In this article, we'll skim over the fascinating realm of signs and symptoms of spiritual awakening. But before we take off and go on our adventure, it is crucial to understand that the signs and symptoms of spiritual awakening are unique to each individual.
My own personal experience of my initial spiritual awakening was both exhilarating, challenging yet at times frightening and completely unsettling. I felt an overwhelming wave of love radiating from within me, accompanied by tears of joy, love and deep gratitude, but also tears of sadness, many tears looking back at the mess of years gone by and the total misunderstanding of those around me.
Spiritual awakening is a term you've probably heard before. If you're here, you might be wondering if you or someone close to you is on the path to spiritual awakening, that incredible yet confusing path to higher consciousness.
So what does spiritual awakening really mean and what does it actually involve?
The notion of spiritual awakening has been around for centuries and appears in many cultures and religions around the world. Some call it "ascension"; others "enlightenment" or simply "awakening". Someone nicely described it as the soul's cry for freedom, and that definition resonated with me so much that I embraced it.
Spiritual awakening occurs when we realize that the world, as we perceive it, is only an illusion, just a reflection of our ego, an ego only focused on the past and the future, and above all on the separation. When you take your first steps on the path of spiritual awakening, it is as if a veil is being lifted. At times it can even be so brutal that it is more like pieces of wall collapsing… We begin to discover a new sense of being in this world and realize that the separation between our “individual self” and all the rest is THE greatest illusion. Then little by little, we become aware of who we are, of our essence... this “I am” which had always remained a totally abstract or obscure notion.
Being on the path of spiritual awakening is a time of great inner upheaval. These changes have “dramatic” repercussions on our daily life, alter our relationships and are often accompanied by more or less disturbing physical symptoms.
One of the first effects is not understanding what is going on inside us, feeling that we are losing our minds. Little by little, we feel stripped of all the landmarks to which we have clung to all our lives. One by one, they crumble like a house of cards. This can cause worry, frustration, confusion, anxiety and fear. These are steps that can be very destabilizing, even terrifying. This is why it is important for me to accompany you in this period of transformation. By transmitting a maximum of information to you, you will be able to evolve spiritually in the most positive way. My goal is for you to enjoy this turbulent journey, to accept it as a blessing, not as karmic punishment or nightmarish bewilderment.
When I experienced my first spiritual awakening, I weathered the storm on my own, and more than once I thought I was losing my mind. So, if I can help a single person to go through this period more serenely, I will have accomplished a great mission and would have had the privilege of witnessing a magnificent metamorphosis. By accompanying you in each of the stages, you will avoid thinking that you are going crazy, and will be able to rejoice in the journey that will take you to the most beautiful of transformations.
Let's take flight now and explore the 40 main signs felt during a spiritual awakening, so that you can understand why certain things are manifesting in you while demystifying them.
What causes spiritual awakening?
Spiritual awakenings can be spontaneous or triggered by anything from the most mundane event to the most overwhelming. But for the majority of cases, spiritual awakenings are triggered by major life-changing incidents or traumas such as life-threatening illnesses, car accidents, divorces, wars, epidemics, mental health crises such as depression or anxiety, losing your job or even a near death experience… Spiritual awakening can also be triggered by a person or a group of people who open a spiritual “door” for you . This or these persons may be a kindred spirit, a friend, a partner, a family member, or simply someone who crosses your path briefly with the sole, unseen "purpose" of being your "teacher". There is nothing mystical about these encounters. By their very presence, their spiritual openness or their wisdom, these people will open your eyes to the great illusions of life, and awaken you, all without any intention on their part. They will be your initiator(s).
During our life, we all have encounters which, for no apparent reason, upset us, and have a profound impact on ourselves, and very often without these people knowing it or having intended to. But rest assured: these people never cross your path by chance!
Going through a spiritual awakening is one of life's most confusing, lonely, alienating, yet divinely beautiful experiences. What is troubling and equally fascinating about this awakening is that it is happening when we least expect it. There is no way to plan it. It shakes your life and sweeps away everything in its path like a hurricane. But the hidden gift, buried deep within a spiritual awakening, is that it kicks in just when you need it most...you'll realize it later. Nothing was ever a coincidence, all the stages of your life, all the incidents, all the reversals of situations, all your relationships, your ups and downs, have led you to this moment of enlightenment!
What is a spiritual awakening and how do you know you are going through one?
Simply put, spiritual awakening marks the beginning of our initiation on the path to enlightenment. If we don't experience it, we will pursue illusions throughout our lives, pipe dreams as the emptiness of money, the derision of fame, the vanity of power, the absence of love and the vanity of all materialistic things. But these illusions all have a common denominator: to find “happiness”. If you have had a spiritual awakening or are going through one, you are driven to see through the lies and illusions of this world. Deep in your soul, you begin to realize that nothing external has ever brought you anything and can’t ever contribute to true happiness or bring you wholeness. This deep awareness makes you crave something richer, more fulfilling, and something that will make you feel whole again.
