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For those of you who have really come through the fires of inner change, this topic might not be a question anymore. You may truly and deeply trust the flow and see how rebuilding a life is nothing more than living in the moment. But then again, maybe you do still have some questions, so I felt like writing about rebuilding after a spiritual awakening for you.

However, far more likely is that some of you who have just awakened and just started burning up in the conscious awareness that you are think that you are ready to rebuild. You are not. If your awakening was yesterday or even three months ago, you probably don’t even know yourself. You probably had a moment of awakened understanding and from that moment a certain kind of experience with different feelings and realizations came. But that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. If this is you, come back to this post in four or five years. In the meantime, think about what financial and physical situations you need to take care of yourself while transitioning over the years. I also encourage you to read this blog post:

Spiritual Awakening Help and Tips Guide

For those of you in the aftermath of three to six years of intense inner change, you probably already have some things growing in your life. Other parts of your life may need active rebuilding. But what does rebuilding even mean in a world so temporary and ephemeral? What difference does it make what you do when everything is equally beautiful to you?

Let me see if I can explain.

Allowing the Awakening Fires to Die Down

The intensity of inner change after awakening is extraordinary. It’s probably akin to the experience of child-birth, being that you can only understand it if you’ve gone through it. But with all human experiences, the time of burning up seems to subside, and it is okay that it does. For some of you, you won’t have been able to work with certain issues, and you’ll have to heat up the kiln for those at a later point. This isn’t bad. It’s just something that happens. We are a species that deeply attaches to a lot of things, including ideas and old pain.

For others, the fire continues to burn, but it doesn’t have much kindling to create the friction that we notice when the awakening flame ignites in us. With few issues being ignited, there is much less to no noticeable intensity. Instead, we burn cleanly and purely, and that bright intensity is a sight to behold. It’s not hard to notice someone who is in this clear of a state of awareness.

But for most everyone else, they’re usually in between this clear fire and those who still have significant undealt with issues. Some stuff got addressed in the years after awakening when issue after issue seemed to get thrown in your face. Other issues didn’t get addressed. Perhaps it wasn’t time. Perhaps you were simply too attached to something. Regardless of where you are in your conscious evolution, the divine within you still embraces you as you are. And now you are embracing a cooling down. It’s okay. Go with it. Allow the intensity to subside. Allow your own focus to leave your issues and core pain. After years of this work, it is time to see what you see. There are now spaces that are open within you that you’ve never had a chance to explore or cultivate, so now is the time to do so. It starts with simply observing yourself.

Becoming a Phoenix Rising After Your Spiritual Awakening

Observing Yourself

Human beings are fascinating. When we get out of our own way, we often flow towards the things that are most meaningful or supportive without assigning such beliefs to those things. It’s like being a two-year old who gravitates to the piano. While we may be banging on the keys making a lot of strange sounds in the aftermath of a spiritual awakening, there is something about “the piano” that calls to us. So we trust that calling just like the two-year old.

In many regards, we have to grow up again after awakening. Some of you will have had some time and initiative to explore things sooner after awakening, and others will get to it later. Everyone’s path is different. But when you’ve sincerely cleared space inside, sometimes you simply observe what you do, what you say, and where you go. In those observations of your natural state, you start to get an idea of the life that you intuitively and soulfully want to live. Then you can take action to embrace those things you’re moving towards.

This is clearly very different that the concept of thinking out what you want. I can’t say that you won’t do that too. The awakened space embraces all forms of human curiosity. No tool or human ability is left out. They’re all available to you. What I am describing is one way to notice what you want to create in your life and how you want to create it. It works when you aren’t stuck in old unconscious patterns, which is why this is a difficult tool to use when you are early in your inner work after a spiritual awakening. All your physical, emotional, and intellectual tendencies are to maintain old patterns. Thus, what you observe in those situations is really how your unconscious program works rather than what your natural, curious soul wants to explore.

Trying and Failing and Trying

Continuing with the metaphor of the two-year old, there’s a point when children start to walk. But they don’t stand up and start sprinting. They stand up, and then they fall down. We too do a lot of standing up and falling down in our post-awakening and rebuilding days. That is kind of to be expected. Part of this is learning about how our divine intelligence naturally works. It’s part of learning this amazing dance of taking action and allowing, and it’s not something that you predict or control. There are times to take action, and then there are times to allow and receive from life. Sometimes, you’ll reverse them; you’ll act when you should receive, or you’re sit and receive when you should act. In those times, some of the things you’re looking to bring into your life will fall apart. It’s okay. Stay curious and engaged with life.

