Understanding Spiritual Awakening

In my work, I have met many people who either want to have a Spiritual Awakening or are in the midst of a Spiritual Awakening, even if they don’t realize it. Often this time can be unsettling and people tend to have questions about Spiritual Awakenings: like what is a spiritual awakening, what are the symptoms, how do I know if I am having a Spiritual Awakening, and what can I do about it. Really, these questions are about understanding Spiritual Awakenings better and trying to have some understanding of your own life.

What is a Spiritual Awakening

Spiritual awakening is a term that can have different definitions to different people. I consider a Spiritual awakening to occur when you expand your consciousness to align more with your Soul path or Soul’s calling, having a greater understanding of your Truth. Often there is a sense that there is more to life. I’m not talking about bigger houses or fancier things, I mean more meaning, more connection, more depth.

This awakening tends to start as a little whisper or an inkling. However, if we ignore it, our situation will continue to get more and more uncomfortable until we can no longer ignore our Soul’s yearning. I find the more resistant we are to this shift in consciousness, the more dramatic our situation becomes. I refer to this as an 8 x 8 instead of the proverbial 2 x 4 across the head. (To be fair, I have had my share of 8 x 8s, so no judgment. We all wake up when we are ready.)

When we experience a spiritual awakening, we can feel as if a blinder has been removed, suddenly we see the world differently. We may even wonder how we could have been blind to it for so long. Others may not understand this shift or they may not see what we are seeing. However, there is a knowing (or gnowing) in your body and your only choice is to change.

It is important to stress that drama is not needed for a spiritual awakening, we can respond with the first nudge and go with the flow. Also, a spiritual awakening is not an egoic experience. We are alive to learn and experience, helping to grow consciousness. Spiritual awakenings are meant to remind us of who we are and what we have agreed to learn, they are a natural part of life. They are not a contest nor a way of measuring people, especially their or our worth.

I like to think of a spiritual awakening as a flower blossoming. When the flower is in the bud stage (as above), ki is still a Water Lily and contains the wisdom and essence of a Water Lily. Each petal opening and unfurling, represents the different awakenings we have as we go through life. With each one, we open more, we share more of our beauty. After many awakenings, we fully blossom, sharing our full self with the world and understanding our selves more. Of course, it may take us lifetimes of lessons and healing until we are ready to fully blossom into our Truth. Still with each awakening, a little more is revealed.

Signs of a Spiritual Awakening

A spiritual awakening is a personal experience; therefore, the signs that you are embarking on one are dependent on the individual. However, there are some common themes. People who are in the midst of a spiritual awakening may feel as if everything they’ve known is falling apart. They may be questioning who they are or the life they’ve been living.

Often, there is something in your life that is no longer tenable. You may find that activities, people, or conversations that were once a dependable part of your life, now irritate you for no known reason. Or perhaps a job that you’ve enjoyed now becomes a drag. Sometimes there’s a rupture with an individual or a community and you are unable to go back to the way things were.

Sometimes our dreams open us to a spiritual awakening by revealing new possibilities or painful situations we’ve suppressed or reminding us of our longing. They can also provide guidance and understanding as we navigate our awakening. We can receive messages from the Universe in other ways as well. Perhaps from a literal sign or bumper sticker, a podcast or book, or in my world, messages often come from Plant and Animal Guides.

Someone may come into our life that acts as a catalyst. Sometimes this person remains an important figure in our lives and other times, we may consider them to be an Angel, simply appearing in the moment we needed them. We may even wonder if we made up the entire exchange. However, the impact remains and catapults our awakening.

Physical Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening

Again, as a spiritual awakening is a very personal experience, there are no definitive physical symptoms that determine if you are having a spiritual awakening. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a quiz or checklist to let us know if we are experiencing or about to embark on a spiritual awakening?

While there are no definitive physical symptoms sometimes illness, accidents, or changes to our body (such as perimenopause) can precipitate a spiritual awakening. These offer us a shift in perspective which can impact our consciousness or the way in which we engage with the world. They often cause us to reevaluate our priorities. There are numerous stories of people who’ve survived near-death experiences emerging with a greater understanding of life and even with new psychic or healing abilities.

Pain is our body’s way of getting our attention. This physical pain may have manifested first as an emotionally painful or traumatic experience. If we ignore this pain, it often will grow in intensity and frequency, until we must address it. I think we are wise to pay attention to any pain that we are feeling. As we do, emotions or memories may arise. Or perhaps our pain is letting us know that a situation we are in needs to change.

I have numerous clients who came for a HEARTransformation session because of a physical ailment only to realize through their healing process that they needed to make a change in their life: leave their job, end an unhealthy relationship, go back to school, follow their dream . . .  Sometimes these realizations were surprises to both of us, other times, it was something that they had been curious about for a while or were trying to avoid. However, they discovered that trying to force themselves to stay in a situation that was no longer in alignment with their Soul caused them great pain. Addressing the pain, led to their spiritual awakening.

