The life-changing and deeply tragic event that we must experience to trigger the start of a spiritual awakening leaves us broken and asking for more.
It knocks us out of the format we’ve become accustomed to, forcing us to figure out a deeper meaning for our lives that only we can discover.
2. The Query
The inner turmoil from the first stage takes us to a point where we realize that the only way out of our pain is to find answers to questions we never knew we had.
We start asking ourselves everything from larger than life questions such as “Why am I here?” and “What is my purpose?”, to practical, self-critical questions like “Am I right to believe the things I believe in?” and “Do I like that I’m on?”
The scaffolding upon which you built your reality was shaken when you experienced whatever tragedy you just had, and it has forced you to readjust and rethink the things that you simply once accepted as normal or unquestionable. Now you’re filled with questions, but with no idea how to find your answers.
3. The Quest
On your journey to find the answers to your new and difficult questions, you begin looking beyond the superficial.
Your life may have been once built on the material world — things and relationships and achievements and more — but now those aspects no longer satisfy you, and you want something greater.
So you look within. You may become religious, or you may become spiritual; you seek out ways to find answers to questions that no one can answer for you.
You seek to evolve into a person capable of finding your answers, and that means knowing how to stand on your own two feet in the face of spiritual enlightenment.
4. The Integration
There will be much pain during your spiritual journey. Learning how to integrate the “new you” with the “old you” will be a dangerous and destructive experience, because you must reconcile two different selves and teach both sides how to co-exist.
But these are growing pains, and as long as you progress everyday and push yourself towards growth, they will be temporary.
The goal is to reach spiritual alignment: becoming a greater version of yourself that involves both who you are now, and who you once were.
5. Spiritual Alignment
Spiritual alignment — alignment with both yourself and the universe — is the ultimate goal of a spiritual awakening.
Some people think of this as a state of nirvana, which can also be thought of as the death of the ego and the death of our personal suffering.
It is when we completely toss aside our sense of self, no longer prioritizing or caring about our self-identity, because we have fought off the feeling of isolation by becoming connected with the universe and everything around us. This is one sign of a deep spiritual connection.
This can be a lifelong journey, and not something you can accomplish in a month or a year. It is a goal we must strive towards constantly, because once the spirit awakens begins the journey, it can be impossible to turn back.