Other times, things are simply meant to fall apart. That’s part of life too. A lot of the ways the old ego self’ would attempt to understand these things fail miserably too. So for the person who hasn’t gone as deeply as others, this kind of failure is confusing. They may still see certain kinds of success as necessary at some level. And certainly for those who haven’t truly awakened nor done serious inner work, there can be a deepening sense of being lost and out of control. Those feelings are key signs that there is more inner work to be done.

Lost on the Spiritual Path

For those of you who are more mature, this whole concept of rebuilding may be a silly game. You may still find a great deal of delight in it because life is delightful in profound ways. Since most situations aren’t life and death, the loss of a business or the ending of a relationship is no big thing. They are temporary structures anyway. With the ending of something like a business, now you have energy to explore something else. It’s no big deal. Without the unconscious ego to rate these things, most of life isn’t as dire as the ego self would make out.

Dealing With Physical Realities

None of this ignores the physical needs of the body, raising a family, and other real things. Rebuilding your life with these things in mind helps to focus your curiosity and bring energy and attention to what feels true and important to you. It also tends to keep us focused on what is real like the need to eat rather than a false need like a need to “fit in.” This tends to greatly simplify life for you, which changes the entire approach to “rebuilding” anything.

I can’t emphasize enough that how we hold this attention and energy is very different when addressing real concerns like having shelter, providing for a family, and so forth. Rather than holding on like a clenched fist, we let our hands be open to receive more from the universe. We look at life and we accept the realities of what it has to offer. Then we take action from this space of clarity. It’s that simple.

I’ve found that most mature awakened people are very savvy about reality. They see what is, not what they want to see. That makes it very clear in regards to where to find help and support for the things they are trying to create in their lives. A clear mind is a powerful tool, as are clear hearts and open bodies. The combination is quite incredible, and as I’ve already mentioned, when you allow yourself to intuitively flow, you’ll take yourself towards the things that you most need in any given moment.

Letting Go of Control

It’s probably obvious to you at this point that you have to let go of all control. Control is born out of the ego and a whole bunch of unconscious beliefs about how life should go and who you should be. If you don’t feel clear on how to rebuild or what should even be in your life, then continue to go within. If you ever feel stuck, go within. Unless something is urgent, most things don’t need immediate action. But when you do know that you need to act, then do it. Letting go of control in this way shows you a clear path, and the fog of the frantic mind or confused heart go away.

Letting go of control also means letting go of achieving an end goal. You can still have aspirations and things you move towards, but it is all about the journey. You have to focus on the process of creation, which is born out of the present moment. You cannot create anything from any other moment than the present moment. The more you let go into the present moment, the more clearly your next steps become, and all avenues of thought and social support become open to you. Sometimes, there is confusion for people that we don’t know how to plan or think if we’re spiritually flowing. Some people think it’s all about how you feel. But feelings are deceptive, and the true flow is a much deeper space than any kind of feeling. Learning to perceive this deeper flow is part of continued maturation on the spiritual path. It will guide you in amazing ways, and it allows you to use any and every type of human understanding, feeling, sensation, or tool you can think of it. In the space of awakened clarity, you can use anything with integrity and use it when it is needed.

Understanding Letting Go and Going With the Flow

However, that doesn’t mean you will use everything. It doesn’t mean you engage in situations that are harmful to you or others. It just means you no longer limit what you’ll use in your pursuit of the things that call to you. In this way, letting go of control makes you limitless.

The Illusion of Control

Exploring Your Limitlessness

People don’t know what it means to be limitless. We’re used to having rules and structures to both direct and restrict how we behave. To be fair, human beings haven’t seemed to use freedom well. If you give people the freedom to have a gun, some people turn it on themselves or others. Hence, the nature of an unconscious world means that rules have to be made up until everyone–and I mean EVERYONE–is conscious enough to handle true freedom.

As a mature awakened person, you are going to find those rules don’t get in the way of inner limitlessness. Limitlessness is much less about what you do in the outer world as how you feel in the inner world. In this spaciousness, you really see all egos as equal, and you have the opportunity to rebuild your inner space anyway you like. And you can let go of anything you create–any idea about yourself or about life–just as quickly. That’s one of the great gifts of limitlessness; you don’t have to hold onto any ego self. You can drop these new creations at any time. You can be a mother then let it go when your children move out. You can be a lover and then let that go when the time for love-making is done. You no longer get trapped in roles.

