Has Your Perception of Life Shifted Recently? Chances Are You Could Be Going Through a Spiritual Awakening!
By: Autumn Grey
The path to a spiritual awakening can be a long and arduous one, full of pitfalls, missteps and sleepless nights, yet the rewards are certainly numerous. If you're curious to know if you're going through your own spiritual awakening, follow along as I describe some of the common traits experienced during an awakening!
Am I going through a Spiritual Awakening?
First things first though - what does it mean to go through a spiritual awakening? According to author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra, a spiritual awakening "happens when you are no longer living in a dream world where you filter everything through your ego. Instead, you have an almost simultaneous awareness of your individual self and the connection between that and everything else." He goes on to describe the difference between the ocean and a wave and says that you become neither the ocean nor the wave but both simultaneously. Basically what he's saying is when you've become spiritually attuned you're able to connect to the greater whole within your own life as well as separate yourself from it to better reflect and gain higher meaning. But even if your personal definition of a spiritual awakening differs from this, the signs below can still help you identify if you’re on the right path to your own awakening.
- You're Becoming More Conscious (and Conscientious)
Remember that pivotal scene in the movie, The Matrix, where the Oracle and Neo are in the kitchen and the Oracle points to the sign above the doorway and explains to Neo it means to "Know thyself"? Obviously it didn't mean much to Neo at the time, but knowing yourself, or more specifically knowing why you do the things you do is one of the most important things you can learn in this life. Knowing thyself simply means mastering oneself and being one with the understanding of who you are as a person, inside and out. What makes you tick, what brings you joy, what causes you pain - all of it and more paints the bigger picture of who you are as a person and it's these little puzzle pieces in your character that create the bigger picture known as you!
As you can probably imagine, knowing thyself isn't an all-at-once type of thing. It can take many years for some to reach that intuitive understanding, however, once you start on that road, oftentimes you'll discover it begins to open more doors into your own psyche and you'll feel yourself becoming more conscious of everything around you, which can lead you to becoming more conscientious as a person! At the root of this consciousness lies empathy. Once you gain further understanding into who you are as a person, it becomes easier to find kindness and understanding both for yourself and for others who may be taking a similar journey to you.
- You're Ability to Slow Down and Reflect Improves
Being able to know thyself is a key component in changing the relationship you have with yourself and your ability to reflect. For some, reflecting over decisions or behaviors can be difficult or downright unpleasant which is why so many avoid it all together. Until someone is able to reflect on why they do certain things or behave in certain ways, they'll always struggle to change. Once you're able to accept that your decisions and behaviors are down to aspects of who you are as a person, it becomes easier to spot certain patterns. Being able to slow down and consider those patterns and why you have those patterns in the first place is crucial if your goal is to ultimately switch things up. For example: If you're an argumentative person, your first step in changing your behavior is knowing why you're so argumentative in the first place. While delving into the past can be painful and sometimes traumatic, if we truly wish to make beneficial changes in our lives it's imperative that we're able to appropriately reflect on our actions and behaviors before true change can be realized.
- How You React to Stress Begins to Shift
Once you begin to truly reflect on your actions and behaviors, you will often find that how you react to stressors in your life begins to shift in a more positive direction. Things that used to seem like end-of-the-world scenarios no longer hold the same sway over you. Over time you're able to observe these scenarios with a whole new mindset and what once was a massive ordeal won't seem quite so monumental.
If you identified with any of the criteria above, chances are you’re well on your way to your own personal awakening! While there are many different criteria one can use to determine if they are or aren’t on the right path, really it’s up to each and every person to discover the truth for themselves. There is no right or wrong way towards a spiritual awakening and each and every awakening can feel different, but every spiritual awakening will involve an individual fully accepting themselves as a unique soul on this beautiful blue and green planet and that each person must understand themselves fully before they can begin to understand the world as a whole.
