I just recently stumbled across a video during my usual YouTube travels, called '5 dark side-effects of spiritual awakening no-one tells you about'. And I found it to ring true in many ways as I recall having similar conversations and sharing similar advice with many people over the years after going through them myself.
The video itself is very worth a watch;
https://youtu.be/3gVJR7RSKPI?si=tXLgaajkeLnWdbYV
I also thought it might spark up a little conversation. Who else has encountered (or not) these challenges? And what wisdoms of your own have you pulled from them? What kinds of advice would you offer to someone that might differ?
In the video, there was only one bit of advice I disagreed on. One segment focuses on how there can be a stage of confusion and uncertainty and disconnection. In it, a person's budding spiritual awakening is compared to the vulnerability of a young plant. And how you should shelter yourself from people who challenge your beliefs (to protect the tender bud from harm) and instead seek people with similar ideas who support you and your understandings. To protect your confidence I suppose.
My concern is that if you surround yourself with safe and agreeable others only, you set yourself into an echo-chamber of beliefs and the lack of challenge breeds an escape from Self examination. Critical thinking is incredibly important when it comes to keeping your feet on the ground, after all.
I have also gained more from being challenged than I ever have from conversing with someone who nodded in agreement. Being made to articulate my thoughts, alone, has been a powerful tool in keeping them organized. Having to logic and explain where my ideas came from held up a mirror to examine them with so I myself could see how they fit together. And so much more. As frustrating as those conversations can become sometimes... Sometimes passionately argued, sometimes confounded by exposing frayed links or confused and incomplete perspectives, not once have I failed to grow by being challenged. So I tend to advocate allowing yourself to have those conversations.
Don't go seeking them out, mind you. That's wasting energy and inviting a different sort of complication to your path. But when someone comes along who honestly challenges your ideas, pause a moment and Guage if the conversation is worth having. Especially if the person has a point, or introduces an idea not previously considered. Or if a question is asked that you don't know how to answer. ...Especially that last one. That is immediate fuel for learning. Something to explore even after the conversation is long past. Or, at the very least, as an exercise of reducing ego. For, once you do, you might even realize that the idea your opponent is declaring as silly or harmful might actually -be- so.
After all, we are just as capable of being wrong about an idea as anyone else.
I finally got around to watching the video via the link you so kindly shared, and in all honesty, these videos and narration hasn't changed much over the years, meaning, i have watched a few, yet I was hoping that this time around, it would have been a little more evolved, like the times we are in now.
Nevertheless, it's still to the point of a Spiritual Awakening journey. So having been on this Spiritual Evolution/ Awakening journey for the best part of my life, I would relate to many, if not all of the points made in these videos, however, for me, and if i have to summarise these 'videos', i would do it in one simple word, which is 'detachment'
And the wisdom that I have extracted from my initial stages of this transformation, can be simply translated to a "death before death'. Detachment from worldly desires, and emotional bonds, and materialistic gains, is by no means an easy process. Tearing of layer by layer of ones mortal coil, and escaping the mundane materialistic world, in my opinion speaking from experience, is a death on it's own. We hear so often that during a Spiritual awakening, one is reborn, so this detachment of the worldly desires, and to discover beyond this superficial life, is inevitably, on a much higher consciousness, death.
Some are oblivious to the fact that they are going through this process, some embrace this process because they literally experience the cycle of birth and death in the physical realm. So the ones that are unaware of this Spiritual Awakening process, starts to question their sanity, question their actions, their feelings, their thoughts, and that's why these 'videos' are out there, to help make one understand.
In my personal opinion, I don't quite take to the term 'side effects ' in regards to a spiritual awakening, neither do i take to the words 'symptoms' as used by many also.
Because a spiritual awakening can also be a most beautiful and divine experience as well, which I feel, is the less mentioned side. In essence, a Spiritual awakening Soul reflects a profound understanding of life, and they use their compassion, their hearfulness, and connection with nature and humanity to navigate their own spiritual journey with grace and purpose.
Something I learnt on my own, luckily midway through my journey, and this is the experience i like to share and advise upon. This is what nurtured my soul, and would always want to share with like minded people, and people in general who is embarking on their own paths towards Spiritual enlightenment.
I feel that a spiritual awakening/evolution can also be a pleasurable experience, without the discontent, struggle, and being uncomfortable. It's just that we have to find the balance. Ànd this balance is understanding and knowing the point you are at on your spiritual journey, and your ability to accept. Once you understand and accept, it's then up to you to either make it a 'side effect ' in your life, or make it a divine purposeful experience.
And I'm sure that this is one of those topics that always leaves the door open for discussion.
