enlightenment. Asian cultures have always explored the bigger picture and the importance of an inner perception. Meditation, yoga and other practices can be a foundation for the feeling of connectivity to the universe.
7.) Repressed emotions: The emotional load has limits and there is a fragile turning point when we do not manage emotion well, storing them until a danger zone. The psyche will reach a limit and explodes when the reality of our lives is revealed through an awakening.
When an awakening sinks in there is a vast list of symptoms. People talk of a unity consciousness and a blissful existence where they may feel unconditional love for the first time in their lives. They often describe themselves disintegrating and becoming whole with a universal energy. There is also a sense of knowing, receiving information from the external world without even asking for it, a ripening of intuition. Many will hear voices, channel messages and receive psychic abilities. The sensitivities of smell, noise and others energies and emotions can play havoc with someone in a spiritual emergency.
There are also physical changes as the energy begins to emerge and rise within the sacrum of the body and spreads throughout the body. There can be a sensation that you have been plugged in and cannot unplug yourself from intense energy. This can even be painful as an overload on the nervous system. Another symptom can be amazing synchronicities and the ability to see past lives. You may also have the experience of being out of your body astral traveling at night or even during the day.
For many these spiritual experiences are manageable and do not effect your life, for others they can be very overwhelming and destabilizing. When there is not a framework for understanding and when the experiences are not validated it can be very chaotic and disturbing. Friends and family may find it very difficult to understand and to help and many end up in the mental health field where there is little to no support for these types of events.
The earth is changing its frequency and this can be the cause of many people switching on to a higher vibration. Here is the perfect stone to work with:
Moldavite:
A very rare stone from Eastern Europe, moldavite is my go to stone for extra-terrestial energies. It is a type of tektite formed when a giant meteor hit the earth, a fusion of the cosmos with mother earth. It has been a very cherished stone throughout the ages. For me it is the ascension stone sent to our planet to raise its vibration and help us in our transition to a higher level of consciousness. It is intense and and will clear out your chakras and increase your connection to the higher realms and accelerate the ascension process. It is important to use a grounding stone like hematite or obsidian while using moldavite to balance its extra-terrestial affects. It is very helpful to shamans who can venture into past lives and repair aberrations on the energetic fields, they can also use it to journey to the infinite field of possibility and bring back what is needed in the present for optimizing future results. It serves as a transformer of information from the akashic field.
Many people feel very disconnected on earth, as if they miss the place of their origins. These people are often called star children, indigos or crystal children and are highly sensitive beings often struggling with the density of earth. Moldavite’s energies are like a phone call home, tying them back to the interplanetary world they most resonate with. Highly empathic people will resonate with moldavite as it can be a support of compassion and purpose.
Research Paper By Holly Deanna Thede (Leadership and Life Coach, CANADA)
Similar to the term “coaching”, the word enlightenment holds many misconceptions and has endless amounts of interpretations spreading throughout our globe. These misconceptions can become limiting beliefs that place an enormous obstacle for people in our society to engage in enlightenment.The most common limiting belief is that we think enlightenment can only be experienced bya select few; yogis, Buddhist monks, and others who dedicate their lives to spiritual and religious practice. Another limiting belief of enlightenment is that it is something most people cannot attain; it is superficial, unreachable and maybe even unconventional. When in reality, anyone can experience enlightenment, and it doesn’t have to be spiritual or religious.
The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with being. –Eckhart Tolle
The philosophy of coaching, the practice of self-discovery generates self-awareness, and self-awareness triggers enlightenment. By surrendering to our truths in the practice of self-awareness, we are opening ourselves up to the experience of enlightenment. Those who remain unaware or fearful and reject the idea of enlightenment are those who have a much less chance of ever experiencing it. People who hold these limiting beliefs usually tend to be much more difficult to coach, maybe even “un coachable”.As believers of enlightenment, we can create opportunities and offer both believers and non-believers the experience. We can engage in practices that will not only improve ourselves, but also better those around us, particularly those we coach.
What exactly is enlightenment?
