10 Myths about Spiritual Awakening

Like many other things, spirituality can be something sacred or it might be expressed as a dogma. Many people might be stuck in an old or new paradigm of spirituality, or they might be unable to connect or create a bridge between the wisdom of ancient eastern mysticism and the updated founding in new age spirituality.

I am not here to tell you what spirituality is or how spiritual awakening feels like but I will make an attempt to tell you what is not and how is possible to connect with your own internal world in order to understand, or better innerstand which part of the bridge resonates with you more based on who you are and your understanding.

After years of studying from both ancient and new age practices while connecting with teachers from the East and the West and combining science with the sacred and intuition, I realized that yes there are many paths from where you can choose and follow, but there is a very specific path that is your unique path to follow and it is essential that you create this path as the creator of our life and as a co-creator with Source.

So in order to help you clear your mind from misconceptions about Spiritual Awakening and assist you into your journey of finding your own path and therefore realizing your Self, I came up with these 10 Myths about Spiritual Awakening:

Myth 1: A spiritually awakened person has figured out everything in life.

This is one of the most usual myths about spiritual awakening. Awakening is not about black and white. You won’t suddenly wake up one day feeling awakened all of a sudden. Awakening is a gradual process as it is a process of remembering of who you are and shading layers and layers of illusion. It is important to understand that in our process of awakening we still experience emotions and situations of lower vibrations just because it is essential for our further awakening. I’ve heard many times people judging other people for their choices, their behavior or even characteristics of their character just because they have specific misconceptions of how an awakened person should be. But if you think about it for a moment, you cannot be fully awakened and judge others. If you still judge others it means that you are also in a process of awakening.

Myth 2: A spiritually awakened person lives isolated away from other humans.

Another concept that is brought often to the table is that spiritually awakened people are usually alone like monks in monasteries. But you need to understand that this is a choice. The opportunities that a monk can have in a monastery can be equally important with the opportunities that a state employee can have in a daily basis. And this is because life brings us all the experience we need in order to awaken spiritually, wherever we might be. It is unavoidable only because we are connected to the ever changing process of human evolution. So if your desire is to awaken yourself and remember who you truly are the universe will bring all the opportunities and lessons you need in your way in order to assist you in the manifestation of your wish. Anyway we are all heading into this direction, some of us slower and some of us faster, but all of us move into that direction even if it does not feel like that for all.

Myth 3: In order to be spiritually awakened you need to disconnect from sensual experiences.

This myth is being told especially in religious and spiritual circles, but it cannot be a universal truth. Our Soul is expressing itself through the physical body we own in this lifetime, and therefore we are gifted to experience all senses through the body. Many spiritual lineages have been teaching the disconnection or withdrawal from the senses, but actually this is a misunderstanding or an approach that denotes a lack or awareness in the way that spiritual wisdom and knowledge has been passed from human to human or from generation to generation or from teacher to student. What is important here is to understand that even if you are fully awakened or enlightened you cannot disconnect from the senses. It is not possible and it should never be a goal to deny or reject any experience coming from the 5 senses as you are still in this physical realm, living a physical experience. The manifestation of our spirit or soul into this physical sphere denotes also the physical experience, therefore is it important to embrace who we are which is also this body and this life, we need to accept and honor our physicality as it is, the spirit expressing itself through this form of life. Living a life where we honor the senses, being in a body and embracing sensuality is crucial for our spiritual awakening because we are here to experience this. We have been gifted with all 5 senses and therefore we are sensual beings, and accepting our sensual nature is part of who we are and its about honoring life itself. It is about being alive and celebrating the knowingness of being alive. Instead of trying to disconnect from your senses try to work on how you perceive the different sensations and how you can proceed the information that comes in through the senses. In this way you will transcend the false perceptions that are formed after receiving a sensation through the senses into knowing, understanding or remembering of the truth. So the senses can be internalized instead of being disconnected from us. The body is the receptor that takes in the experience and the transmuter that will transcend that sensual stimulation into a deeper spiritual experience. So without our sensual body this is impossible, therefore why not celebrating our sensual nature?

Myth 4: As soon as you get spiritually awakened you will never experience negative (or even positive) emotions, ever again.

This is a big lie actually, and many people become very judgmental towards other people who might go through a negative experience or intense emotions. There is a misinterpretation about the connection or the reoccurrence of spiritual awakening and intense human experience, but again this is an outdated belief and still exists, unfortunately. And this creates expectations towards awakened people especially towards spiritual leaders, yoga teachers, priests, mindset coaches and many more. The truth is that all people and especially those who are in the process of awakening are going through even more intense emotional experiences, the difference is how they might express emotions or go through emotional experiences. One of the biggest false believes in the spiritual world is that emotions are obstacles for spiritual awakening, and there is a tendency to deny and suppress emotions, but this will only delay our spiritual awakening, because emotions are the language of the soul, they hold truth behind their occurrence and when we are ready and able to decode that truth, we can hold into our hands the key to our spiritual awakening.

Myth 5: You can’t be spiritually awakened and work to earn money.