In this natural flexibility, you can move anywhere and do anything you like in the outerworld. Some of you may find a more set conscious ego that you enjoy. Others may continue to move through different egos as you explore different parts of life–as you explore different parts of yourself. It doesn’t matter so long as you move from a space of love. And limitlessness is a quality of love, so when you start to feel that much space, you are also dropping into a deeper state of love.

Love is the best place to explore life and to rebuild in the external world. Rebuilding your life from a space of love is a beautiful thing, but once again, there is nothing to hold onto. It will all come and go. That is how it is in the external world, but then is unlikely to matter to you as much as you flow through life in this beautiful, loving, and open clarity.

Along these lines, you may be interested in my class: How to Embrace Possibilities. This class explores a sense of limitlessness that is often experienced after a lot of ego has dissolved.

Author

I'm a spiritual teacher who helps people find freedom from suffering.

14 Comments

  1. I've gone through fire over the past 3 years. Feeling lost and without sense in life. There are still old fragments swimming to surface every now and then of regret or fear. But also more and more short moments of bliss. I am still attached however and fail to let go. I know it's the last person holding me. And yet I won't let go. I guess time comes for that too. Afterall what we have is time

  2. Thanks for sharing. No. Time doesn't necessarily get that last part to let go. You have to consciously surrender.

    In general, human beings are built to hold onto familiar patterns. Without conscious effort, we stay in these loops. And even when we've been in some intense awakened fire, there is no guarantee that we'll truly achieve spiritual freedom and not just create some new spiritual ego.

    Here's a video with more thoughts on outcomes after awakening. https://spiritualawakeningprocess.com/2017/11/recording-5-outcomes-of-a-spiritual-awakening.html

  3. Very apt post, well written, honest, logical and informative. Awakening is a messy process, like childbirth, it isn't pretty looking but does bring worth the birth of the beauty of life.

  4. I started reading this article about 2 years ago, and though I understood it mentally, I knew I couldn't relate. Now I'm back, and each word deeply resonates with me.
    Thank you for this. I started my journey over 5 years ago, and lately I find myself feeling more grounded in reality and focusing on what is, rather than what should be. That's why I came back to this article.
    The paragraph about limitlessness is so apt for me. This is the state I find myself at. I find myself recognising the roles I'm meant to play, and choosing to play them while exploring who I am in them. I feel like because I am grounded in who I am as a person, the various roles I need to play at a given time don't have future implications for me. They're simply the roles I need to play as I journey through life. It just is what it is.
    As such, this article has solidified for me my belief that the spiritual journey was always to strengthen our link to our spirit and put us back into the world as the fullest versions of ourselves.
    This is quite the ramble😄. It's all in all to say, it does justice to the topic in a way that's real and concrete.
    Thank you once again for a great and immensely beneficial read.

  5. Thank you Jim. This article has definitely aged well. Funny to see how much I couldn’t hear you early on in working with you…how much more unbinding there was still to come….there’s STILL more to come….but this article now feels like the sun rising.

  6. Dear Jim!

    I been through the most intense kundalini awakening for the past 3 years and the moments of fear, darkness, ”insanity” along side other moments of bliss, love, compassion and so on had me reach the highest highs and the lowest low. But I wouldnt change it for anything! Everytime fear comes up and I think ”oh, I am going crazy ” I go and watch your videos or read something you wrote and say to myself ” look he is not crazy and neither are you or will be” 😆

    So thank you for creating this forum for all of us on this crazy ride called awakening. It helps to know I am not alone 🙏

    Love from Stockholm 🫶

      • Hi Jim .. thank you for this wonderful article.

        I experienced a very difficult shift in my life that came with panic attacks and the released of a lot of bad stored energy. Since then I see the reality of the world, I feel different and I feel detached from who I was. I don’t recognize myself in the mirror. I feel like I am not looking at myself.

        I am trying to navigate this new shift. Since I started becoming more conscious, I find myself observing myself and my thoughts. Which sometimes leads to loops where by observing my thoughts I create thoughts about observing myself, my life and my thoughts.

        A part of me finds this scary and doesn’t want to be stuck in that kind of loop / pattern. Please let me know your thoughts and how I can access more helpful articles and videos on the matter.

        Thank you so much!

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