The word enlightenment generates ambiguity, and this creates yet another barrier. You can find over 20,000 results on Amazon if you search for books about enlightenment. There is a wealth of information on the internet, all containing in depth explanations on the history, and often conflicting points of view on the meaning and process of enlightenment. The definitions are endless. For the purpose of this paper, we will focus more on the interpretation of the Western culture, as we are most familiar with the history, language, culture and ideas.
Even though the meaning of enlightenment is defined differently across the globe, the idea of enlightenment holds many similarities. In Western culture, enlightenment was influenced by a movement in the 18th century, and was defined as a movement of new beliefs and ideas. In Buddhism, enlightenment is finding the truth of life. Now in the present, the meaning has evolved and has been opened up to interpretation. Through my own studies of enlightenment, I have come up with a definition that I find simple,encompassing and powerful;
Enlightenment is experiencing insight that brings about a new sense of clarity, and has the potential to change the entire belief system of a person –Holly Thede
To better understand the process of enlightenment, research was conducted by interviewing many different people from many different backgrounds, and it was clear that everyone had a unique story. The more interesting finding was that in these stories, there was a major discovery-there were four common events that happened during every person’s experience:[1]
Intensity-people experienced something that could not be ignored
Clarity-people had a new understanding of life and one’s purpose
Unity-people had an increased feeling of connection to the universe
Surrender-people felt the freedom of letting go of self
These four common elements are evident in the process of coaching. When asking powerful questions that reveal new thoughts or ideas, all four elements are involved.We may even label these moments of intensity, clarity, unity and surrender as “aha moments”. These powerful moments of enlightenment can produce different outcomes, and we distinguish these experiences by calling them “Big e’s” or “Little e’s”.2
What is a Big e?
A Big e experience will have a permanent effect on someone’s life. A person will be challenged to change their sense of self, their entire belief system. As a result, this experience changes the perceptions that a person holds about himself or herself, affecting their relationships and many other areas of their life (in a positive way.)This experience of enlightenment happens when people become invested in a deep practice, such as meditation, chanting or prayer. It has also been known to occur when a person self-administers certain mind-altering drugs, which also have the ability to set the stage for enlightenment.
What is a Little e?
In most cases, Little e experiences do not have a permanent effect of people’s lives. The effects are usually immediate and prolonged and will still challenge the person, but not necessarily have permanent effects that change their sense of self longer than a few moments or days.Although this is most often triggered by events in ones’ life, it can also happen in spiritual practice The experience of enlightenment can occur in moments of heightened awareness, when people are simply just thinking deeply on their own or speaking to a trusted friend or coach.
Coaching is a practice in enlightenment
In Newberg’s book, it has been confirmed that we can increase the amount of little e’s through deep reflection. This is great news, as the process of coaching provides this space and is designed to bring about truth, clarity and change. The more people experience little e’s, the more likely people are to experience the big ones. However, even if we don’t reach a “Big one”, it is still a rewarding experience that provides us with ongoing learning and personal growth.
It is evident that this is a large reason why people become coaches. Coaches are change makers, awareness seekers, perspective shifters, and use the coaching process to provide this space for those who are willing to open up to change. Coaches have the opportunity to introduce their clients to little e’s, moments that will heighten awareness and create change on how the client is viewing the situation.In little e’s, brain scans show that there is rapid movement in neural activity during enlightenment. This is where we make a shift-we see things differently, we get curious and what we knew before about ourselves has now changed.
