Your Spiritual Enlightenment Journey & Becoming More Self-Aware
Whether you are starting your spiritual journey or you’ve been on your spiritual journey for some time, we can agree that no one path is the same.
The aspect that is most essential to navigating through this journey is self-awareness. Self-awareness assists you in your spiritual journey since you have to listen to your inner knowing and let that knowledge guide you
This self-knowledge allows you to see the answers within yourself. You won’t need validation from others when you know that your path aligns with your soul’s desires.
Your spiritual journey is seeking your soul’s knowledge and getting in a relationship with the universe or the God you identify with.
The spiritual journey sometimes feels like a rollercoaster ride. The highs feel inspiring, and the lows may make you want to hide under a rock. We go through these phases, and sometimes, we may even want to avoid them.
Trust me, going through the layers and deeply understanding yourself is worth the work. Let’s look at the steps to become more self-aware in our spiritual journey.
The Self-Realization Phase In A Spiritual Journey
Many of us started our spiritual journey through trauma, others through curiosity or surprise, and some of us through an interest in wanting to know more about ourselves.
What we all have in common that our spiritual journey began as a need for transformation.
That transformation requires pain, suffering, and a sense of loss. The first phase in our spiritual journey and the path towards self-awareness is the dark night of the soul; some refer to it as a spiritual depression or existential crisis.
Your spiritual journey begins by shedding layers. We go through dark and sometimes painful, realizations, where we begin to question our realities, our relationships, our accomplishments, and even our careers.
We start thinking about how we had previously viewed the world and how it doesn’t align with what we currently feel and think.
A spiritual journey dismantles beliefs not aligned with the desires of your soul. If you had previously made decisions based on others’ approval or maintained a relationship out of hope, these beliefs rise during a dark night of the soul to be corrected.
I have come to understand that the dark night of the soul is your soul showing you what is not in alignment with your path, what is not in alignment with your true self, and it shows up for you to make corrections before the universe makes the correction for you.
It’s easier to move with our thoughts at this moment and work through them. We have to analyze what’s no longer in alignment and shift to a more self-fulfilling lifestyle.
The Rose Colored Glasses Phase
We have now uncovered how we have played a part in the universe, and we have pieced together how that wasn’t making us entirely happy.
Now that we discovered those things outside of us, we gain a sense of empowerment and lightness; it’s like we have rose-colored glasses on.
The time span of transitioning from “dark night of the soul” to rose-colored glasses can only be determined by you; however, the rose-colored glasses phase doesn’t last very long.
Remember when I said the spiritual journey is a roller coaster? The rose-colored glasses phase is the high point, filled with exhilaration, and you see everything from a higher perspective.
In the rose-colored glasses phase, you feel alive, you feel connected to the world, to your understanding of God. You are excited about life, you feel more compassion and may even develop hidden spiritual gifts.
This phase tends to be shorter because we are more into flowing with it. Remember, we delay transformation when we fight against it, and how can we possibly fight against bliss?
Shadow, Oh, Shadow!
We enter the shadow phase in our spiritual journey after realizing that more deeper healing needs to occur within us. This is where we do some unconscious rewiring.
At the beginning of shadow work phase we may feel a sense of confusion because we are still reacting to the same scenarios playing out in our lives, even after changing the characters and environments.
We are reacting out of anger, we are allowing for others to dictate our moves, and we are placing limiting beliefs on ourselves. This is when shadow work comes in.
Shadow work is the introspection of yourself, getting to know the parts you don’t want to admit to having; however, these aspects of yourself come out when you are under stress, angry, sad.
We need to work with these “negative” aspects within our subconscious selves and integrate them into our daily lives. If the dark night of the soul phase is the realization of everything outside of you, the shadow is all about introspection.
In the shadow work phase, you dive to discover why you have the emotions of jealousy, rage, greed, and power control. These are some of the aspects of ourselves we deny ourselves; we have learned these as defense mechanisms from childhood or past experiences.
The way to become self-aware of these shadow aspects of yourself is to be conscious of them during your interactions with other people, or even with yourself, as a shadow aspect you may have is negative self-talk.
This phase takes time because we need to practice it daily. It is definitely not a one and done deal. Catch yourself in your own actions, and provide yourself loving corrections.
I suggest to journal when you feel “negative” as a way to start shadow work or get the help of a coach or therapist.
Rest, Ground & Shine Your Light!
After we are done with the shadow work phase, we acknowledge that the hard work is done.
Our rollercoaster is not at a high point, but is not low either; it’s like we are in-between the two…oh the suspense! We are observant of the two points, but we are not tipping to either side; there’s balance.
You are working with both aspects of yourselves, and you kinda want to know “what now?”. You may experience anxiety in this phase as you may feel that you should be doing something with this newfound knowledge, but you don’t know where to start.
This is the phase in your spiritual journey to rest & integrate what you had learned from the previous stages. Life is a school, but it doesn’t mean that we have to seek knowledge every day. Sometimes, insight finds us when we are resting.
If you had not developed a spiritual practice, now is a great time to do so. Meditation and journaling are great tools to center & refocus.
This is also the phase where you are fully integrated into your being. You’re more spiritually & emotionally mature and you dance with your aspects since you have integrated both negative and positive that make your true self.
There wont be a need to qualify your aspects as unfavorable and hide them. You are grounded in understanding who you are, you have gained a sense of bliss and connection, and you want to share it with the world!
This phase in your spiritual journey is lifelong. It’s a constant spiral of deep discovery. What can assist you through all these phases in your spiritual journey is to always surrender; we feel more pain when we resist the universe’s flow and try to hold on to things that don’t serve us.
Second, a spiritual awakening is an awakening of the heart & integration with your soul. Meditation, yoga, journaling, and exercising can assist you with healing and integrating.
You can also use your breath for assistance. Deep breathing, and breath-work to help release emotions and calming the mind.
In Conclusion
The self-awareness we gain in our spiritual journey is beneficial to us all as human beings; being in our own sovereignty is powerful. Life is about breaking old paradigms and pivoting to what your true self identifies with.
A spiritual journey is one where we go through several roller coaster phases, but we become more compassionate beings who shine the way for others.
Ps. If you are working through these, I’m so proud of you! I would like to know which phase in your spiritual journey you are in and what you have discovered about yourself. Write them down below; Can’t wait to read them.
xo much love to you, beloved
Mirtha
© 2020 Align & Mirth LLC
