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Are You Experiencing a Spiritual Emergency?

spiritual emergency

The phrase ‘spiritual emergency’ has been popping up a lot for me recently. I want to explore what this might mean for you & for the collective.

Spiritual emergency is used to describe a phase of chaos and confusion that someone can experience after an awakening.

On the spiritual path it is helpful to have awareness and knowledge of the positives, but also the negatives, so we are not caught off guard by them. A spiritual awakening is no easy process! We’ll often be confronted with our biggest fears and limiting beliefs, and this can cause a lot of inner turmoil.

However with the right tools, we an navigate these periods with relative calm.

Feeling confused after a spiritual awakening

Spiritual awakening is a complete rearrangement of our lives on a physical, mental, emotional…and spiritual level. However, there are many phase to an awakening, and so we don’t tend to awaken all of these areas at the same time.

Spiritual awakening is often triggered by a major life event such as the loss of a loved one, livelihood, heartbreak, a spontaneous mystical or kundalini awakening experience etc.

This means that we are walking on uneven ground. We don’t just wake up one day, realize we’re a spiritual being in a physical body and sail off into the sunset.

We are prompted to ask the big ‘I am’ questions: ‘Who am I?’, ‘What am I doing’ and ‘Why am I here?’

We tune into our purpose, and feel how disconnected the life we are currently living is with this.

What is a spiritual emergency?

A lot of people face an emergency or crisis at this point.

However spiritual emergency also (often) occurs in the depths of a spiritual journey. Think of it like a spiritual existential crisis

When we get comfortable on our spiritual paths and have a solid foundation of beliefs and practices in place. Things can shift unexpectedly – what was clear before no longer is, and we feel less connected to ourselves and the Universe.

The beliefs we’ve accumulated can start to feel fragile – this is because they are.

It can be like going back to the beginning all over again. A spiritual emergency occurs when our ‘spiritual ego’ feels rattled.

We start to take on spiritual concepts as identity, and when this is questioned in any way we freak out or get defensive.

This is actually a ‘great’ sign, it means you get to release ideas & concepts that are no longer helping you, and deepen your faith by letting go of attachments.

So, how do we deal with this and recenter? 

Spiritual crisis vs dark night of the soul

This might sound like I am describing a dark night of the soul and in many ways I am.

A lot of the terms we use on the spiritual path are approximations. It’s not possible to describe the depth of a third eye awakening or kundalini rising with words alone.

A spiritual crisis can mark the start of a longer, deeper spiritual isolation such as a dark night. However, it doesn’t have to.

My dark night of the soul (which lasted literal years) involved less of this inner turmoil, but felt much more heavier and harder to get through.

Here I am talking of being knocked off our spiritual path, but not necessarily feeling completely isolated.

If a lot of these experiences sound familiar, the tips below will help you avoid sinking deeper.

What to do after spiritual awakening

In the beginning stages of an awakening we’ll likely still view things from a very human place – often through the ego or lower self.

Just because we’ve come into awareness doesn’t mean it has matured. This is an incredibly important part of the process, because just as in everyday life, we all have our slumps!

You can’t expect to remain high vibe, tuned in and connected all of the time. Things have a cyclical pattern to them..

Focus on your practices 

Focus on your daily practices rather than beliefs/expectations. Even when we aren’t seeing the same results as before, leaning more heavily on the rituals that were working for us. 

Metaphysical exploration can become a trap when we chase certain experiences. For example, anticipating an earth-shattering shift during each meditation session or expecting to receive clear-cut intuitive messages every time.

We will experience peaks of spiritual energy that feel euphoric and completely transcendental, and we might unconsciously try to get back there again.

Rather than expecting a certain experience during meditation/energy work, or chasing a metaphysical ‘high’, trusting that what worked before will continue to work – this develops deeper faith. 

Examine your belief systems 

Examine your beliefs in all areas. What spiritual beliefs are no longer aligning? Which beliefs now cause more discomfort than peace? Which beliefs are you uncomfortable/avoiding confronting? 

Spiritual truth doesn’t require a defense, it just is. Where we are feeling uncertain or defensive in relation to our spiritual beliefs, is where we have the most room to grow. 

Experiencing a spiritual crisis further along the spiritual journey can feel like an even bigger blow to our security and to the ego, because we might believe that we are past down phases, we have an opportunity to sit with this tension.

Find community 

The context of spiritual awakening and spiritual crisis in this modern age is usually one of isolation. 

One of the biggest signs of a spiritual awakening is a deep sense of loneliness and isolation. We can no longer fit in with society. 

However having a solid group of people who you can connect with on this level and share these experiences with is invaluable.

Knowing that our spiritual journeys might involve but don’t have to be defined by isolation or alienation, is extremely helpful.

This topic links back to our recent email about the collective shadow. When so much is going on around us, all of the stuff within us gets shook up. We question how we are living/being day to day.

It’s all a natural part of the process.

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