Of course, we do not need to have a painful or near-death experience to have a spiritual awakening. Nor does a spiritual awakening require challenge. We can learn, heal, and grow through Love and pleasure just as easily as we do through pain and struggle. True healing is simply uncovering something about ourselves, shedding false narratives, and aligning with our Soul’s Truth, which ultimately is that we are Beings of Love.

Spiritual Awakening through Grief

Grief can be a catalyst for a spiritual awakening, if we let it. Grief is inherently connected to Love. When we experience deep grief at the loss of a loved one (or even the loss of ourselves or a situation, a dream), our Heart is impacted. We get to choose if we will allow the grief to soften and expand our Heart or if we will contract and harden from the pain.

If we choose contraction, we reduce our ability to recover and limit our experiences of the world. However, we can at any time change our choice. (Often this choice is unconscious.)

If we allow ourselves to get rocked by the grief, feeling the pain (and the Love), our world changes. We may be in an incredibly challenging place, which I refer to as the abyss of grief. It may even feel like we will never emerge from there. However, that journey into the abyss is transformative. When we do emerge, and I promise you will, we are different, our priorities are different, we have a greater understanding of ourselves, our desires, and Love. We will still miss our loved one and may find ourselves experiencing grief; however, we also increase our capacity for Love.

When It’s Not a Spiritual Awakening

Just because you want to make a change in your life does not mean that you are having a spiritual awakening. It is important to understand that outside influences or energetic interferences (aka malevolent magic) can also cause us to want a change. Usually in this case though the change is drastic or quite surprising. For instance, we may be in an incredibly loving and supportive relationship and all of sudden decide that we need to leave the person for a bizarre reason. Or perhaps you have loved your job for years, looking forward to going to work every day and then suddenly decide that you hate your job and can no longer work there again for no explainable reason.

If you find yourself in this situation, it’s helpful to pause and be curious. And perhaps, have someone, who is qualified, check you for malevolent magic or interfering energies (such as entities or glom-ons.) These energies can really wreak havoc on a person’s life. I’ve seen them result in serious, completely unnecessary chaos. If this “awakening” seems completely out of the blue and counter to who you are, it’s best to proceed with caution and be sure that the urging is really coming from your Soul and not some unwanted energy.

How to Support Your Spiritual Awakening

If you are feeling the pull for something more or your Soul is nudging you to make a shift in your life, look for helpers who can be anchors as your world shifts. I find our more-than-human kin, especially the Trees, to be excellent support for these transitions.

Frequently people refer to the metaphor of a butterfly emerging from the cocoon to describe a spiritual awakening. This is beautiful and of course, we want to find our wings. However, often what is forgotten in this process is that the caterpillar completely dissolves in the cocoon becoming a soupy mass of imaginal cells who turn the soup into a Butterfly. A friend recently reminded me that when we first emerge from the cocoon, our wings are still wet and we are unable to fly. This is an important time to be gentle with ourselves and remember that as we change, the world around us also changes. It may take a bit to understand our new “normal” and learn how to utilize our wings.

Sometimes when we are in the soup stage of the spiritual awakening, we can forget why we are doing this or that we want to do it. We get lost in the unknown. Our Guides and supporters (human and more-than-human) help to remind us of who we are and encourage us to keep going. Of course, choose your Guides wisely, you want those who are able to hold you in Love, which is to say they have your Soul’s best interest in mind. Remember when we need help, we simply need to ask and then pay attention to who shows up. Our Plant allies and other more-than-human kin want to support us in our evolution.

It is important to have time alone to contemplate and feel what is emerging and to get to know this new version of yourself. Allow yourself freedom to explore and try on different possibilities. You may discover that your tastes have changed, experiment with new styles, different music, . . . Surround yourself with various forms of art that inspire you, filling your life with beauty.

Taking good care of your body is essential at this time. You may find that you require more sleep (which has the bonus of more dream time.) Drinking plenty of water or herbal teas helps to keep the energy moving. Of course, nutritious food and moderate exercise are also important to help you maintain the energy required for your awakening. Body work is also helpful. And I like to spend time in the other worlds, usually through shamanic journeying or meditating, creating art can be another way to access these otherworldly places full of wisdom. And of course, spending as much time as possible in Nature is incredibly helpful.

Hopefully, this helps you to understand spiritual awakenings more and gives you courage to allow yourself to unfurl. Remember as long as you are alive, there is more to learn and heal. Which means, more spiritual awakenings are to come. Life continually unfolds, revealing more and more wonder. The best that we can do is find some lovely people with whom we can enjoy the ride, including both the highs and lows.

Many blessings on your journey.