What is a Spiritual Awaking?

The unbecoming of everything you’ve ever known to be true:

The spiritual awakening process is a deep internal transformation, from the dark to the light. It marks the beginning of your spiritual journey, and aims to bring you back to an energy source of love and compassion.

A spiritual awakening attempts to purge and shed everything that’s unaligned with your soul’s true journey, or rather anything that’s hindering it from moving in that direction.

It shakes up faulty beliefs, causes breakthroughs (as well as breakdowns), and forces us to adopt a whole new perspective on life. It can stir up unusual, intense feelings, cause sporadic thought patterns and even cause you to question, ‘is it normal to feel like this?’

Whilst we can’t say for sure if our souls have a specific destination in mind, we do know that they’re continually seeking growth and expansion. Embarking on this process allows for this momentous growth to happen.

This in-depth guide to spiritual awakenings identifies the major symptoms of a spiritual awakening and aims to guide you through the whole process so you’re not left in the ‘dark’.

YOU’VE LOST INTEREST IN THINGS THAT ONCE BROUGHT YOU HAPPINESS & JOY

You find that things that once excited you no longer do. This is because you have had an inner change of perception and aren’t aware of it. This might seem extremely alarming, but it simply means that the old fabric of your conditioned mind is being questioned. This doesn’t mean you won’t find joy in that activity again.

YOU FEEL COMPLETELY LOST, AND FEEL AS THOUGH YOU HAVE NO DIRECTION

Life may feel empty to you, and as though nothing truly makes sense anymore. You start to question your true life purpose. Even if you once had direction, you now feel as though you don’t. Aimless, yet desperately seeking meaning to this existence.

YOU REGULARLY EXPERIENCE A ROLLERCOASTER OF EMOTIONS

Just like the natural rhythms of the Earth, your energy levels will ebb and flow. One moment you’ll be in a low mood, then experience a short burst of high energy, then be in a low mood again. This can be incredibly intense, and cause you to question whether you need psychological help.
Unless this is a long-term condition (e.g. 12 months+) or you’ve been previously diagnosed with a mental health condition, this lack of positive energy is surprisingly normal.

YOU FEEL AS THOUGH LIFE AROUND YOU IS POINTLESS

You’ve come to the realization that what you’ve been taught, believed in, or built seems to be false and pointless. It’s known as the ‘lifting of the veil’ in spiritual terms. It’s this ‘veil’ that often keeps people stuck, chasing material items, wealth, or something else the ego craves. You’ll recognize this falseness in society too.
You may feel more drawn to a simpler lifestyle, or have a desire to live far away from others (even if you don’t act on it).
You might start to see yourself in past situations where you had to sacrifice your true self to fit in and now despise it.

YOU SEEK MORE MEANING AND PURPOSE IN LIFE

You have a deep knowing that something’s missing in your life, but you’re not sure what it is yet. You crave to live a life of purpose and have a deep yearning to find meaning in life. You might even feel frustrated that you haven’t figured it out yet.
You have many ideas swirling in your head, some of which will help you to become free, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. These might include starting a business, finding a new career path or even fantasizing about going on a spiritual journey (e.g. traveling to a Buddhist monastery, going to a Holy Mountain etc).

YOU SEE PAST THE MASKS OF OTHER PEOPLE, AND SEE HOW UNHAPPY THEY ARE (EVEN IF THEY DON’T)

As you become more aware of yourself and more sensitive to emotions, you notice how unhappy others are even when they’re wearing their ‘happy’ mask. You start to become more aware and affected by the pain and suffering of others. Your empathy and compassion heighten as a result. You might be an HSP, a highly sensitive person.

YOU FEEL OUT OF PLACE, A ‘MISFIT’, SOMEONE WHO DOESN’T BELONG ON THIS PLANET

This is extremely common during stage 1 of the awakening transformation and often starts at a young age. You might struggle to relate to those closest to you, prefer older company, or feel as though no one understands the way you think. In essence, you feel like a misfit, as though you don’t belong here.
It’s also possible you’re a starseed soul, the idea being your soul has ties with a far and distant star system. Starseeds are highly likely to feel out of place on Earth. You might even be attracted to an era long gone.

YOU ARE AN INTENSE DREAMER, CREATIVE AND VISIONARY AND WANT TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE

Forget diamonds, imagination is your best friend. You have grand, large-scale visions of making the world a better place. These visions often don’t revolve around monetary gain, but rather social impact. But at the same time, you wonder if these visions are even possible. The suffering in the world weighs you down and drains your energy.
You turn off TV programs or the news when it’s too negative. You wonder if anyone else cares about the suffering in the world like you do. You might even feel bitter or angry towards others for not caring.
You decide to make more ethical, environmentally choices in your life.