Understanding the six levels of awareness
To further investigate where enlightenment happens in our minds and how we may know when it is the prime time to experience it, the following six levels of awareness provide us with some insight.3
Instinctual awareness
Survival awareness, voluntarily responding to our needs (unconscious)
Habitual responsiveness
Behaviors to achieve most of our goals formed from habit (unconscious)
Intentional decision
Using logic and reason to problem solve (everyday consciousness)
Creative imagination
Resting state, free thinking
Self-reflective awareness
Mindfulness, intuitive, observing your own consciousness
Transformational awareness
Life changing insights
By examining these stages, we can conclude that we spend most of our life in the first three levels; we act on instinct, we are creatures of habit and we do most things without ever really thinking about it. Real transformation occurs in the last three stages.A process such as coaching is a great example of how we can provide opportunities to achieve transformation (the last three levels). Coaches provide a silent space embroidered by trust, and in this offers a client psychological air. This is important for two reasons; it slows down the thought process so that a person can decipher and analyze the story in their head, and it holds that person accountable to the words they speak. This may sometimes be all that they need to experience enlightenment. Other times, a series of powerful questions are necessary to move a client into a different perspective. No matter what state of enlightenment you are in, you are shifting perspective to provide deeper meaning and purpose for your client. There is no doubt that when this shift takes place,there is a feeling of liberation and peace.
3“How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman” 2016, P.97
How can we get to enlightenment?
As you will discover, getting to enlightenment is not “rocket science”. What is most challenging about getting to enlightenment is simply taking the take the time out of your day to sit down and be with yourself.
Enlightenment begins the moment we suspend our normal view of the world. Andrew Newberg
Desire
Are you willing to challenge or suspend your own beliefs?
By creating a visualization in coaching, we can believe in the power of our decisions to produce our best future, and the power of belief is beyond measure. To have the desire for insight and change, we must first believe. When we open up to the concept of change, we can enter it much more often.It is also necessary to discover your desire to change, and a great way to ask yourself is to write down why you would like to have enlightenment and what it means to you.You can also practice a more in depth exercise and journal all of the life changing moments you have had. This will elicit insight on why it is important for you to experience enlightenment.
The simple practice of self-awareness creates opportunity for external awareness, such as viewing events in your life with meaning and opportunity. As someone who has a desire and is open to enlightenment, I can share a great example of how I can attach meaning to everyday events: Upon my decision to join ICA to become a PCC, my family decided to order out Chinese food for dinner. Later that night as I was contemplating the decision I just made, and I opened this fortune cookie:
The meaning behind this? Not only was I engaging in my curious nature to learn more about coaching, but I also knew that one of the most important attributes of a coach was to be curious. A coincidence? I don’t’ believe so. Being open and having the desire to experience meaning, has left me vulnerable to find it in the simplest things.
You are provided with exercises to provoke enlightenment, but you need not do anything else to seek it, when you naturally believe in its power, and knowing that it exists-you won’t find it, it will find you. These small yet significant experiences offer us a new sense of meaning, helping us to identify with our purpose, and connect us with this inner knowing that we are part of something much bigger.
Preparation
Are you ready to take this seriously?
It is encouraged that prior to relaxation, engaging in a creative activity such as art, dance, music is beneficial, as it increases the activity in the brain, so that when you get to surrender, there is a sudden drop in activity.
4“How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman” 2016, P.194
Historically, people have engaged in many interesting exercises to induce enlightenment; enhancing drugs, magnetic stimulation, deep prayer, famines and sleep apnea. As you can expect, many of these exercises have been subject to criticism, as they can be labeled as “artificial experiences”. However, in reality, whether you are drug induced or in a meditative state, it has been proven that your brain is triggered to change perception in the same way.
Some alternative self-awareness exercises to promote enlightened thinking can be; meditation, mindfulness practice (breathing or yawning), yoga, journaling. An exercise that can be practiced prior to engaging in enlightenment can be easily executed in a coaching relationship. This exercise, or any other should always be a mindful practice; whatever exercise you choose it should be in a rested state. Below is an effective self-reflective exercise that was shared by author Andrew Newberg.5
Identify your own beliefs and recognize they are biased
Become proficient in developing alternative points of view
Do not assume that the other person will think or act like you
Imagine that the belief you are currently holding is wrong, and then develop a scenario to explain how that could be true. This helps you to see the limitations of your own beliefs.
Try out the other person’s beliefs by actually acting out the role
Play devil’s advocate by taking the minority point of view. This helps you see how alternative assumptions make the world look different.
Interact with people of different backgrounds and beliefs.
