The video above is the shorter version of Mysteries & Challenges of Spiritual Awakening, (10 Areas of Difficulties, Illusions, & Blessings) . Read the longer version below and get more details, resources, and content by reading the blog below.
There is a lot of noise about Spiritual Awakening and knowing about the illusions and mysteries gives us a guidepost while on the journey. Knowing what we are facing, how to navigate easily, and how to gain the most. In this blog video learn about the 10 areas that often are difficult elements of the spiritual awakening journey and the upside of these difficulties and how they are transforming us.
Learn about 10 Areas that are frequently experienced on the Spiritual Awakening journey. These include Empathy and Sensitivity, Time and Timelessness Grounding, Fear of Letting Go or Being Pushed, the Dark Night of the Soul, Trauma’s Relationship, Loss of Identity, Loneliness and Connection, Imperfection, and Kundalini Energy.
While some people have an extreme transformative event like a Near-death experience, other people have mild and moderate spiritual awakening experiences throughout their lives, (like me). Collectively smaller experiences allow the person to integrate over time rather than a jolting experience.
Empathy and Sensitivity
These two interconnected qualities are essential parts of the spiritual awakening journey as a developmental characteristics. Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of another person or creature. Components of empathy are compassion, kindness, thoughtfulness, and connection.
Sensitivity is the ability to respond to subtle cues through different sensory awareness. These cues are nuanced human interactions that create insight and the ability to navigate peacefully without creating karma and distancing from others. There are different levels of sensitivity and kinds of sensitivity and how these connect to empathy.
These two elements are consistently part of the spiritual awakening journey although each person is attuned to these elements differently depending on their life experiences, healing, and willingness to work on their shadow or blind side.
When people are on a spiritual awakening journey they may have transformative experiences but do not have develop empathy and sensitivity which are also restraint respect, consideration, and an innate understanding of their own impact on others because they have a blind side which is also called the shadow at work. There may be a need to stay in control of their environment, others, and their life without the ability to regard the outcome of their actions.
Because our blind side or shadow is part of our ego it can be threatened by shining a light even on its presence. When we want to work on our shadow blind side preparing for this as a method to unravel areas that are holding you back no matter if you have experienced a spiritual awakening of mild moderate or extreme nature. When we work with the blind side there are three steps that can be helpful.
- Asking to be shown the blind side is the first part. When I asked to be shown my blind side I felt sort of humiliated by my ego acting out its needs to be in control.
- The next step is being willing to own the behavior and the words that are part of that behaviors. Yes, you have been doing that and you want to change the response.
- Change to releasing the need to do that behavior. You no longer benefit from those words, actions, and support yourself in that. Notice how it feels when you no longer repeat those behaviors that were once unconscious.
Time and Timelessness
How the Illusion of Time Interfaces with the Spiritual Awakening Journey
Often when people have a transformative experience along with that experience is a change in their perception of time during the experience. This is often how I tell when I am working with people they have effectively transferred into a different state of consciousness. Their perception is either that the time experienced was much slower than how we mark time in waking consciousness or alternatively their experience seemed to occur in moments when it was anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. When a person has a near-death experience they may feel they have experienced vastness, met many different experiences and beings, evaluated their life which would seem to occur over weeks when in our markers of time, in waking consciousness, it was only minutes. This same experience occurs in effective meditation, using psychedelics, hypnosis, in certain kinds of dreaming, out of body experiences, intense musical experiences, after death communication, and other experiences that are transformative. Experiencing time differently can morph over into waking consciousness in moments and may be a slow transition over years or occur more quickly.
The benefits of time perception changing can be understanding our past experiences in a different holistic way that allows us to see and understand the threads of interlacing relationships and experiences weaving through our life. We can identify themes and how there are changes in our responses to stressors and anxiety and even traumas. We even may be able to identify the tapestry of our goals we accepted in this life and how we overcame the hurdles to be where we are. This change can help us to notice the next steps and even understand our life path and Purpose.
