Inside the OM
The Stages of Awakening
“The awakening of consciousness is the next step for mankind.
It is the realization that you are not your thoughts. You are the awareness behind them.”
- Eckart Tolle
Spiritual awakening can feel like everything is falling apart, when in truth, something deeper is coming alive. It often begins with discomfort or questioning, followed by cycles of release, clarity, and deep remembering. While no two awakenings look the same, there are common patterns many experience along the way. Understanding these can bring comfort and help you trust the process, even when it feels unfamiliar.
The Stages of a Spiritual Awakening
The path of awakening is unique to each soul. We arrived in this world open, pure, and innocent, yet our clarity and light became shrouded due to how we were raised, the conditioning of our culture and religion, and the survival mechanisms we built in childhood.
As we begin to awaken and see through the veil of illusion, it can feel disorienting and sometimes even frightening. When we are identified with who we think we are, losing that identity can shake the foundation upon which we have built our lives.
Inside the Om is here to support, witness your shift, and assure you that it is beautiful to wake up to who you truly are.
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The Catalyst
Life is full of challenges, and the general consensus is that if we can sufficiently put out the fires as we move through our daily lives, then we are living a reasonably contented life. Problems arise, we patch them up, move on to the next one, and believe that this is how life is supposed to be. We keep ourselves busy, distract ourselves, sedate ourselves, sleep it away, eat it away, look for dopamine hits, negotiate, wheel and deal, bargain, and do whatever we can to make the problem go away so that we can feel content again.
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But what happens when we become overwhelmed by these challenges, or a problem arises that feels insurmountable? Some call this rock-bottom. And rock-bottoms are sometimes the catalyst to the awakening process. Thye can be a gift. Some people may have a sudden flash of realization that creates their awakening, but most of us have a continual path of life challenges that are pointers to a deeper truth until we recognize that deeper truth and begin to awaken.
Questioning
When we begin to have flashes of insight, questions arise around the narratives that we have subscribed to our entire lives; we begin to question what we accepted because of the way we were raised, our culture, societal norms, and religious beliefs. This shaking up of our cultural and mental constructs can feel unsettling, but can also be very liberating.
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Our foundational beliefs create our thoughts, and then that creates our feelings, which in turn creates our behaviors, which then ultimately create the reality of our lives, all based on a system that was handed to us without us ever asking ourselves if there is a resonant quality to it.
We realize we are living a life that someone handed to us. We blindly accepted what was given to us, whether it was true for us or not. With the awakening, we begin to ask our inner selves, Does this feel right for me? Is this mine to hold? Why do I believe this way? How has this served me or anyone else?
Seeking
With all of the arising questions, we begin to search for answers. Many of us explore religions other than those with which we were raised. We seek teachers, workshops, retreats, books, classes, modalities, and other searchers, such as ourselves, until we find pieces and parts that resonate with us on a deeper level.
In this search, we widen our view from the constricted, narrow focus of our habitual lives to our souls' expansive growth and development. In our search, we find what aligns with us, and we begin to feel our hearts open, experience our wholeness, and our oneness with the rest of the world. In this place of openness, the seeking becomes less of a hunt and more of a following of the path. A path that opens and leads us to what is right for our unique souls.
Releasing
As we continue to expand, we recognize patterns and adaptive behaviors that once served us in our survival are no longer needed. There are both internal and external shifts that occur, and things in our life may begin to fall away naturally. Our perceptions and beliefs shift, but we may also experience shifts in our relationships, jobs, attachment to possessions, etc. This is a place where many folks may want to give up. Changing a pattern that has been with you for 20, 30, 50, 70 years can feel uncomfortable and create resistance.
Sometimes resistance will be obvious to you and you can see it for what it is. Other times resistance will be subtle and show up as things that sound like legitimate excuses to not move forward on your path of growth such as not having enough time to read the book or take the class, not having enough money to see the spiritual counselor, the feeling that "life is getting harder, not easier, why am i doing this?"
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It is OK to contract and expand and contract and expand; this is normal and natural, it is a stage of labor and delivery, it is your rebirth. Like a midwife, a spiritual counselor can be a good support during this time.
Expansion of Consciousness
The expansion of our consciousness opens us up to connection with all that is. We have the realization of oneness, and with that oneness comes all of the love, gratitude, joy, and wisdom of our universe.
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With the widening of our view and the clearing away of false identities and beliefs, the expansion of our consciousness is a natural process. It is not a goal that we set and then make a plan to achieve. It unfolds without effort as our true self is revealed.​​ I like to think of our searching and knowledge gathering as seeds we plant that will grow and blossom into our expanded consciousness. We feed and nourish the seeds as we integrate what we learn into our lives. ​​
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David Hawkins, the writer of Power Vs Force has created the Map of Consciousness that is a beautiful reference point for reflection on the levels of consciousness.​
What Next?
The expansion of our consciousness is lifelong. What unfolds with the expansion of our consciousness is our ability to see and perceive the beauty in our everyday lives on this planet as spirit beings in human form. Trusting and being in flow open up our experience and allow us to reach our highest and best potential, and that is different for everyone.
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When we sit in our inner wisdom, we are privy to knowledge and alignment. Our authentic selves and unique gifts are exposed. Creativity, intelligence, brilliance, and service can shine. We don't have to figure things out with our brains; we can follow the flow of life and walk the path as it unfolds before us, and our minds become but a tool of an inspired life.