How does a spiritual awakening manifest itself?
There are many signs and symptoms of spiritual awakening, not only emotional but also psychological and even physical. The list I have identified below of the 40 most common symptoms is not exhaustive. Each one of us may have different or fewer manifestations.
Impression that your life rings false and is a fabric of lies.
You realize that most of the things you have been taught are lies.
You can sense the inauthenticity and manipulation of others.
You look at others and what is around you with more wonder and curiosity.
You want to participate in the evolution of the world to make it a better place.
You want to quit your job or completely change the direction of your activity.
Your teacher(s)/initiators find you, it is not you who are looking for them.
You are more connected to your body and have more bodily sensations.
Let us now examine each of the 40 signs or manifestations of spiritual awakening in detail:
1. You feel disconnected or detached.
At the very beginning, the process of spiritual awakening can seem overwhelming and really confusing. All of a sudden, you feel like every truth you've learned in your life that you never questioned was a lie. You lose your bearings and feel more and more disconnected and detached from the things and people you used to love. You have the impression of becoming a stranger to all these links which nevertheless, even today, weave your life.
2. You feel like your life rings false and is a web of lies.
Everything you have believed, built and worked for seems to be wrong. Your life no longer seems to be yours. You no longer feel like yourself, almost everything you enjoyed no longer makes sense and no longer brings you satisfaction. You have the impression of being the spectator of your life and no longer the actor, and the scenario no longer pleases you.
3. You are looking for yourself to understand who you are.
You ask endless questions about your identity and your life: "Who am I?" “Why was I born?”, “What did I come here to do?”, “What is the meaning and purpose of my existence?” So you educate yourself, listen to podcasts non-stop, devour many books on personal development and self-discovery or spiritual texts in an effort to find yourself and find answers. No wonder you ended up here. :)
4. You seek meaning and purpose in your life.
You deeply want to find the meaning of your life. You have no idea what your purpose is, but you desperately want to find out. You have a deep sense of emptiness, that there is a lack inside of you, as if some part of your soul is not complete.
5. You ask yourself deep questions.
You are bombarded with questions: “Why am I here? " " What is the purpose of life ? "What happens after we die?" "Why do people suffer?". You have more philosophical, more metaphysical approaches. All of these deep thoughts can confuse you because you don't know the answers.
6. Most conversations seem superficial to you.
When you talk to people, you feel a deep sense of separation because you realize that very few people are comfortable talking about passion, emotions, meaning and soul. In conversations, you feel agitated and irritated by superficiality, it jumps out at you now. Silent screams invade you: “When are you going to wake up and realize what is happening?”
Your aversion to frivolous, worldly chatter drives you further into loneliness because you can no longer participate in it. They annoy you madly and make you feel like you're wasting precious time on trivialities. So this growing unease in your social interactions can lead to two completely opposite types of attitudes: either you become a lone wolf fleeing social life, or a free and rebellious spirit that raises its voice at any opportunity.
7. You feel completely lost and alone.
Nothing in your life seems to make sense anymore. You feel like you are wandering in an endless desert. Like a disoriented nomad, you feel completely alone and cut off from people. You find it difficult to continue relationships with those you felt close to (your friends, colleagues and family members). So even though spiritual awakenings are not an easy adventure, and even though there is hope of finding enlightenment at the end of the road, it can be a lonely epic. It's confusing and alienating to see your life turned upside down and completely shaken, especially if those in your immediate circle are not on the same path at all.
8. You have started to reevaluate your beliefs.
A spiritual awakening will likely cause you to revise your spiritual beliefs or adopt new ones. Whether it's connecting deeply with a new religion or belief, or quitting your job to pursue your true passion, your priorities shift in abrupt and unexpected ways.
9. You realize that most of the things you have been taught are lies.
You begin to see how many beliefs and values are not truly yours or no longer aligned with yours, but belong to other people or have been inherited from your culture. Your self-awareness progresses and evolves, dismantling many of the ideas in your belief system.
10. You see through society's illusions
Materialism, success and profit no longer mean anything to you. You start to feel like you're just a cog in the machine of society, just a piece of a chess game.
11. You can see through other people's inauthenticity and sense their manipulation game.
In addition to having an increasingly heightened intuition, you will also be able to detect any inauthentic or manipulative behavior. You will also immediately sense when someone is cheating on you as well, and will find it very difficult to be around people who have no integrity.
12. You want to be alone.
You crave solitude. Where once you may have been extroverted, you are now experiencing the introverted side of your nature. You spend a lot of time introspecting yourself and favoring silence over the hubbub of others. You try to reduce social contacts as much as possible, and increasingly seek solitude. At this point, you risk losing contact with many old friends and a large part of your social life.