Changing our perception of time as a shift in awareness also disconnects us from the part of us that is future tripping and triggered by past events that were unresolved issues. Being in the present moment reveals the greater presence of opportunities and to feel the energy, to notice if these are our preferences and serve our greater purpose and highest aspirations.
Grounding
Grounding refers to our connection to Earth and being fully present in our physical body. Presence means to be not skewed by the past that prevents us from being present. Being present in our physical body keeps us centered but also and importantly allows us to tune into and be aware of how our physical body is receptive to intuitive cues, sensitivity, and guidance as these manifest in different areas of our knowing and body. It helps us to stay centered, balanced, and rooted in reality. When we become too ungrounded, we may experience feelings of disorientation, anxiety, or even detachment from our bodies.
Being grounded means we can integrate higher level spiritual awakening experiences while sustaining our presence on Earth in an integrated way that allows us to embody these experiences wholly into our life and life path.
When we are underground there is a sense of disconnection or detachment from our body. This can occur because the person has experienced trauma. Moments of significant disconnection are dissociation or extreme disconnection.
We can become ungrounded from lack of awareness of the need to ground as a daily practice, experiencing anxiety, difficulty concentrating and focusing, and feeling overwhelmed and disconnected.
Other experiences that contribute to disconnection are out of body experiences or near-death experiences. These experiences can create discombobulation and a separation and sense of being outside of the physical body. The expression that represents this saying is, “They are beside themselves” or “I am beside myself.”
Grounding as a daily practice brings confirmation of willingness to be present on Earth as an affirmation and commitment, willingness, a sense of being stable, secure, and trusting. Being Grounded also means noticing the environment and the opportunities, and cues from the world around us. There is a deepened spiritual connection as transformative spiritual awakening experiences are able to integrate into the emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical and neurological systems.
Fear of Letting Go or Are We Being Pushed
The spiritual awakening journey may lead us softly down a path that arrives at a place where we are no longer are able to continue in the way we have. This may be the result of one extreme transformative experience or occur over years of changes that subtlety coalesce. How this experience manifests in our lives can occur in different ways.
Attachment is one area that can bind us to a past event or even to possession of objects, people, locations, or ideas. These attachments are experienced as a consistent energy that we can rely upon that holds us in who we are or think we are. Attachments can also be in the form of beliefs about our capabilities or limits about what is possible, that hold us back, which may be deeply ingrained in our lives from ourselves or others about the expectations of who we are. These beliefs can keep us in a self-doubt loop, so we do not see the greater possibilities. These beliefs can be about our gender restrictions expectations, career, friends, what we can do, where we can go which may be old programs that are playing.
What are the benefits of letting go of these attachments?
There is an increase of feeling of expansion, like taking a deeper breath. This more expansive place opens new possibilities to be noticed. As opportunities that may never have been presented before or not noticed before creating a next level of spiritual growth. This next level is not even visible until there is a letting go of the old ways and identifications as attachments. These lead to an improvement in relationships, sense of happiness, and well-being. Letting go of attachments are often much more difficult to do. For some people it is like stepping off the cliff to see if you will fly or crash.
It also can feel like being pushed
I have felt like I have arrived at a place where there are no other choices but to move forward but that can feel like the cliff.
- Recognizing there is a fear and acknowledging its presence is helpful.
- Creating positive affirmations and relying deeply on your spiritual practices deeply connects to our inner knowing, self-trust, and resilience.
- Discover a person who you identify as safe to confide in that also gives loving insightful, inspired encouragement, or guidance without becoming dependent is part of the journey.
- Discover others who you know are also on the journey and develop your support system.
- Practice, always practice noticing how you feel and where the energy is leading you.
The Dark Night of the Soul
is an experience that often lasts longer than anyone would want it to. It can feel like loss and abandonment into the abyss of turmoil. Presenting challenges of doubt, despair, emptiness, even loss of faith in a previous spiritual orientation. This can be caused from feeling and experiencing lack of support and understanding from a religious orientation that no longer has the answers, or they have let you down. This disconnection to what was once valued or taken for granted as the support system just doesn’t work, which can cause further alienation if this was part of a family’s or friends’ spiritual and religious orientation or community.
