What Is Spiritual Awakening and Why Does It Sometimes Feel Like You're Taking Steps Backward?

So what exactly is spiritual awakening? And why does it sometimes feel that you’re taking steps backward on your spiritual path?

Spiritual awakening is a powerful experience — it’s a call to wake-up from a sleepy state. “Sleep” here means forgetting who you truly are, and living from autopilot programming, and the limiting stories that keep you from experiencing your magnificence.

Here are some examples of what NOT YOU can look like:

– saying yes to everyone else at the expense of your own energy and well-being … you tell yourself you “can push through one more thing”

– you make decisions out of fear, guilt, or a sense of obligation instead of genuine passion and enthusiasm

– you replay past events making yourself wrong, always feeling that you could do it better, and then feel exhausted even though you’ve already contributed so much

– you see joy as unproductive, and tell yourself that you “don’t have time for” .… such frivolous things

– you secretly fantasize about being a hermit in a cottage in the middle of the woods somewhere and crave a simpler life.

– you know that underneath all of these automatic responses and not really feeling fulfilled … there’s something you are being called to see

Does any of this sound familiar to you?

If so, you are not alone. And you can be thankful that you’re now aware of those responses, and are giving yourself some space to see what’s actually happening, and can then possibly do something about it! Let’s take a look and how awakening can come and five other signs that you may be getting a wake-up call or an invitation to revisit an important life lesson!

5 Signs That You May Be Getting A Wake-Up Call or An Invitation to Revisit an Important Life Lesson

You begin to see that you may not be who you thought you were.

Often, awakening is predicated by an event that has you question your ideas about who you are, and how your life is unfolding. Something feels off, but you don’t know what it is.
You may realize that you have a counter-to-happiness pattern and realize that how you’re “doing life” is no longer working for you. If you’re revisiting an important life lesson, you may ask yourself; “how did I get here again?”
Perhaps you have something “unusual” happen to you that you can’t explain using your current concept of reality. Maybe you have a vivid dream that feels important or out of the ordinary, or the clock on your microwave gives you a message, or the lights in your office or house blink on and off when you walk into the room…
You start to question the meaning of life, past choices, and purpose even though you’ve accomplished so much. You hear yourself thinking; “there’s got to be more than this.”
You have a lot of things that are working well, yet you’re not as happy or fulfilled as you long to be.
You have a recurring feeling that something is missing. maybe you think you’re “just bored”. yet you don’t give yourself the time or space to find out what this all really is. Instead you soothe yourself in front of the tv, keeping yourself distracted in busyness, or maybe read “spiritual” books, or take yet another self-development program, but that just leaves you feeling disappointed and exhausted.

With any of these events, you will most likely be nudged to seek out a spiritual teacher, like yours truly. And even though it may not feel like it — this could be a very exciting time, and why I do what I do. If you answer the call; this is when the real journey begins. because YOU are being called!

What The Path of Awakening and Mastery Can Bring You

Sometimes, people label this part of awakening, a “midlife crisis”, boredom or just how life is. But, what’s important to remember is that a spiritual awakening, these important signals are actually soul-nudges and wake-up calls and are potentially life-changing turning-point events. Don’t dismiss them; they are showing up for a very important spiritual reason.

What you choose to do with the invitations can open you up to powerful new insights into your very soul, your true purpose, and your true nature. The other option is to go back to sleep. Can you see why it’s an exciting time? Do not make yourself wrong for feeling what you’re feeling!

If you follow your inner promptings toward evolution and expansion, clarify who you are and who you are not, and learn how to gracefully navigate life’s true gifts … you discover and become more YOU. YOU live as a SOUL SELF, rather than as someone who experiences herself as limited, incomplete, and always needing to prove or perfect. And bonus … on this adventure, you also discover the deeper nature of reality.

You bring more of YOU out to play.

Which means that you get to experience yourself and life, as the Amazing, Powerful Being that you are, that is, if you are willing to learn how to navigate this way-of-being and doings your Natural Self. And we all know that this isn’t something we’re taught to do as children, unless we chose to be born into a family of spiritual teachers, who have followed this path themselves.

As you awaken, you will naturally need to shed some ideas about who you think you are, and what you thought life was. If you follow the spiritual path to truly know thyself, you’ll step out of the ordinary, finite sense of self, so you can begin to embody a wider, infinite sense of Truth or reality. You see the loving support that you always have access to!

As you continue on the path, you also become aware that life happens through you, rather than to you. You hopefully allow yourself to be guided out of victim consciousness, and into soul-centered creatorship. As you live in a present, on purpose way, soul-to-soul partnerships are no longer a lofty concept. They can be your predominate daily life experience. And as you continue to walk the path of awakening, you start to see how easeful and rich life is. You are using what you’re learning, and feel so much love for yourself and life!