Upon completion of this exercise, you may observe that our brains are not wired to accept or even welcome opposing views. The reason for this? We are holding our values and beliefs so tightly that we become rigid.
Engagement
Are you ready to be vulnerable?
Participate in a ritual that best serves you, whether this is chanting, breathing, guided or un-guided meditation or prayer. As soon as you surf the internet, you will find a long list of rituals to choose from. Choose one that you will like so that you will not only enjoy it, but it will leave you vulnerable to surrender.
Surrender
Are you ready to release judgement and expectations?
In order to achieve surrender, you must fully immerse yourself in the practice and let go of any control over the experience-just let it happen. The more you relax, the more you give up control, the more you detach from your thoughts and the external world. You must not think about what you look like, sound like, what you will achieve, and what this all means. Separate from the external distractions and thoughts and just be with YOU in the present moment.
Reflection
Are you ready to place meaning?
Just like a coaching session, it is beneficial to spend some time after the exercise to deeply reflect on the experience that just occurred in the altered state. This step is just as important, if not more, than any of the others. By giving yourself time to reflect, you can focus on what you just learned, how this new information will affect your life, and what the next step is in creating this change.
5“How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman” 2016, P.181
What happens to our brain during enlightenment?
During the active stages of enlightenment, scans detect that there are rapid shifts of neural activity in the key areas of our brain, mainly the limbic system. This is what we would refer to as the emotional area of our brain. When in enlightenment, these areas light up and become more active. We also write our memories in this area of the brain, hence this is why we remember intense moments of enlightenment. Another area of our brain, the parietal lobe, is less active in enlightenment. This is the sensory area of our brain-where we create our sense of self and our sense of how we relate to everything outside of us. Here, we lose the sense of self, and as a result, there are permanent changes to our brain. Our thalamus (what we refer to as our seed of consciousness),helps different areas of the brain communicate with each other. The activity in the thalamus during enlightenment dramatically changes, which changes our perception of reality; the way we think about reality, sense reality and the way the brain interacts with that reality.
The results of an enlightenment experience can affect us in the very moment, the moments after, or even years after, depending on the deepness of the experience. It has been confirmed by science that whether these moments are short or long, the brain returns to its habitual thinking, but it’s not the same brain. Small and permanent changes indeed do take place;this means that we all have the capacity to change how we see ourselves and how we see the world around us.
We have learned that from the moment we form a belief, we become biased against any belief that contradicts ours. Therefore, for every belief we have, there is a negative belief. This places so much importance on why we should be continuously challenging our beliefs! By challenging our beliefs, we learn that there are always options to change our lenses and to experience life from a different perspective. We also know that limiting beliefs are the cause of our fears; fears to be vulnerable, fear of change, fear of knowing oneself, fear of losing oneself, fear of the unknown, fear of not being ready.It is difficult to see how damaging our limiting beliefs can be until we are challenged to step back. And who will challenge our beliefs?
Stephen Covey put it beautifully in his book of the 7 Habits:
…all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are.
[1] “How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman” 2016, P.51
2“How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain: Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman” 2016, P.3
Trigger and language warning: This piece overtly discusses concepts such as suicide, mental illness, depression, anxiety, triggers and a number of other potentially triggering concepts. It also occasionally uses coarse language. Please read cautiously. We live in a fast-paced, results-driven world. Many of us are aware of this, yet we pass it off as something […]
Ever lay awake at night wondering, “Why me”? Why do terrible things happen to me? Why do my relationships end with me being hurt? What have I ever done to deserve this? What’s life about anyway? If so, then know that you are not alone. And more importantly, start by letting go of your victim consciousness and realize that everything is exactly as it’s meant to be.
Are you sick of hearing this? Good, because it’s TRUE! Everything that happens to you, your relationships both good and bad, your experiences in life whether happy or sad, is all in perfect timing. Despite you believing otherwise, your life is as it’s meant to be. Right, so I’m meant to be hurt and feel shit about life? Is that just the way it’s meant to be? I hear you thinking now! And the answers to your question is actually both yes and no. It is my belief as a Spiritual Being, like you, that everything we experience in life has a higher purpose. There is a deeper meaning which, when we discover it, helps us evolve and expand as human beings with a Spiritual Consciousness.
