Are You Awakening Spiritually?

You could say the actual "spiritual awakening" is just the first step on the long path to enlightenment. Indeed, the initial awakening may happen in just a moment, but the process has many stages...
​-Sarah Regan, MindBodyGreen.com

What is a Spiritual Awakening?

Carl Jung described it as a process of uncovering or returning to who you really are. But as a process that leads you to enlightenment, I would say that that discovery is more of an endpoint or end goal than a description of the process.

During the process of awakening spiritually, you may make lots of discoveries. And getting to enlightenment may involve several smaller spiritual awakenings, which lead to some realizations, but not all of the ones you are meant to have.

Another end result would be a shift to a higher consciousness, in general, so you are likely to come to peace about things in your life that you haven't been able to get closure on, and accept life, as it presents itself, while still maintaining your bliss.
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What Triggers a Spiritual Awakening?

It often begins with a crisis or experience that leads to a dark night of the soul where you question things that you previously believed were true, and think deeply about the meaning of life and who you are.

Often, you feel cut off from the spiritual connection you want and the settled sense of meaning you previously ascribed to your life.

Or, if you're not in crisis, it may begin more gradually, as you notice that your life isn't quite working the way you think it should.

Spiritual awakenings can be spontaneous, but for most, they are triggered by major life changes or traumas such as life-threatening illnesses, car accidents, divorces, war, pandemics, quarter-life or midlife crises, mental health crises such as clinical depression or anxiety, or even a near-death experience. - Shannon Kaiser

7 Signs & Symptoms of
a Spiritual Awakening

(1) You are questioning your beliefs.

Suddenly, what once seemed clear to you is called into question. And when you begin to think that what you believed in any area might not be true, it often leads to re-thinking everything.

(2) You feel isolated and separate from the divine and the important people in your life.

Often these are people you have always felt a close connection to, so the change can sometimes be bewildering, especially if it is sudden.

(3) Those relationships begin to change as you do.

The process of waking up changes you in ways you couldn't have anticipated. So your relationships may be changing, because they don't understand what you are experiencing, and/or you may not understand why they can see what is now crystal clear to you.

(4) You are beginning to re-connect with your spirituality in a different way than you did before.

You may become much more interested in exploring your spiritual beliefs, and they may change. You also may begin to see life from a more spiritual perspective.

(5) It becomes easier to tell when someone is lying to you, is insincere, or is trying to manipulate you.

And you may find that your intuitive ability increases in general. And that may deepen your sense of connection with humanity, with nature and with the divine.

(6) You may experience physical signs and symptoms.

You may feel more tired than usual, and need to sleep for longer periods of time. Or you may have trouble sleeping. 

People often say they experience a ringing in their ears from time to time, but that it doesn't last long. Some spiritual teachers say that that means you are shifting to a higher frequency.

(7) Your priorities and habits may change.

You might commit to healthier eating, or dedicate more time for self-care. Things that never bothered you before may become a problem, and you might decide to let them go.

One shift that seems universal is that your perspective on things will change and that may make you less reactive, over time, to the things that used to bother you. In fact, one of the hallmarks of enlightenment is accepting life as it comes,

And this list gives you some of the signs and symptoms of a spiritual awakening, but there are many more. Each person's experience will be unique.
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How to Support Yourself through the Spiritual Awakening Process

(1) Trust the process: know that the outcome will be positive.

(2) Self-love: be as gentle with and kind to yourself as possible.

(3) Spiritual practice: carve out time to nurture your spirituality & process spiritual insights.

How to Accelerate Your
​Spiritual Awakening

There’s a center of quietness within, which has to be known and held. If you lose that center, you are in tension and begin to fall apart. -Joseph Campbell

The best way to speed up the spiritual awakening process is to stay centered. Most of us, most of the time, are not centered, and this costs us.

Centering yourself is easy but only if you know how to tell if you are not centered and you know what to do to find your center again.

Did you know that there were 4 centers and therefore, four ways to become centered again?

According to Scott Jeffrey, you need to know what centering type you are: thinking, feeling, sensing or spiritual and that will tell you what to focus on in order to return to your center. Click the link in the previous sentence to learn more about what the types are and how each type would get centered differently.

Just to give one example, I think I am a feeling type, because I process experiences through my feelings. So my best way to center myself would be to focus on my heart area and notice how I am feeling in the moment.

One easy way to know if you are not centered is to notice if you are focusing on the past, present or future. If the answer isn't your present moment experience, then you are not centered.

Here are some techniques you can use to get centered again...

(1) Deep breathing: even 4 or 5 breaths should make a difference.

(2) Mountain pose-ish: imagine that you are a tree and focus on connecting with your roots underground.

Or, stand with feet at shoulder-width distance apart. Imagine that your body is connected both to the heavens above and the earth below your feet.

Imagine what it is like to be a channel between them and feel into that.

(3) Navel awareness: notice how your breath moves your belly.

To nourish your navel chakra at the same time, imagine the sun surrounding your navel and belly are, and/or picture your navel as part of a beautiful sunflower. My sunflower would be orange, of course.

Though most of these ideas are from Scott Jeffrey (same link), the navel variation comes from me.

(4) Heart centering: focus on your heart area. Mentally smile at your heart, tell it "I see you" as you breathe in and then say "thank you" as you breathe out.
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(5) Use journaling: write down all your thoughts and feelings to externalize them. 

For more examples, click on Scott's link above.

​Over to you. Are you experiencing or have you ever had a spiritual awakening?

See you tomorrow!

Love, Jeanine
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