Even a Dark Night of the Soul can occur within a spiritual group where the stated values are not how people are operating and a person sees through the façade which can be disorienting, saddening, and loss of those relationships.
The causes for these disconnections can be from our own spiritual growth that is progressing. These challenges are presented as loss and dis-satisfaction to an old paradigm that is no longer useful. Another component of the Dark Night of the Soul can be changes in the perception of ourselves as our ego releases identity with these relationships as attachments that are causing triggers that we know are no longer relevant for us.
How to get through the Dark Night of the Soul?
While some experiences of the Dark Night of the Soul are part of the unfolding to push a person to another level trauma can be involved. The Dark Night of the Soul with trauma needs attention and support because there is no need to prolong this difficult passage.
Trauma
Trauma may be part of the Dark Night of the Soul and on its own connects us to our vulnerability and can disrupt our sense of reality. While in Western Medicine and mental health the experience of trauma may be treated with medication in other cultures it is a sign of transformation. The person is giving guidelines, community, and support as a vital member and contributor to the community.
In more ancient methods of dealing with trauma it is an opportunity that is valuable to the community and not suppressed . In addition methods to reclaim the power that was taken or lost during the trauma are facilitated through shifts in consciousness, and integration of the experience that allows for processing. In this scenario there is training in releasing the trauma that has changed the neurological system responses into more hypervigilant state than in ‘normal’ functioning. These methods facilitate the release of the trauma response within the mind and body, emotions, and spirit reestablishing deep inner self-trust. These same methods release the stress hormone, cortisol, that results in inflammation and contributes to depression, anxiety, and other physical and mental health conditions. These same procedures and methods develop expansiveness, intuition, creativity, insight, resilience, and problem-solving. When a person continues to practice these methods regularly they build the mental, emotional, and neurological systems that are evolutionary shifts and epigenetic changes empowering our lives.
Loss and Rearranging of Our Identity
When a person has a transformative spiritual experience whether it is a one-time extreme experience or many mild and moderate transformative spiritual experiences over time there are often changes in perception of identify which can be disorienting and even unsettling, as a feeling of not fitting in and feeling out of place.
Social Norms and Defining Who We Are
Each time period has a group of unspoken set of words, conversations, behaviors, clothing, expectations for how to be within that culture. These expectations are imposed on children, families, and society often without any consideration for how valuable these expectations are or how they are stifling or controlling people. The positive side of social norms is they help people feel connected to a social group and create parameters that are a set of containment.
In addition, limited understanding of transformative spiritual awakening experiences in the West relegates them to a mental health disorder, thus keeping these influential dynamic changes suppressed. The way a cultural and people annihilate discussion is to ignore or stigmatize which is often with the title ‘crazy’ that makes the person thought of as impotent in all areas of their life and weak.
We are in a time when many of the old social norms are being challenged because they no longer serve us but bind us. This is especially true for people who experience transformative spiritual awakening experiences. This is because spiritual awakening experiences expand our awareness beyond who we are as a daughter, son, parent, sibling, worker (career title), friend. There is often a realization we are so much greater than these cultural descriptors. We have the ability to connect to greater sense of our expansive innate nature which is eternal and not limited by social norms.
Now we are in a time when societal attitudes are continuing to evolve. Even the terms spiritual awakening experiences has expanded to become more inclusive of a variety of areas that were not spoken about. I certainly have felt the gamut of these social norms from saying nothing as a child of my experiences to now when I have more recently been speaking about them. The growing acceptance and valuing of these different experiences allows for further expansion, exploration, healing, and evolution.
Loneliness and Connection
is another component of identity. When a person has gone through a transformative experience there is often a sense of loss of connection and a feeling of being alone because there isn’t anyone who can understand or listen without a negative judgement. This results in feeling as if there is nowhere to fit in and this may very well be true within the pre-existing relationships. However, now we are in a time where the paradigm is changed somewhat and continues to change because we are in a time of significant transformation.