These questions have been chief among those most frequently asked by my coaching clients over the years. The specific answer isn’t as important as much as the meaning you assign to the question. By that, I mean, what do you believe on the deepest level of your being that you are here to do, be an experience? I believe we are all here to help each other grow physically, mentally, emotionally as the amazing Spiritual Beings we are now and are becoming!
When you think about life as a series of experiences designed to help us evolve, you begin to see the bigger picture. The challenging relationships, the family or friends, who we perceive have betrayed us, the hurtful emotions you have had to overcome – aren’t you richer for the experience? Look at what you have learned, understood, and how much more of life you have come to experience as a result. Aren’t you much wiser and more empathetic? Would you have learned or gained such meaningful insight any other way? Every emotion evoked by another person you meet, both happy and sad, is your opportunity to evolve deeply. We may not always enjoy the experience at first, or at all, but on reflection, we realize that without this emotional trigger being pulled within, we wouldn’t have moved forward or gained such valuable insight.
The life purpose we all share is to evolve and grow, we do this through our experiences and most of all through those which challenge us most.
The loss of a loved one,
Breakdown of close relationships
Aging and coming to terms with mortality
The difficult sibling relationship
How we process and respond to life’s challenges, is infinitely more important than the challenge itself!
Do You REACT or RESPOND in Your Life?
Reaction is automatic, responding is manual! I used to react a lot when I was growing up, to situations and to what others said and did to me. The outcome was for the most part unhelpful as it always resulted in hurt for someone, and neither person ended up feeling better. In short, reacting doesn’t resolve issues.
I have learned to respond to others instead. When you respond you give a considered reply, which comes from a place of love within. Both people learn from this interaction or at least have the opportunity to learn. Responding isn’t a knee-jerk reaction or unleashing your emotional reaction. Instead, you are being human with respect for others, and especially yourself. It does require practice, and controlling and/or resolving our “emotional triggers, we all have them (developed through hurts we have experienced and unresolved issues).
Seeing others as also being human helps us respond constructively without abandoning our integrity, which is very important. We are all here to learn and grow. Our emotional system is the navigation system we use to guide our evolution. We are both students and teachers in each other’s lives! If you have watched any reality television shows, you can see life being played out in dramatic 3D technicolor! But it is also very evident that when even strangers are put together in this way, relationships form, strong bonds and friendships are created. But what you also realize, is that we are all the same, we all want to be loved. There are those who grate on our emotions too, these people are either your greatest student or your best teacher.
Either way, they will challenge you to grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The show Big Brother is a great example of this concept. Being forced to process your humanity in a controlled environment such as this, is a magnified version of life, the life we each are here to live and experience. So, the next time you find yourself tossing and turning at night unable to rest with your head spinning with a hundred thoughts, or you are upset and feeling hurt by another’s actions. Ask yourself:
Am I the teacher or the student in this situation?
After the sun sets in the mountains of Atenas, but before the darkness has consumed the landscape, a shade of purple tints everything in sight. A disorganized chorus of tropical insects and birds closes in on you. The hillsides, which are so blanketed in vegetation you can’t see any ground beneath it, come to life with thousands of fireflies sparkling sporadically. They make it look like a fantasy world. The clouds of mist come through the jungle canyons between the peaks of the mountains as if the clouds themselves were living creatures. They move through the air like the Sea Cucumbers called Spanish Dancers move through the sea.
