What Is Spiritual Awakening?
We often hear that ours is a money-driven society. Our emotions, values, and ethics take a back seat. But is it true? If we look at social trends, more and more people are seeking spiritual awakening. So what exactly is this?
Spiritual awakening is when a person begins to detach himself/herself from the materialistic surroundings and begins to hear his/her soul’s voice. The thing is, the human soul always craves an awakening. It is always hungry to know more. It always wants to know why there is so much suffering in the world, and why don’t all humans have a similar fate. What happens after death, and most importantly, who am I? Readers of 2spirits.com often ask themselves these questions.
Once your soul begins to question these, you know that you are on the path to spiritual awakening. It is also known as spiritual ascension. Your soul craves inner happiness. This comes with forgiveness, acceptance, and contentment.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be an ascetic or a mystic to achieve this incredible stage. You can awaken randomly while doing your regular chores. Tragic events like a sudden loss, cheating, or heartbreak can take you toward an awakening. Though there are no fixed parameters for who achieves this, there are certain types of people who tend to awaken more than others. Those who are empaths or highly sensitive to other people’s feelings are more likely to gain spiritual awakening.
What Causes Spiritual Awakening
When the soul rises above the feelings, it gets on to the road to awakening. There are no fixed criteria for what causes it, and you can’t read this in your future using the common methods like Tarot cards. Let us have a look at the major triggers leading to spiritual awakening:
- Major trauma: A life-altering trauma like the death of close ones, failure, or loss often makes one question the purpose of life. They begin to question their existence. While this phase of depression and self-loathing is temporary, the questions they ask permanently make their soul conscious. This consciousness leads to awakening.
- Vivid dreams: Dreams are known to be the gateway to the mystical world. Many people begin to have vivid dreams where they get guidance about attaining a spiritual awakening. It could either be through messages or imagery. And this continues for days and months until the person gets the message right.
- Knowledge: It is the gateway to maintaining a philosophical look at life. This leads to spirituality, and the hunger to know more leads to awakening. And if someone wants to know how to start their spiritual awakening journey without the above 2 factors, gaining knowledge is the answer.
- When someone is going through a significant life shift, such as a change in employment, a change in relationships, or a spiritual awakening, angel number 555 frequently appears to them. The qualities of expansion, independence, innovation, and adventure are all connected to the number 5. When this number appears, it means that favorable changes are approaching and that one should welcome them with an open heart and mind. Something similar happens when you see the 1111 angel number.
7 Stages of Spiritual Awakening
Spiritual awakening is not an instantaneous process. It takes months to attain the awakening. It takes place in 7 stages and here we will know about each one of the spiritual awakening stages:
1. The Dark Night Of The Soul
It is the initial phase when the soul goes through too much pain and darkness. Like there is light at the end of the tunnel, this phase leads to the awakening. During this phase, one goes through extreme confusion and heaviness. Nothing seems to make their soul happy and satisfied. There is constant frustration and unhappiness.
2. A Ray Of Hope
With all the suffering, you begin to gather yourself. You make yourself strong and begin asking deep questions. You seem to understand that happiness does not lie in impressing society but in making your soul content. Also, you begin to see that all the suffering was to show you the true path. You understand that being trapped in worldly affairs will only give you unhappiness. Real contentment is when your soul gets all the answers.
3. Inner Conflict
But then you are groomed from your childhood to behave in a particular way and do things in a specific way. This spiritual awakening does not fit in that. Moreover, you have no logical explanation for what you are going through. You don’t seem to trust anyone to say what you are going through. Sometimes, you may question yourself if you are hallucinating. Your mind and soul are in constant conflict.
4. Spiritual Acceptance
After handling the previous stage, you accept that your spirituality has leaped. You understand that your life is not going to be the same again and that you have to get rid of your old self and ego. Spiritual acceptance comes at the cost of your previous life. You cannot be your older self while getting a spiritual awakening. Humans always have one demerit or the other. For some it could be ego, it could be anger, but to advance in your soul’s journey, you need to get past all those sorry states of affairs.
5. Grounding
You understand that your karma is always going to pay back to you. So, it depends on you how to make things turn out. You accept yourself and commit to improving yourself. Instead of wasting your time on useless talks, you choose to enrich your mind and read books. You seek the company of learned people and sages. You begin to seek answers to your deepest queries. With all of these, you begin to work on yourself. You get rid of your negative traits. You invest your time in helping others.
6. Coming Out Of The Closet
Once you accept your spiritual state, you gain enough courage to come out and explain everything to your loved ones. Often people fear that saying these things will make them seem like a psycho. But as your awakening progresses, you gain enough courage to come out and say all about yourself. You just want to share your knowledge with everyone else. Spirituality keeps your spirits high.
7. Walking Down The Path
Once you have embraced spirituality, there is no looking back. You walk down the path that you have magically achieved. The hunger for knowledge keeps you going. You notice how unpleasant experiences tried to take you off the track, but your spirituality kept you on it. In this phase, having a true soulmate near you is the best thing you can imagine.
12 Symptoms of Spiritual Awakening
There are 12 main spiritual awakening symptoms. We will have a look at each one of them:
1. You feel that your life is fake
You begin to see what a fake life you were leading. All those medals and certificates hold no importance when it comes to spirituality. The time you spent partying or shopping was just wasted time that you could have invested in something meaningful. And this understanding of fake life makes you seek spirituality.
2. You seek knowledge
You want to know more about yourself and the universe. Also, you want to know how the universe works. You want to know about yourself, your place in the bigger scheme of things, and how you can make the world a better place.