Finding community
in places where it is acceptable to share gives breathing space but still at this time there can be concerns. People who are sharing may feel conflict with their professional life and how if the information about their experience gets out may interfere with their role, being judged negatively, and potential loss of livelihood. Finding community in the International Association for Near-death Studies in their free sharing meetings for people with transformative experiences is one of the main online places. Another is the Spiritual Awakening International that is also online free sharing community. Links are below.
Imperfection
Social media has brought to the forefront of our human behavior our need to show the world we are perfect and have it all together and are always good. This aspect of social media is false and even poisonous because many people feel the pressure to be that false persona that is always all put together.
Knowing we are imperfect is one aspect of our spiritual awakening journey that allows breathing space into the evolution of our development. When we accept we are not perfect but in process we are also releasing the inner critic that is always there as part of the ego that is keeping us bound.
Allowing for imperfection is also releasing judgment from our past that recognizes there is a thread of purpose through even the most difficult times that is weaving through our lives that has been guiding us. What once would have been judged as a disaster and even knowing times were extremely difficult gave us grit, determination, and lessons that were invaluable to taking our power and becoming.
- The benefits of embracing imperfection include self-acceptance. This is a sense of peacefulness, love for our journey, and self-love.
- There is a reduction is stress and anxiety when we know we are enough as imperfect beings. This awareness breathes space into our lives for connection to our inner wisdom and self-trust.
- When we learn to accept ourselves we also give space to others, which improves relationships. This builds a stronger connection and lessens judgment.
- When we allow for imperfection we also become more creative because this opens the space to experience without restrictions. In this process there is a release of constraints that features expression and exploration.
We may feel expectations about how life is unfolding differently than you had planned, dream of perfect family with no divorce, betrayal, or difficulty, living with people who are not what you thought they would be, or should be or wanted them to be, and how teachers or physical guides cannot live up to expectations. Understanding their limitations and allowing those lessons to become part of your journey. All of these give more peace, appreciation, and acceptance.
Kundalini Energy or Awakening of the Serpent Within
The term kundalini is widely used to describe energy that is stored within, coiled in a spiral at the base of the spine. This coiled energy arises and lifts up through the spinal column (called the central channel) and each chakra, eventually rising to the crown when it is complete. This process brings forth energy and changes within the body, mind, emotions, and spirit. A person who has a spiritual awakening experience may not notice the slight rise of the kundalini energy but may have other experiences that are associated with these changes.
Essentially these are personal transformational and heightened states of consciousness manifesting through changes in mental, emotional, spiritual, etheric, and the psyche. While there are specific practices that are designed to awaken the kundalini energy often spiritual awakening experiences are unplanned and can result in different responses within.
Physical body sensations can include overwhelm, disorientation, vibration, or buzzing, sometimes shaking in the physical body. There also can be the feeling of heat or tingling, feeling euphoric and not being able to or needing to sleep.
Emotional release can include understanding of relationships, the past releasing memories and healing.
Spiritual Insights and Abilities can increase and knowings. Different intuitive abilities and communication, and healing abilities may occur.
There may be changes in life direction, values, sense of purpose, and drive for service. These changes are not merely a brief shift in awareness but at deep conviction level that is profound and seeks harmony.
Some of the areas of the mysteries and challenges of spiritual awakening are paradoxical. May the discussion on these different areas bring them to your awareness as a guide to move through the difficulties, give you resources, and insight, and further your journey in transformation.
References
Archer, R. (2024). Buddha At the Gas Pump. https://batgap.com/
Borgess, P. Crazywise. Film. https://crazywisefilm.com/
Buddha At the Gas Pump YouTube (2024).
https://www.youtube.com/@Batgap
Grof, S. (1989). When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis.
Penguin Random House.
Hegemeyer, S. (2024). Spiriutal awakening Tips and Recommendations.
International Association for Near-death Studies. (2024).
Kundalini.(2024). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini
Mate, G. (2024). When Science Meets Compassion.
Spiritual Awakening International. (2024).
https://spiritualawakeningsinternational.org/about/