Another false belief, which has made many people struggling through their spiritual quest, while denying their natural state which is to be abundant and experience abundance. Earning money with ease and flow is our birthright, and being open to receive or experience our abundant nature actually denotes spiritual awakening. The rejection of this truth not only blocks our ability to experience our abundant state and therefore awaken spiritually, but it also stop us from being in a state of receptivity in order to allow infinite possibilities and potentials to manifest and be available for us. And this is part of our spiritual evolution and awakening, not living in scarcity, not struggling to survive and definitely not denying our natural state of being. A spiritually awakened person knows that is abundance and therefore allows financial abundance to exist into their life, with ease, grace and flow.

Myth 6: Spiritual Awakening is for the special few.

Well, what does it mean to be special? And why should it be for a few people only? This is a total misconception. Spiritual awakening is happening for everyone, even the sleepwalkers that we see or experience near us, they are still in a process of evolution. It might be slower or it might happen in a different way, but this doesn’t matter. As long as they are part of humanity, and as long as they play their role in the collective, they definitely are part of the spiritual evolution of the whole, because we are all connected. Everyone and everything is connected. Everything is changing and moving, therefore nothing remains the same and it is an illusion to think or believe that only the special ones or the gurus are able to walk a spiritual path of awakening. The awakened one knows that those who sleep are their best teachers, and accepts them as they are. It is crucial to see the purpose behind each and every expression of existence in order to fully understand and experience spiritual awakening and enlightenment.

Myth 7: You need to meditate all day in order to become spiritually awakened.

Another false belief that goes along with many similar ones that describe or force the same thing: the application of a spiritual practice considered to be essential for one’s transformation to be applied in an intensive manner, otherwise is believed that no transformation will take place or even change to the person. This is not only wrong but it can also be dogmatic and can cause other issues in one’s endeavor to awaken spiritually. On the other hand when we force something it can never be organically happen, because things need their own time to occur. Also not every person is the same and therefore each one of us has different needs, understanding, capacity and abilities. In the same way that someone should not be exercising in the same intensity as somebody else, it also applies for the one who pray or meditate or practices yoga and any other spiritual practice. That means that the same intensity or frequency or even duration should never be applied for everyone.

Myth 8: To awaken, you have to practice yoga, go to the church, be into eastern mysticism or follow a spiritual leader.

In the same way explained in myth number 7, this myth applies for the specific practices we choose to do in order to assist our spiritual journey. There is another belief that supports only spiritual practices for the attainment of a spiritual status, but why and since when swimming or washing the dishes, or having a walk at the park are not or cannot be as spiritual as yoga or praying at the church or reading about mystical practices? My personal opinion that derives from my personal experience is that it does not matter what you do but how you do it. That means that you may practice yoga in a non spiritual way just because you are focusing on the external benefits of it as a physical practice, but you may drink a glass of water as if you are praying and connecting with God through gratitude and appreciation. So it is our choice what practice can help us grow spiritually and this might change from time to time according to our needs. We need to be aware in order to understand the changes that occur and therefore proceed to the next steps we need to make in our journey. This process on its own is spiritual.

Myth 9: You must behave as an enlightened person, you can’t be a normal person and be spiritually awakened.

We need to examine our belief systems around normality, spirituality and enlightenment alongside the concepts or even the separation we have created between the spiritually awakened and the non awakened people. Judging a person’s choice as a non spiritual one or judging a spiritual leader because we think that something they did or say is non spiritual denotes our limited ability to understand our human nature within spirituality and therefore adapt an inclusive behavior and not exclusive that we frequently find in dogmas, outdated models and pseudo-spiritual practices. We need to be able to embrace the human nature within ourselves and others in order to avoid this judgmental behavior of who is spiritual and who is not based on what they do, what they experience and what we believe is true about them. We need to know that spiritually awakened and enlightened people never stop to be human beings and that means they have emotions and sensual experiences as everyone else on this planet. Therefore next time you are about to judge someone based on their choices, think again and remember that you do not know what is behind what you see and that the truth might be far away from what we think is true.

Myth 10: You must give up everything in order to be spiritually awakened.

This last myth describes the denial of material and not material possessions, such as desires, wishes, dreams and goals. What is important to understand here is that there is a process in every journey of our life and that a saying might not be 100% true or 100% false either. What I mean by that: A person who constantly seeks constantly spiritual experiences might be in a process of awakening from a person who has no desire to gain anything in their life. On the other hand the person who sleeps and seeks nothing might also need to experience this state in order to proceed to a different one. What I am trying to explain here is that the first person is in a process of seeking the truth while the second person is not willing to move towards spiritual awakening. So when we connect the idea of giving up everything with spiritual awakening we stay only in the limits of the idea itself and not the actual journey that someone might proceed through their real spiritual awakening. We need to understand that for a spiritually awakened life we need to go through different stages and maybe sleeping stages and then restless stages in order to be ready to literally give up everything and therefore experience spiritual awakening. Finally it is important to understand that the one stage is not better or higher than the other but they are all important and essential to go through in order to understand and recognize awakening itself. In order to remember who we are we need to forget who we are first.

I wish that this text can be an awakening milestone in your personal journey of awakening, and a tool to understand your personal journey and those of others with compassion and a non-judgmental mindset. And I hope that all the information above can empower you and relieve you from outdated believes that may put pressure on you and distorted the way you see others and spirituality itself.

Heart to Heart,

Christina

  © Christina Georgiou