YOU ASK DEEP, THOUGHT-PROVOKING QUESTIONS

You’re not satisfied with ‘that’s just the way the world works’. You can see beyond that narrow thinking. You start to ask deep philosophical questions such as ‘Why are we here?’, ‘what is the purpose of our existence?’.
You become a truth and knowledge seeker.

YOU CUT OFF PEOPLE WHO NO LONGER SUPPORT YOUR HIGHER PURPOSE

You realize you feel even more alone with the people who currently surround you. When you look at the people in your circle, you might realize you actually share little in common, and whilst difference can be a good thing, you feel less of a connection with them. You also recognize toxic people in your life and now want to cut them out of your life.
You dream of attracting your true tribe, finding like-minded people.

YOU SEE BEYOND THE ILLUSIONS OF SOCIETY

You see the bigger picture in life. You question the structure and fabric of society as a whole and start to see the bigger picture in life. You’re starting to realize the nitty-gritty details don’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Even though you worked extremely hard for that degree, or spent years training, climbing the ranks means very little to you anymore.
You are seeking deeper fulfillment in life.

YOU CRAVE MORE ALONE TIME

You crave solitude and time alone. Others’ fearful thoughts and negative opinions sound like ‘noise’.
Even if you consider yourself extroverted, and highly social, you now desire to be alone. You might also experiment with meditation and seek higher guidance.

YOU FEEL DRAWN TO HELPING NATURE/ANIMALS OR THE ENVIRONMENT

With a deep sense of compassion and empathy, you want to leave the world a better place. You actively seek a life that allows you to help others, even if it’s not for monetary gain.
You feel an amazing connection to the natural world. You might be drawn to practice herbalism, shamanism, or become a tree hugger.

REGULAR CONVERSATIONS AND SMALL TALK SEEM SHALLOW TO YOU

You feel as though there’s a deep separation when you talk to other people. You prefer to discuss goals, emotions, big visions, and dreams, but no one quite seems to understand.
Small talk seems to drain you of your energy, and you long for deep, meaningful conversations.

YOU ARE DESPERATE TO UNDERSTAND WHO YOU TRULY ARE

‘Why am I here?’ ‘What am I born to do?’ ‘What are my skills, gifts, and innate talents? You read many books, articles, and personal development texts hoping to find the answer.
You might even become interested in astrology, birth charts, and tarot readings as a way of deepening your understanding.

YOU NOTICE AN INNER STRUGGLE BETWEEN WHAT EGO WANTS YOU TO DO VERSUS WHAT YOUR HIGHER SELF CRAVES

As you begin to break through the old and make way for the new, you might face an internal battle between your ego and your higher self.
This internal struggle may cause you to lack the ability to make a decision, flip flop between choices, and cause confusion.

PATTERNS & SYNCHRONICITIES START TO EMERGE

You start seeing repeating numbers, symbols, and even common manifestation signs which hold deeper meanings.
Every time you look at the clock, you see the same numbers repeated. You become interested in the meaning of angel numbers and do lots of research.

FINAL STAGES:

1. YOU FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE HURT YOU OR CAUSED YOU GRIEF AND PAIN

You come to terms with bad past experiences, no matter how traumatic they were. You realize that you’re hurting yourself more by harboring feelings of hate, anger, and resentment.
You might feel inclined to do inner shadow work or inner child work to heal painful memories. Through forgiveness, you learn to move on.

2. YOU REALIZE YOU’RE THE CREATOR OF YOUR LIFE

You come to the realization that you are indeed the creator of your life. You attract your experiences through your belief systems, thoughts, and energy. You take more responsibility for your actions and decisions. and realize you, and you alone can change your life.
You imagine a different life lived on your own terms.
Once you’ve entered this stage, you cannot see the world around you again in the same light.

3. SEEKING MEANING AND PURPOSE

The research and deep thinking stage. At this stage, you’re desperate to discover more about yourself, your path, and your purpose here on Earth. You conduct lots of research and begin to create a plan of action.
You feel like you’re on a mission to discover your life’s purpose. You search for things that feel right.

4. HAPPINESS, THINKING YOU HAVE FOUND THE ANSWERS

Ah, this little gem. Treat this stage as fool’s gold. After a ton of soul searching, you finally believe you’ve struck gold and found your answers. You feel happier, more carefree and finally, that dreadful veil of low energy is lifting.
Old behavioral patterns start to dissolve, clarity comes your way and you’re ready to pivot onto a new path. Hello, new life!