13. You want to "purge" your life.
You can no longer feel blocked, depressed and hopeless. As a result, you want to clean up your life to simplify and declutter it. This can mean cutting ties with toxic people, re-evaluating your habits, throwing away unused clothes, changing jobs, moving house, or even cleaning up your belongings to make your space more minimalist and breathable.
14. Your relationships begin to change.
There's no doubt: Spiritual awakenings are transformative, and the people in your life aren't always going to appreciate it because they don’t understand you anymore. So there too, there will be cleaning, because respecting your transformation will not be an option. This will trigger tensions or even ruptures and breakups, because without forcing anyone to resonate with your awakening, you will not backtrack to please them either.
15. Spirituality becomes an important part of your life.
It will be difficult to ignore the call of your spiritual side during this process. The desire to find meaning and fulfilment within your spirituality will likely become one of your highest priorities.
16. You see how much pain and dissatisfaction most people have.
You awaken and become aware of the unhappiness and suffering of others. This achievement can lead you to participate in humanitarian campaigns, to get involved in various causes for a better social and human condition. It torments you greatly to see so much pain in the world.
17. You feel much more empathy and compassion.
As you begin to feel more connected to the world around you, you begin to pay more attention to the many challenges faced by humanity and the issues related to our planet. You develop more and more compassion for the suffering of others - even if you do not underestimate their share of responsibility. Your inherent empathy suddenly awakens or becomes even more exacerbated and this provokes feelings of great intensity in you which you find difficult to cope with. The prevalence of suffering can seem impossible to ignore, which is why you now feel more called to be of service to others.
Watch out here! If you don't channel your pain into finding healthy ways to accept and express your emotions, you can easily engage in destructive behaviors and addictions to numb your pain and emotions.
18. You crave authenticity and truth.
Being true to yourself becomes a top priority. You hate pretending and putting on the old masks you used to wear. You want to be completely authentic. Pretending makes you sick and disgusted, but assuming these formidable qualities will not be without adverse reactions from those around you.
19. You look at others and at your surroundings with more wonder and curiosity.
The smallest things bring you joy and happiness: a falling leaf, a spider's web, a child's laughter, a puddle. You look at everything with a new look… a new look of wonder. You see beauty everywhere, in everything, life becomes magical, amazing and beautiful.
20. You become aware of all your bad habits.
You become painfully aware of your flaws and destructive habits. In you arises a strong desire to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.
21. You suffer from anxiety and/or depression.
You may go through deep bouts of existential depression or moments of lingering anxiety. The shock of diving into your spiritual awakening makes you particularly unstable as uncertainty and fear follow you everywhere. Many times, people going through their spiritual awakening are misdiagnosed with a mental illness when they are in the midst of an existential crisis.
22. You are increasingly sensitive.
Very often your senses also heighten during spiritual awakenings, as you become more connected to the present moment. This includes sensitivity to physical, emotional and/or energetic stimuli.
Everything impacts you more. You feel the energy of others more strongly, the pain of loved ones more intensely, and the difficulties of life more deeply than ever before. At the same time, you feel a stronger connection with animals and nature. You begin to feel more comfortable in the natural world rather than the man-made world.
23. You want to participate in the evolution of the world to make it better.
One of your missions is to inherit a better world. You start to think “big picture”, to see everything in a bigger perspective. This desire to have a real impact translates into actively helping others or finding a life purpose that matches this desire.
24. Your intuition is heightened.
Another sign is the growth of your intuition, or even for some, the appearance of new intuitive abilities. And yet those abilities were always there, buried under the layers of your ego, but you had no access to them. Through your spiritual awakening, you are much more in tune with yourself, and gradually you begin to listen and trust your inner voice. As it guides you in your decisions, you become more and more aware of the messages your subconscious is sending you. Eventually, you even begin to discover your hidden spiritual gifts and talents by learning to trust your intuition.
25. You feel more synchronicities and déjà vu
You begin to become aware of the many signs and omens that life brings to you. Life becomes much more receptive and interactive with you. If you frequently encounter mind-boggling synchronicities, such as thinking of someone and randomly meeting them the next day, or seeing angel numbers all the time, this is a sign that you are on your spiritual path. Similarly, feelings of serendipity and déjà vu are not uncommon either. You can even undergo many mystical experiences.
26. Your dreams are more real.
Not only is your life more vivid as a result of a spiritual awakening, but your dreams may also become more vivid, more "real" but also more frightening, bizarre, or intense. The meaning of your dreams and how they connect to your journey may also become more apparent.
