Spiritual awakening is often thought to be a glorious and mystical event full of bliss and happiness. But the truth is that a spiritual awakening can leave you feeling anxious beyond belief.
The path to awakening is NOT as easy and glorious as you might initially think. I’ve spent several sleepless nights dealing with the mind, body, and reality altering effects of spiritual awakenings.
If you’re experiencing heightened anxiety from a spiritual awakening know that you’re not alone in this experience. With time you will come back to a normal state of mind.
Why spiritual awakenings can leave you feeling anxious
1. Too much energy!
Certain types of awakenings can create a lot of divine energy in your body. You may be experiencing something known as a Kundalini awakening if you feel like your body is filled with too much energy.
Energetic awakenings can be incredibly unsettling if you’re not expecting one. The sudden surge of Shakti energy through your body can be an unwelcome surprise to many.
Some negative symptoms from this type of awakening include:
- overwhelming energy in the body
- anxiety and fear
- inability to sleep
- increased negative emotions
Learn more about Kundalini Syndrome here.
2. Awakening can be a shock
Some spiritual realizations can turn your world upside down. Everything you once thought to be true is now turned on its head.
Insights realized from spiritual awakening will be reality-shattering in many cases. Your sense of self literally has to die for realizations of non-duality and ego death to occur. And believe me, your ego does not want to die.
These intense perspective shifts can cause a lot of personal and mental distress.
3. You have heightened sense perception
Spiritual awakenings can put you into a state of high sensitivity. You may be vibrating at such a high level of divine energy that your consciousness is extremely sharp.
Sights, sounds, and feelings can become overwhelming as you’re able to tune into every little detail with your heightened awareness.
This can easily overload your brain and cause anxiety.
4. Past trauma is being brought up to be healed
Sometimes profound spiritual experiences will bring up past traumas that need to be healed. This is especially the case during difficult psychedelic trips. Though they may be extremely distressing, it is for your greater healing.
To transcend into your highest self you need to dissolve many things holding you back. One of these things may be traumas.
When traumas arise to be worked with and healed you may feel a lot of anxiety and resistance.
See also “Struggling With Spiritual Awakening? Why It Can Be Lonely And Hard”
How to deal with awakening anxiety
The anxiety you encounter during your spiritual ascension is all part of the process. It will not harm you, it is simply an unsettling emotion. Don’t worry too much about this, as you’re in no real psychological or physical danger.
Let’s talk about how you can best deal with this awakening anxiety.
1. Surrender
The first piece of advice I give to anyone experiencing negative awakening side effects is to simply surrender. You may be causing your own negative experience by simply resisting the experience.
Don’t push away your anxiety, rather tap more deeply into it. Get present and feel your emotions deeply. Take a few deep breaths. Notice how the body feels. Slow down.
Awakenings are divinely orchestrated. Trust the universe to take care of you during this process. Let go and surrender to a greater plan you can’t possibly understand with your human mind.
You may find that after you simply surrender for a few minutes your anxiety totally disappears.
2. Practice grounding exercises
Grounding exercises are great for when you feel you’re too spiritually high. Feeling detached and overwhelmed can be caused by the high energy states induced from spiritual awakenings.
In grounding exercises, you bring yourself back down into your body and lower your vibration to a more tolerable level.
Here are some grounding exercises I recommend:
- Simple mindfulness meditation
- Taking a walk in nature
- Light exercise
- Slow calming breathing
Conclusion
A spiritual awakening can leave you feeling too energized, anxious, and overwhelmed. These reality-shattering experiences are not for the faint of heart, so know that you are a brave soul for following the spiritual path of awakening. Emotional turmoil and anxiety are normal during this process. Eventually, you will transcend these negative emotions and return to a comfortable baseline with the new spiritual knowledge from your awakening.
