Inner Turmoil After Spiritual Awakening and What To Do About It

(Email excerpt) You may have had spiritual awakenings, shifts in perception, energetic openings, satori experiences, glimpses into your true nature, and all of that.

These are all great points on the path. But for most, these states or shifts don't last indefinitely and are not necessarily abiding. They can come and go.

The reason for this is that though you may have had a genuine glimpse or awakening, the body-mind organism still has a certain momentum of resistance that needs to be released before the system can steadily hold those higher states of consciousness.

The nervous system has its limitations. When we are in high states of consciousness, like samadhi in meditation, the nervous system is infused with Shakti, the spiritual energy of consciousness.

Like an electrical circuit, our system cannot just handle any amount of energy. There are limitations that need to be recognized.

For us human beings, the limitations that hold us back from really allowing immense amounts of Shakti to flow through our system comes in the form of emotional blockages and trauma, known as vasanas in the Yogic tradition and samskaras in Buddhism.

For the most part, these blockages need to be healed and released from our system before we can really abide in the awakened state of being, before we can let Shakti course through our system consistently without causing a burnout.

So, even after your awakening, what you call a glimpse, emotional turmoil is likely to arise. Whatever difficult emotional or mental experiences you have are what's being cleared out of your system.

Once this clearing happens, the body will be able to rest easily in the awakened, expanded states of consciousness as the energy can flow freely through your system.

It takes time and it takes practice for this clearing to unfold. You must meditate, as deeply as you can. When you enter into meditation, you allow the body to enter into its healing mode during which it can begin to burn up any emotional or psychological impedance.

The more that you meditate, the more that you heal, and the more often you can abide in a meditative state during the day without falling back into unconsciousness.

When we meditate with the purpose of healing, it’s kind of like using water to clear out a dirty tube so that more water can flow freely through that tube.

Put simply - we use water to clear the way for more water. We use meditation to clear the way for deeper meditation.

While you meditate, remember that whatever emotional experiences arise in your field are not only just showing up as a sign that they're being burned up and healed.

They're also showing up to challenge your ideas about spirituality, about yourself, and the world.

Can you see everything as Divine? Even a painful emotion? A painful thought? Is a racing mind Divine? How about extreme fear?

Can you welcome all of this into your meditation? If so, this is a good sign that you are beginning to embody your awakening more and more fully.

You may have had a glimpse that all is Divine, all is One. Great! Now life brings you difficult experiences to help you to really integrate your glimpse. It's like training. It's not always fun, but it's necessary.

This is why, in a sense, things can feel worse than ever before, even though you may have had an awakening.

Ride it out, learn to flow with all of your experiences, and welcome everything unconditionally.

With this practice, your awakening can become more than just a glimpse. It can become your every day state of consciousness.

Remember, that even after you are abiding in a high state of consciousness, everything is still welcome in your space. You're still a human being with full permission to think and to feel.

Just because you're awakened doesn't mean that you'll lose the capacity to feel. You’ll still have the ability to cry, get angry, feel hurt, and all that. You'll just know that it's okay to feel that way. It's okay because all is Divine.

Note that the body doesn't need to be completely cleared of absolutely every single emotional blockage, vasana, samskara, conditioning, or bad habit before you can rest in an abiding state of awakened/meditative consciousness.

Some of the more subtle and inconsequential vasanas and conditioning can stay.

Some of the conditioning we have is actually part of what shapes our unique personality, our sense of humour and our way of relating, for example. All of that doesn't necessarily need to be cleared out. It's not a big deal. The energy of consciousness can flow through our system even with these insignificant forms of subtle resistance.

But most of the really significant traumas, conditioning, and false beliefs must be purged from the system. They impede the flow of Shakti too much, and so they must be released.

To see these difficult emotional experiences that arise within you as Divine is the essence of unconditional self-love. Nothing in your experience is to be rejected. All is welcome here because we see all as the Divine.

For me personally, the most emotional turmoil that I experienced in my life thus far was about three or four years after my first initial non-dual spiritual awakening, which was centered mainly around my crown chakra.

My heart took a few more years to begin to awaken after that. And when it did, it was not easy by any means. The emotional turmoil was very challenging to be with. Unconditional self-love is what got me through it.

I continue to still have emotional upheavals from time to time too. It's all welcome here. I'm still processing certain vasanas and such, but like I mentioned, I’m not concerned with clearing every single little blockage I might have. I understand that what’s meant to be cleared will be. My job is to be present with the process.

I embrace my humanity. Lately, that's my highest spiritual practice - embracing my humanity, not rejecting it or seeing any of it as wrong.

Spiritual awakening is not an escape from the emotional ups and downs of life as a human being. It’s a doorway right into the center of it all.

Like the eye of a hurricane, even though the outside may have a lot of chaos, at the center, there is stillness.

With enough meditative practice, you can abide in that center point and remain untouched while also fully experiencing the dynamics of human life.