I am sitting at a table overlooking it all with a bowl of papaya. Tropical fruit is so abundant and unfathomably good in Costa Rica that it will ruin the experience of eating fruit in the rest of the world. But papaya is my favorite tropical fruit. I love its gentle sweetness in my sinuses. I love its creamy, chalky flavor. People who hate papaya say it has a flavor that reminds them of sweet vomit. I have tried again and again to detect the flavor they are talking about, but I can’t seem to find it. To me it tastes like absolute heaven; so the community enjoys letting me hog it like this. It is funny where life takes us. I often think about what I would think if someone took a video of my life today and showed it to myself when I was a child or a teenager. How different my life was then. I remember the first time I ever tasted papaya. It was a Christmas Eve. The local grocery store surprised the whole town by suddenly offering a selection of exotic fruits in time for Christmas. Now I am growing those very same fruits on the property that I own in a foreign country that I never knew existed back then. I recently saw a movie based on this concept called “The Kid”. I love that movie. I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before now. It is a movie about a kid meeting his future self. To begin with, the kid cannot believe what a horrible disappointment he grew up to be. But over the course of the film, the main character turns his life around based on meeting his child self. I can honestly say that my life is overwhelming. It is really hard. To be honest, my life is larger than life. But I can honestly say that if my child self met my adult self, she would not be disappointed. I have taken the risk to truly live. And it has led to moments like this… Moments that take your breath away. Moments that are rich with meaning.
It is both sad and frustrating for me to see how hurt people are by the way their lives have disappointed them… How powerless they really feel to changing their lives for the better. So often on the inspirational things I post now, the comments will be things like “This is the same old bullshit spewed by ignorant, entitled rich people who have never had to put food on the table for their starving kids”. It is so obvious that fulfillment is a feeling we are all looking for in life. We want to feel fulfilled by the things that we are doing. We want the things we do to really matter. We want a life that is rich with meaning. But all too often we feel like we are just going through the motions of life, getting busy with the emptiness of the things that we feel must or should be done. Suffering because the things we want seem so out of reach. But regardless of whether we are homeless or a billionaire, creating a life that is fulfilling is done the exact same way.
We need to take two approaches to making our life rich with meaning through living our life for what matters. The first is to make sure that everything we are doing actually matters. The second is to realize that if we change the meaning of what we are doing, we can make the vast majority of what doesn’t seem to matter, deeply matter. When we take the first approach, we take a serious look at whether what we are doing really matters or not. And we then live our life according to what really matters. We stop putting our energy into the things that we realize really don’t matter. One of the greatest gifts of lying on your death bed or experiencing a near death experience or even of having someone you love die, is that it puts all things into perspective. It shows you what really matters. One of the best tools to use in your life on an ongoing basis is to practice closing your eyes and imaging that you are on your deathbed but you are looking back at whatever you are currently (and in this moment) trying to make a decision about, whatever you are putting your energy into, whatever you are worrying about, whatever you are doing or thinking about doing. And ask yourself, does this matter? If the answer is no, stop putting energy into it and find something else that matters to put your energy into. If the answer is yes, ask yourself why for the sake of your own awareness. And put energy into it. Only you can know what really matters to you. Start to live every thought and word and action in your life according to what matters.
When we take the second approach, we can look at anything we are doing, any activity, and we can change the way we look at it so that doing it can really matter and really have meaning. For example, I could decide that doing the dishes in the sink really does not matter. It is just something that has to be done. But what if I realized that doing the dishes takes pressure off of other people in the house and that frees them up to experience more things that they enjoy? Then doing the dishes does matter. Doing the dishes does have deep meaning. Or for example, I may have a terrible customer support job at a cell phone company that I hate. I may tell myself that my job does not matter and that there is no meaning in what I am doing. But what if I realized that making someone’s phone work might just be the thing that makes it so they can have the talk that saves their relationship or what if making someone’s phone work is the reason that someone sees an amber alert and actually reports the whereabouts of a child that is stolen. Then, suddenly your job really matters.
Sometimes, we cannot change the fact that something we are putting our energy into does not really matter and does not hold deep meaning. But often we can change the meaning we assign to the things we are putting our energy into and as a result, we can make the things that seem to not matter, really matter. This is one of the deep meanings behind the old Buddhist sayings “before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water and after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.” This saying conveys that enlightenment does not change what you are doing in your life. It does not make you any less human. What does change however is that the way you see those simple activities, and the meaning you assign to doing them, changes the quality of doing them completely. Before, chopping wood and carrying water was a chore that had to be done… Something you had to mindlessly get out of the way before doing something that actually mattered to you. After, chopping wood and carrying water has great meaning.
