Spiritual awakening is not an easy concept to understand. It is even a more difficult phase to go through. If you chose to read this article with the misconception that spiritual awakening could be easily achieved, or that it could be plotted down into organized little steps, then I'm sorry to have confused you. Spiritual awakening most often comes from intense grief or suffering. Some spiritual gurus even speak of a figurative death in order for you to be reborn anew. In fact, when I think about it, spiritual awakening is indeed some form of death - death of your misconceptions, your mistaken ideas about yourself.
The grief and suffering that will start your journey of spiritual development will vary. Most of the time, people experience the loss of someone that they consider to be their anchor. Most often, a person experiences the downfall of important aspects of their life - a crumbling career and a threatened marriage. When these start, you are assaulted with a variety of feelings that you wouldn't know what to do and where to begin.
When I was in that very position, my fear and anxiety would totally control my body. I wouldn't be able to move and just lie there with waves and waves of anxiety coursing through my body. The fear was such a terrible ache that most of the time, I felt like I was going to die. I would try to move, push my way through it and then I would realize that the more I fight the waves of anxiety, the stronger it got. I stopped. I stopped fighting and just accepted the waves that riddled through my body - fully experienced my anxiety and then it was gone. This continued for sometime until I faced my worry and stopped denying to myself what was happening in my life.
By finally recognizing my worries, I really started my journey to spiritual awakening. I asked myself questions, endless questions that most of the time was left unanswered. I realized that logic didn't really help. If at first I was scared, this process just left me feeling numb. It felt like there really was no way to shop my world from falling apart so I felt like the best I can do was just live day to day, no matter how painful. I was alive but I was empty and dead inside.
At this stage, I felt like there was no getting out of anything. However, with the acceptance came a sweet stillness. My world stopped and somehow, I was relieved. I realized things about myself and my universe, let go of old notions and misconceptions - this was when I felt that I was born anew.
The process will differ from person to person. There's really no way to be prepared for it except to just have the knowledge that I've done it, others have done it and that you could too.