27. You want to quit your job or completely change the direction of your activities.
Even though you've worked for years to get a degree, establish your career, and climb the ladder, you only feel emptiness. Your job no longer gives you the sense of fulfillment you need. You desperately expect more from your professional activity. Maybe you are even considering quitting your place of employment or completely changing the direction of your business. You are looking for a career change that will make sense to you, because your goals have become totally different.
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28. You begin to feel unconditional love.
As ego barriers crumble, you begin to love others without expectations or conditions (this includes self-love). You lose interest in drama, conflict, and anything that perpetuates separation, division, and hatred.
29. You know deep down that we are all One.
This stage is certainly the most important of the awakening… but it can take years to fully understand intellectually that we are all interconnected, and a lifetime to feel it deeply.
You realize more and more that your thoughts and your beliefs influence reality and that we are all fragments of a greater Whole, that is to say the Spirit. It is by having fully experienced that we are this Unity, you finally find peace.
30. You realize that everyone is on their own path.
As you discover your own spiritual path, you are also more accepting of the idea that everyone is also following their own path. Things like winning arguments or convincing people of your point of view don't matter as much anymore, even the mistakes of others fill you with compassion.
31. You want to be of service to others, to society and to the planet.
When you begin to realize that every living thing is inherently equal, you feel called to be of service, whether to people, animals, or the environment. It is important for you to have a cause that you can support to give meaning to your life. It may not be about changing your current roles or jobs, but simply approaching what you already do with a deeper sense of service.
32. Your teacher(s)/initiators find you, you are not the one looking for them.
During an awakening, your spiritual masters can “appear” anywhere with perfect timing to help you. These do not have to be teachers or spiritual masters, quite the contrary, they can be a stranger in a store, a new friend you have met by chance, but also of course, a spiritual or religious figure.
33. You feel more connected with Nature and the Planet.
Although you may feel less connected to your friends and family at first, you will feel more and more connected to Nature. From plants to animals to the world at large, you will feel your interconnectedness with everything…living beings, stones, planets, and the unseen. It can be a very moving and profound experience, but also a lonely one as you find that few see this connection as you feel and experience it.
34. You are more connected to your body and have more bodily sensations.
In addition to heightened awareness and sensitivity, you may also experience other bodily sensations or physical discomforts, such as headaches, body aches, digestive upset, or fluctuations in appetite. This can be seen as the body adapts to the energetic changes that occur during the awakening process.
35. You may have physical symptoms.
A number of physical symptoms can also accompany spiritual awakenings, such as fatigue and brain fog. But you can also get dizzy if you're not connected to your body. Some people may even experience weight fluctuations (gaining or losing a lot of weight).
Sleep disturbances are not uncommon either, i.e. you sleep more or have more disturbed sleep, often causing insomnia.
(Of course, these symptoms could also be a sign of a medical condition, so don't discount them either.)
36. You make sudden changes in your habits and routine.
As your spiritual life begins to transform, your daily life, including your habits and routines, also transforms. Maybe you now make it a priority to spend time in Nature or meditate, or you have let go of old habits that have become irrelevant or no longer serve you.
37. Feeling energy and vibrations
You may feel tingling or shaking in different parts of the body, especially the crown of the head, around your third eye chakra, or throughout your spine. These sensations are often described as "energy surges" or "kundalini awakening".
38. Changing eating habits
What you used to like to eat you no longer like. Also, you might want to experiment with other foods that you have never tried/liked.
You may also have sudden food intolerances that you never seemed to have before (or perhaps hadn't noticed), for example allergies to wheat, nuts, legumes, soy, spices.
39. You have a whole new curiosity in many areas.
Now that you've “awakened,” you likely have a childlike wonder and curiosity about the world around you, even when what is happening around gets tough. You are able to remain curious in all areas of your life and of course towards the people who are close to you, like all those who share the planet with you.
40. You find yourself living in a new reality.
Because you experience complete alienation and awareness, your ego gradually crumbles and you feel like you are living in a new reality. Suddenly, you find yourself observing your mind when you have believed all your life to be the voice in your head, the voice through which you have always defined yourself.
And now, watching your mind… you know it doesn't represent you either. It's very uncomfortable at first. If you are not that person, who are you? Who is behind the din of this voice, who are you?
It is by learning to observe the emptiness behind the din that you will discover who you really are. You are this presence that no longer sees life through your mind, but through your soul and your heart in absolute calm. Because you are the calm behind that voice. Before you completely adapt to living through your soul and your heart, so in a whole other way, occasionally you will have moments of flickering, blurred vision or difficulty adjusting to this new reality...this is the path to enlightenment!
By reaching a deeper understanding of the experiences you’re going through on the way of your spiritual awakening, you can find relief, comfort and clarity in the thick of the intensity and the overwhelm, knowing that you are not alone. If you’re seeking guidance and support in navigating the disturbing, unsettling stormy waters of your journey, I invite you to book a counseling session to explore together your path towards spiritual transformation.
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