In my opinion, the person who is able to open themselves completely to the world and follow their own internal north star to the things that really matter, is the person who is the bravest. Most people are too scared to do this. They are too afraid of the risks and so they call the person who is open to the world and who follows their internal star, a fool. But the fool is in fact the person who cuts themselves off from the world and who follows an external star. They cannot see that they are killing themselves in an atmosphere of their own constriction. If you are brave enough to follow your own internal north star with the promise to make sure that anything you are doing really matters and also the promise of finding a way to look at the things you are doing in terms of why they really do matter, your life will be so rich with meaning and your life will matter so much, it will make it impossible to be disappointed with your life. And in the end, you will be able to say with absolute conviction that you have really and truly lived.
Here is a simple month-long meditation exercise that helps a person awaken their soul and find who they are deep down inside. This meditation exercise is for those who are really interested in pushing through everything that holds them back on their spiritual journey. This personal journey of meditation can be very easy or demanding depending on the person.
This meditation process can be tailored to each individual. Some people will find answers to the first week in 3 days but might find that another week’s meditation process might take 8 or 9 days. So, listen to your heart. But remember it would be best to put in as many hours as possible meditating. For some it might be 2 hours daily, others 4 hours daily, and still others it might be 8 hours daily. It will all depend on the person and how much they really want to break free of what’s holding them back now.
This first week a person meditates on “How can I live my life in a way in order to be closer to God, Great Spirit, and the Universe”. This takes some real soul searching and asking the still small voice “What could I do differently” and really wanting to make changes. It also involves wanting to make life better not only for yourself but for all of mankind. This will take time and this is not a short quick answer. After meditating for a while, one should write down what comes up and thus you can look at your answer later, to remind yourself what needs to be done.
Week Two
The second week is not easy at all. It’s to meditate on all the pain and suffering we have caused others. We have to be honest and note without exception where we have hurt people and caused suffering. Most people lock all of this away. But in order to become enlightened, we have to look at our shortcomings in order to become something different. Meditate for a while and also journal what comes up.
Week Three
The third week is meditating on what your inner world, your feelings, what would they be like if you were filled with love 24/7. How would your feelings be different? What would your interactions with people be like? What would you feel if you were filled with love? What would the circumstances of your life look like? Would you still have anger? Would you become frustrated? Would you make some big changes?
This takes time to figure out. So meditate and journal what you find during this week of soul-searching.
Week Four
And the last week is to meditate on ways to change your thinking. During the last week, you meditated on how all of this would come together and change your life and thinking in significant ways. Without this last part, none of the first three weeks mean anything. Basically, you will be meditating on how you can bring all of this together in a practical way into your daily life? This is not easy as a person has to let go of preconceived ideas and ways of being in order to see the truth within. Let go of all things that would be impediments to this process and know somehow it would work out. Just write it all down and then meditate some more.
I know for sure this month-long meditation retreat will change your life forever.
If you’re either planning to go into recovery or are in recovery and just entering your journey into being clean or sober, you’ll likely often hear about people having a spiritual awakening. This is especially true if you’re following a 12-step or similar program, where spirituality and religion are embraced as strong factors in addiction recovery. No matter which path you follow, understanding what is meant by a spiritual awakening will help you to realize that recovery means going well beyond simply quitting drugs and alcohol.
Most 12-step groups define a spiritual awakening as the shift away from looking to alcohol or drugs to solve life problems such as stress and boredom and towards actively working to improve, to enjoy yourself, and to create a better life for yourself. While this exact process will vary depending on you, where you started, and how you started, there are often clear signs you are going through or have experienced a spiritual awakening.
Gregg Prescott, M.S. is the founder and editor of 
Spiritual awakening takes place in all different shapes, sizes, and forms.
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