5. THE ‘VOID’ STAGE

Until you hit the void. The most frustrating stage of them all. After a strong belief in the spiritual world, you find that nothing has really changed.
You ask ‘where’s all the good stuff?’, ‘where is my magical new beginning?’. Where’s the ‘love and light’ everyone talks about? You’re now in spiritual no man’s land, aka the void. Consider this a test.
The void is the space between utter joy and utter despair. Stage 4 was just giving you a glimpse into what was on the other side, waiting for you as long as you push through.
It’s normal to feel as though you’ve completely detached from the spiritual world during the void – just like anything in the world, there are ebbs and flows.
At this stage, I remember giving up on my dreams to be a healer... but as darkness began over shadowing the light, I realized that my purpose in this life time was to help shine the light. As more people move into a life of love, joy, and compassion, the light does indeed, shine brighter.
Sometimes your connection to the universe will increase, other times it will decrease. This is a decrease stage.
Most people quit at this point.
With a heap of fake spiritual guidance floating around on the web promising awakening’s to be super easy, it’s no surprise many even feel more disillusioned than before.
Here, you either crave a deeper understanding of yourself, or you let go of this experience entirely, falling back to stage 1.

6. DEEP INNER SHADOW AND ENLIGHTMENT

This is a deeply healing stage, and what I call ‘a soul session’. This is the time when you go within, whereas you sought answers from the external world before, you now seek answers from inside.
You realize your higher self is a source of wisdom. You use what ever you are drawn to as a tool to better understand yourself.

7. ULTIMATE BREAKTHROUGH – JOY, ELEVATION AND PURPOSE!

After deep inner shadow work and applying what you’ve learned to your daily life, you finally break through to see something more light.
Something that might not make sense to others, but makes sense to you and that is the key; returning to yourself.
You feel happier, and more joyous, and you might have found your purpose.
Often, you will find it’s simpler than what you expected it to be, but it will be something that lights you up.
Old habits will be broken, new ways of thinking installed into your brain and a general feeling of gratitude takes center stage.
Enlightenment isn’t necessarily what you’ve reached at this point (and that’s totally okay!) – you don’t need to strive for that ultimate level of spirituality to feel immense joy, attract great abundance or feel immensely grateful.
You might feel a deep sense to share your newfound wisdom with those around you (who are accepting of it – not everyone wants help!), or you might want to keep it to yourself as a little best-kept secret.
You go after what really sets your soul alight and surrender anything that doesn’t. You see value in slowing down. You shift priorities and make life worth living, as opposed to an existence.
Expect deep alignment and miracles to happen. Things might just seem a little more effortless.

IS PROGRESSION LINEAR?

Not at all. It’s perfectly natural to transition between multiple stages during your spiritual awakening.

Once you’ve reached stage 7 and you’ve been there for a while, it’s highly likely you’ll also flow back into previous stages so you can keep growing, improving, and expanding on your previous knowledge.

If you start to feel ‘stuck’ in between stages, you could be trying to force your way through to the ‘light’ with out allowing change to occur. With change comes progression.

You may want to spend more time alone, but it’s our conflict in the “outside” world that show cases our inner conflict and what needs changed.

It’s natural to want to get through a spiritual awakening as fast as possible, but your spiritual awakening is teaching you many lessons, purging old belief systems, and is shaking up the old from the new.

Don’t rush it. Put down your amour – Open your heart – Surrender to it.

SHOULD I BE SCARED OF A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING?

Many people aren’t aware of being “bumped” into a spiritual awaking. In the beginning it feels more like discontentment with life. As you move away from you old way of thinking, it might feel a little scary, especially if you’re not used to moving outside of your comfort zone, but it should never be so scary that you become terrified of the process.

If you feel it’s too much or too overwhelming to cope with, it could mean that your pre-conditioned beliefs are holding you back from progressing to the next stage and your feeling stuck. Open your eyes and mind and embrace new ideas and concepts. Let the child in you come out: imagine you’re in a whole new world with infinite possibilities to create the life you want, and let go of anything that gets in your way.

WHEN WILL I MOVE INTO THE NEXT STAGE?

Hard to say. For some people, each stage is fairly quick (3-6 months), others a few years or even decades.

A LOT of people stay stuck in stage 1 for their entire life without even realizing they’re at the start of an awakening. Think of how many people you know who are unhappy with their life, yet never seem to change their situation. Other times, people get stuck at stage 4 (the first happy stage), which is okay too.

Their spiritual journey took them to the level that they needed.

To them, stage 4 was the perfect stage to stay at, rather than move to stage 7, so don’t be afraid when I say some people take years to move through the process.

INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT

Expecting life to be full of ‘love and light’ after reaching a certain stage is a flawed thought. Whilst a late stage spiritual awakening can make your life more enjoyable as you find peace within, change on a global scale is happening, and our evolution is just beginning.

YOU LOSE WHO YOU ARE OR WERE

You can never lose your true self in this process. It might feel as though you don’t know who you are after a spiritual awakening, but this isn’t a loss, it’s a mesh with your higher-self. An opportunity to move closer to an energy source of love and compassion and compassionate action that will help usher humanity into the New Earth. A Spiritual Awaken Soul is a healer.

So, enlightenment isn’t a final destination; it’s a journey into the heart of existence.