My first spiritual awakening was so catastrophic and monumental in my life that the idea this unworldly occurrence could happen more than once in a lifetime was unfathomable. And since it manifested after a devasting and life-changing catalyst, I believed it couldn’t happen any other way – that only through grief are you able to walk straddling the edges of reality.
But within a couple of months, my spiritual awakening was gone.
Poof.
Without warning, the door that led me to see clearly and truthfully for the first time closed shut. My heightened awareness and the profound sense of peace I felt slipped away, and my soul relinquished all control. Soon, my anxiety crept back into my mind, and the demons that once infested my thoughts were beginning to say, “hello”.
After a few months, I was rot with confusion and despair. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t hold on to this gift, and for years later I felt like an addict trying to sustain my high.
Let’s Start with the Basics: What is a Spiritual Awakening?
A spiritual awakening, often accompanied by mystical experiences, is when a person becomes deeply attuned with their surroundings and transcends the ego to understand an infinite sense of truth or reality. It’s when your inner world becomes richer with universal consciousness, and you gain a deeper understanding that everything and everyone is interconnected and exists beyond time and space.
You begin to live in a more present state of awareness and attitude, and because of this, you now crave an existence with deeper meaning, more substance, and authentic beauty. And often, you wake up to the real you – your soul – which can evoke feelings of overwhelming joy, peace, bliss, ecstatic elation, and unconditional love.
In truth, a spiritual awakening isn’t a clear and defined experience. A lot of the awakening experience is based on feelings, sensations, and a deeper inner knowing but there are certain commonalities to watch out for. Read more about the signs in the post, 6 Signs You May Be Going Through a Spiritual Awakening.
How You Experience a Spiritual Awakening
Spiritual awakenings are known to be intensely euphoric in nature and can illicit prolonged and permanent life-changing perspective shifts on a person and the world around them.
Now, how you experience a spiritual awakening can happen in three ways:
- Gradual spiritual awakenings
Through spiritual practices like yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, spiritual awakenings can slowly begin to emerge in your consciousness through the consistent development of your mind and body. - Sudden or spontaneous spiritual awakenings
These occur without warning and are usually out of your control. A near-death experience is a traumatic event that is out of your control and may trigger a spiritual awakening. - Intentionally induced spiritual awakenings
Mind-altering substances such as psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) are known to remove any consciousness to your ego, thus freeing up the mind to feel and think without judgment, worry, or attachment.
When Do Sudden or Spontaneous Awakenings Occur?
Life can throw us many challenges that can be both unexpected and traumatic and alter our inner core forever. These moments in our lives can propel us to see more than we knew and feel more than we thought capable.
And it’s these unwarned, cataclysmic life experiences that ignite the flame for sudden or spontaneous spiritual awakenings.
Here is a list of a few life situations that can trigger a spiritual awakening:
- Psychological trauma, including loss, grief, and addiction
- Near-death experience
- Signs from the afterlife
- Childbirth
- Fasting
- Sex
- A profound experience with nature
- Athletic elation
- Mind-altering substances
The Peak State of Spiritual Awakening
From a scientific standpoint, when spiritual awakenings occur, we are experiencing an intense psychological change in consciousness. At its peak state, the force is so powerful it cannot sustain in human form for a long period of time. And due to the very nature of an awakening – transcending time and space – the length of time for the peak state is hard to determine but typically lasts minutes to weeks, with residual effects lingering for months even.
And this is when it’s important to note, if you feel your connection to the spiritual realm slipping, remember, it is too strong and powerful to sustain.
Now looking back, I can say it was the best thing I discovered, and perhaps it is this part of the awakening process where we learn how to deepen and awaken on our own.
So, Can You Experience More Than One Spiritual Awakening?
The answer to that question is, yes.
Through different life experiences, we can be thrust into a spiritual awakening through sudden or spontaneous spiritual awakenings, as we now know. But it can also be something we evolve and grow into with time like through gradual spiritual awakenings. In fact, if we wish, we can also intentionally induce an awakening through certain psychedelics.
But this is only the beginning. The peak state is not meant to live long in our consciousness. Its purpose is to inspire us to find more attainable avenues so we can feel that oneness with the universe once more. In fact, we can live our lives through it.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any extensive research on this subject. All the findings are based on a plethora of similar anecdotal evidence, which only concludes this unworldly phenomenon is indeed occurring to many people around the globe, and for generations on end.
Closing Thoughts
Whether it’s through sudden, gradual, or intentional spiritual awakenings, whatever your path, there is only one way to keep hold of your spiritual awakening. There is only one way to make it more attainable and sustainable than this elusive force coming and going.
And, if you are currently experiencing an awakening, remember it will disappear on you. You will lose your spiritual awakening and all the glory that comes along with it, but only for a time. It is not lost forever because you are now awakened to your soul.
It is your soul that is forever and always. And it is your soul you need to strengthen now. Let’s get to work.
**Tune in next week for part two: How to Sustain a Spiritual Awakening.**
Until next time, you Wildsoul – keep blooming!