3. You ask deep questions
At some moment of your life, you begin to question existence and your purpose in life. It cannot be possible for a human on earth to do a 9-5 job and earn some money. That can never be a fruitful thing in the bigger plan of the universe. So the mystical world must have planned something for you, and you need to unravel what it is. Your deep questions keep you intrigued all through the day and night. That’s why you seek knowledge through old people, books, scriptures, and meditation.
4. You feel detached
You find all the relationships to be a limitation to your growth. All the friends and jobs seem to be a cage. You don’t want to hurt them, but you surely seem to get detached from them. You don’t enjoy their company like you used to. Now you won’t find their jokes funny or don’t wish to get involved in their banter. You want to spend most of your time involved in your questions and pondering.
5. You get depressed
This is one of the most prominent symptoms of spiritual awakening. You get into bouts of depression. Sometimes, it is because you feel lost. You don’t understand what is going on with you. Sometimes, it is because you don’t get clear answers to your questions. Your mind is going through a lot during the spiritual awakening. Sometimes it fails to process so many changes and leads you into depression.
6. You embrace loneliness
Loneliness does not seem like a bad thing anymore. You realize we all come here all alone and will leave the body all alone. So, there is no fear of being alone. You spend this time with your consciousness and seek answers. You get lost in your thoughts and can remain so for many hours.
7. You see all the suffering in the world
Suddenly, you seem conscious of all the suffering in the world. Your heart goes out to those who suffer in silence and those who seem so weak in the hands of destiny. You wish to do something for them. At the same time, you are so disturbed by their condition that you want instant relief for them.
8. You see how shallow society is
Society is a shallow place that drives itself on a set of prejudiced rules. You see that bias and how society handles different people. Moreover, you see how financial stature defines a person’s character. You see how materialistic society is. And this leads to you getting detached from society.
9. You think of everyone as one big family
You embrace everyone as your one big family. So, you treat their pain to be yours, and wish them the best. You understand that if we stand up for each other, the world will be a better place.
10. You want to give
You want to give away all you have. This can be your property or clothes or even the knowledge you have.
11. You want to declutter your life
You understand that your life is a mess and you need to get rid of the limiting factors. So, you get rid of your earthly belongings. You snap-cut all the toxic people and make your life easier.
12. You feel happy from within
Since you are constantly working towards quenching the thirst of your soul, you feel happy from within. You feel content. All the hard feelings are gone. You are in a calm state of mind.
Q&A
Why Does Spiritual Awakening Happen?
When the human mind faces extreme pain, it begins to question its existence. The obvious questions are why me? Why not others? Who am I, and it progresses to questions like, what is my purpose on earth? It can’t be just earning more money. The universe must be holding bigger plans for me. Why are people suffering?
These questions ultimately lead to a spiritual awakening. Other factors behind the awakening are some mystical dream sequences prompting the person to explore beyond mortal life, and a hunger for knowledge that makes the brain go into the phase of awakening.
How Long Does A Spiritual Awakening Last?
Spiritual awakening is unique to each person, there is no fixed duration for it. Some can experience it for just a few days while some can experience it for many years. The average duration is between 1 to 3 years when the person feels awakened.
What To Do After A Spiritual Awakening?
Once you gain a spiritual awakening, it is important to use it for gaining deeper insights. Develop a routine of meditation and gaining knowledge. Use this amazing spiritual energy to channel you towards attaining freedom from all earthly ties.
Why Did I Have A Spiritual Awakening?
There is no logical explanation for this question. But basically, you had a life-altering experience like some trauma or a dream sequence that led you towards the attainment of spiritual awakening.
What Is The Dark Night Of The Soul?
It is the toughest phase before you attain spiritual awakening. Your soul goes through lots of pain and despair. You might go into depression and feel useless. This is the phase when the soul is getting rid of its old form. It is similar to the snakes shedding their skin. It takes a while to shed the old skin to enter into the new one. Once you get past this phase, you enter into your spiritually conscious and awakening soul.
How Can I Keep On Experiencing The Awakening?
It is important to practice self-discipline after a spiritual awakening. You should meditate regularly, spend a fixed amount of time on prayers, and invest yourself in the betterment of yourself and your surroundings. Doing these will keep the feeling of spirituality high.
How Helpful Is Yoga In Spiritual Awakening?
Yoga is a way to connect your soul with your mind and get rid of all the background noise. When you are attaining spiritual awakening, it keeps you concentrated and gives you mental peace. It is an excellent way to take you out of the dark phase and lead you into peace.
If you are constantly asking how to start your spiritual awakening journey, yoga can be a way to bring all the energies toward your soul. And if you are wondering how to reach spiritual enlightenment, yoga is the way to do it.
Conclusion
Spiritual awakening is when you begin to attain ultimate consciousness. You begin to realize that the world is governed by a supreme force, and that you are just a tiny part of it. The world does not revolve around you. You cannot control what is happening, whether good or bad. All the pain, suffering, attachment, and happiness are just eyewash. They only trap you in a vicious cycle.
The real truth lies in self-consciousness. Once you attain spiritual awakening, you are at mental peace. You rise above the earthly flaws. Every human on Earth is the same as you. You become more compassionate and gain empathy for everyone else. You see them beyond their errors.
So, whenever you feel that you are gaining insightful knowledge about life and philosophy accompanied by inner happiness, embrace this change. This is when you attain awakening and that is going to turn your life around for good. Spiritual awakening meaning and spiritual enlightenment meaning are always about attaining inner peace and knowledge and you should always go for it.
