Spiritual Awakening

Spiritual awakening is a painful, challenging, 

and at times frightening experience…

It is a process of death and rebirth. 

When we begin to awaken, 

the old self is systematically dismantled, 

obliterated, and torn apart.

All that no longer serves us,

everything that is not authentic to us 

falls away and dies, never to return. 

This can be a disturbing experience, 

even if we know that what we are experiencing

Is part of our awakening process.

It is much scarier if we have 

no understanding of what is happening to us,

or if we cling too tightly to our old ways

of being and to the old self that is trying to die.

If we view our awakening through 

the more conventional, Western model of mental health, 

it may seem like we are having a psychological break 

of some kind, and we may be pathologized,

labeled with some mental health condition,

and perhaps even medicated.

If we view our awakening 

from a spiritual and shamanic perspective, 

it is honored as a sacred event,

a breakthrough, a new beginning, and a rebirth…

an initiation into our authentic power, 

and the birth of the true self, 

which is something to celebrate.