The Spiritual Ego – Overcoming the Challenges of Awakening
Embarking on the spiritual path is an interesting one indeed.
I believe that spiritual awakening chooses us, depending on where we’re at in our lives. But it more often seems to find people after going through a difficult experience.
What exactly is a spiritual awakening?
The fundamental part of ‘awakening’ is the realisation that who you are is not the constant chattering in your mind. A brief moment of emotionless stillness where you find yourself simply observing the thoughts in your mind rather than identifying with them.
When we take on this role of the observer, it’s as if we quite literally take a step out of this frame of mind that we’ve been immersed in our whole lives. We then connect with a deeper layer in our consciousness which is silent, blissful and peaceful.
This experience is often followed by a rush of euphoria, which for many people, including myself, includes an outburst of tears in awe of this state of being which feels so stress free and liberating, yet so simple and quiet.
This euphoric moment is also known as, enlightenment. 🧘♀️🧘♂️
Soon enough, the mental chatter returns but that one moment is enough to realise there has been more to life all this time than you’d realised. The aim from this moment forward is to tap into that blissful stillness more often.
The Ego Trap
In the last six years since my own awakening, I’ve also learnt that spirituality chooses us through my efforts to introduce it into the lives of the people around me. I’ve tried on many occasions to convince people that this was the best damn thing that’s ever happened since the first time I landed a front somersault on my trampoline. So of course, you absolutely HAVE to integrate it in your life too!
This is where the spiritual ego gives birth to itself.
There are many easy to apply, spiritual principles for leading a happy life whether you’re even the slightest bit interested in the matter or not. The trap to avoid in sharing your newfound knowledge is not incessantly convincing people that you have uncovered the ‘one and only truth’ but presenting it as an opportunity, a route even, to follow in the pursuit of happiness.
Each one of us are on our own personal quests in this lifetime, figuring out what is meant to become of us and perhaps figuring out the significance of this human existence too.
Even though I created this blog and developing brand with the intention of raising collective consciousness and inspiring people to become the greatest version of themselves, I accept that spirituality and mindfulness will not fully resonate with every single person in this lifetime, and that is perfectly alright.
So just like landing a front sommy, you can’t force that act on someone else. If life presents the opportunity and motivation to learn and execute a front sommy, you’ll do it. If not, that’s ok too.
And so, after five years, I began to realise that my spirituality had somehow managed to find a place in my material world as something almost exclusive and to be attained rather than residing on the ego-less soul level where it belongs.
The Perfection Trap
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is realising I don’t have to feel happy and positive 100% of the time.
In actual fact, it’s not really possible.
The purpose of our lives on planet earth as human beings is to experience a plethora of emotions, spanning from the most positive to the most negative, and this is a blessing.
Why?
If we didn’t experience the low times, we wouldn’t appreciate the high times. Equally, it’s crucial to not get too caught up in our high times because these won’t last forever either.
We are born to be perfectly imperfect creatures. The mission in mental mastering is to fully allow every emotion to run through us as they do and accept them. All the while remembering in the back of your mind that this feeling is temporary, impermanent, and will soon transform into something else.
Whilst I’ve been writing this blog and posting on social media, because of the messages I’m conveying, I have become obsessed with personal development.
I’m a perfectionist by nature and so after the honeymoon period of beginning to blog ended, I realised the reality is a lot harder than I’d imagined to “make it” in the digital world and grow a big audience.
So ironically, whilst posting happy, inspiring content that might have seemed like I’d had it all figured out, behind the screen has been frustration and anxiety over my engagement numbers not budging. Naturally, this spiralled into feelings of giving up and questioning what I’ve believed to be my life; at least right now anyway.
This is a lesson I’m currently working through right now. So, every day, when I catch my thoughts heading down that path of discouragement and failure, I try to shift that to acceptance.
Acceptance that where I am in this moment is exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Acceptance that I am not defined by the numbers going up and down on my YouTube and Instagram profiles.
Acceptance that I am doing the best I can in this moment to channel my creativity into creating authentic content.
But more importantly…
Remembering that I’m doing this because of my passion for mindful living and spiritual enlightenment, not for the remuneration potential.
Remembering that life doesn’t happen exactly when you want it to.
Remembering that as long as I’m consistent and loving to myself, my ability and to those around me, I will get there in the end.
“Life becomes much more interesting once we let go of our quest for perfection and aspire for imperfection instead.”
Staying Grounded
The biggest challenge in spiritual awakening is staying grounded in reality, on EARTH, and not getting too caught up in the idealised spiritual reality of a perfect, positive world where everyone loves each other and acts firstly for the benefit of others rather than out of their own interests.
It is a wonderful thing to be spiritual and I wouldn’t change my journey up to this point for the world. But the task now, for myself and others, whether you’re at the beginning or a few years into spirituality, is to find BALANCE between the spiritual and physical realms.
It’s when you align yourself between these two perspectives that you can assure, you’re on track to create something seriously powerful and wonderful in your lifetime.
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Until next time,
Namaste friends,
Tori xoxo