Because these are such exciting discoveries, this is also when many people want to share their discoveries with others. It’s important to remember here that depending on where you are on your path, this may not be easy for you. You may not yet have the language to describe what you’re experiencing.

And if you attempt to share what you’re going through with someone who hasn’t moved through this experience, or can’t understand it — you may start to think there’s something wrong with you. But, nothing could be further from the truth. This can be beautiful time for YOU! Do not give up, or go back to sleep! As is true on any new journey, we don’t know what we don’t know. This is where the nurturing guidance of an experienced guide and teacher, who has navigated the path before you is absolutely priceless. Here’s a small part of my story of awakening if you’re curious.

As you expand your awareness of how you specifically, are creating your life experiences, you create the opportunity to move out of victim consciousness (blame, giving up, self-criticism, the need to prove yourself, burnout, “not enoughness”, judgment etc), and into creator consciousness! You’ve now opened up the opportunity to live on purpose, from YOU. rather than from autopilot reactions, and past programs. You’re on the Path of Mastery! As your awareness and skills grow, you can choose with confident purpose, in partnership with Soul, the non-physical, broader and wiser part of YOU.

As you advance through your journey, these experiences are no longer concepts, or something you’ve read about in a book, or watched on a YouTube video. The more awake, the freer and happier you become. You shed unwanted patterns. You are no longer easily triggered. And as you continue to advance, you no longer take things personally. You stop judging and blaming yourself and others, and become more peaceful and masterful.

YOU are happily and powerfully in the driver’s seat of your life. You let others be where they are, while YOU embrace and love from who YOU are. Resistance, and the need to prove yourself, and push against others will and can cease. You feel at peace and are no longer exhausting yourself repeating cycles that don’t honor how very special you actually are. Yes, Special!

Stepping Backward or Something Else?

The stages of spiritual awakening and mastery aren’t always linear. Sometimes you may even feel like you’ve taken a step or two backward. And that’s okay, because that tells you something. There may be moments when you revisit something you thought you had learned.

We can feel like we’re moving backward, when there’s a need to expand our understanding of something important in a particular area. This is not arbitrary, nor is it created by an outside force. The need to revisit or go deeper — is always, 100% of the time, created by you, by a request you’ve made, or an intention you have chosen. This is true, whether you are aware of that intention or not. Good, now you’re aware that you made a choice.

We are always choosing. So, an essential part of creating amazing experiences is learning to choose really well, from higher, clearer, more present levels of awareness, from Soul. This is a natural part on the spiritual path of creative mastery.

Here’s an example. Let’s say that you see yourself as a person of positive influence, and decide that you want to have a bigger impact, maybe as a healer, coach, thought leader, or in some expanded role in your work, or within your family. Maybe you are answering the call to be happier, and more fully soul-expressed. Those choices will naturally require a new way-of-being, YOU … if you want to attract and gracefully hold that desired experience. Otherwise, you’ll struggle, feel like an impostor, get frustrated, make wrong, want to give up, and keep distracting or stopping yourself etc. etc.

You’re never broken. You're being called to evolve!

Your heartfelt dreams and desires will always call more of YOU out to play! Your goals, aka choices, whether conscious, or unconscious are the core tools of a creator. Exciting isn’t it? Your choices create purpose or struggle, easy or hard … and they are evolutionary tools as well.Your choices are the basic building blocks of your reality.

So, as you expand through your choices, you will naturally see some behaviors and habits of thought that weren’t previously visible to you. For example, many people who choose to expand their level of influence, discover a habit of judging or blaming themselves or others, as they grow and evolve. They find that even though they’re acknowledging what they created in some areas, they’re still actually blaming a past partner, their parents, or teachers in other areas. Perhaps they come to see that their desire to help others was really about a need to feel needed or superior. But this doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. And this doesn’t mean they can’t still have positive influence. This is one of the natural ways that the self, seen only as personality, and past conditioning — might compensate for feeling “less than”. Can you see that in order to have a higher level of impact, she or he is going to need to upgrade where they are choosing from? She’s going to want soul-level clarity. She’s naturally going to be called to get to truly know herself, to claim her deeper gifts, her purpose and why she designed herself the way that she did, when she chose to come play in the sandbox of time and space.

And if you’re called to know thyself, your purpose, your gifts, and the amazing, wise, fulfilled and masterful YOU … I am here to help you do that.

Walk in the Beauty of Who YOU Truly Are,

Elari Onawa

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Author, Life On Purpose Coach, Integrated Potential Advisor and Spiritual Channel

Elari Onawa

Author Of Just Believe: How Faith In Yourself Shifts Everything

I’ve been coaching and leading Life On Purpose and Self-Discovery programs since 2003. Prior to that, I led large organizations for 20+ years, all the way to the C-Level. And then I said yes and followed my soul’s promptings. If you’re ready for more fulfillment and joy, if you want to embrace more of your higher aspects, and connect with the loving support that is available for you … I can help you have that! Here’s where you can uncover your inner magic.