One of the most common experiences after a spiritual awakening is isolation and lonliness.
When we awaken we no longer relate to people in the same way; we move away from superficial and one-sided relationships and towards aligned ones.
In this post I want to talk about why the Universe isolates us during spiritual awakening and what to do after.
One of the reasons the Universe isolates us is because it wants us to get really clear on our purpose. We all have a soul purpose, something that calls to us on a deeper level.
However most of us are disconnected from this calling and take on the goals and expectations other people have of us – starting with our parents and then friends, the media, society at large.
When I was going through a spiritual awakening, absolutely everything in my life came to a halt. All of the emotions and unhealthy patterns I were ignoring came up to the surface to be acknowledged and cleared. I could no longer just continue on as ‘normal’, constantly avoiding my intuition. This led me to reevaluate what I was doing and why I was doing it.
Another reason we are isolated on the spiritual path is to better understand and work with the ego.
The ego is essentially the armor we wear as humans in order to survive. It’s the idea we hold of ourselves, of who and what we are and where we belong.
We all have a name, country, roles, beliefs and values – these are all have important in navigating day to day life, and as such we don’t necessarily want to get rid of the ego altogether.
However the ego becomes a problem when we believe that is all there is to us; when we get so attached to temporary concepts that we disconnect from our spirit and become overly self-serving.
In understanding the ego we get clearer on what really matters to us. Even if this is all temporary, there is still important lessons to learn and people we can connect with.
Isolation is in itself a gift. There are so many things vying for our attention, and in this day and age even more access to distraction.
Being alone allows us to understand ourselves and our motivations better and come out of our cocoon engaging with the world more mindfully.
Going through a period of isolation is useful if we are able to practice mindful awareness.
Oftentimes being isolated does more harm than good; we get comfortable in our own bubble and away from anything that might trigger us.
This was the case during my own awakening. I spent many years in an isolation period, and didn’t do the necessary work to reintegrate back into the world. I spent a lot of my time avoiding people out of fear they wouldn’t understand my experience or would distract me from my spiritual progress.
I’ve come to understand that the hermit phase is just the beginning.
So it’s important to delve into some shadow work during your isolation and understand what makes you tick. I created a guidebook & journal with 52 prompts to help you through this process.
What happens after the hermit phase?
“When we heal we don’t just lose the people who aren’t aligned with us, we also find those who are. Solitude guides us to our community”.
There is a lot of talk about loneliness and isolation on the spiritual path. A period of solitude is somewhat required for our spiritual growth, especially at the beginning of our journey..
However, I think a lot of us get stuck in healing or shadow work; learning about ourselves and the different ways we can develop inwardly. This is just the first phase.
It’s just as important to understand the energy we are building, with community in mind.
Visualize the type of community you want around you. In your person and work life.
Think about (and feel) the type of energy exchanges you’d like to have. Write them down on paper. Have something you can look back on when you are connecting with people – and ask yourself if it matches up.
Remember you don’t have to be perfectly healed or or spiritually developed to enter into or build community.