Where to Find Support When Awakening Gets Hard

Don’t you wish spiritual awakening was always an easy, gentle path to reach the bliss of an expanded state of oneness?

Unfortunately, most people experience periods of intense, even extreme psycho-spiritual events during their awakening process. These events demand attention, for example, memories of previous trauma that were buried may surface, sorting out new priorities with loved ones you live with can be challenging. Dealing with those memories and new priorities, and remodeling relationships is not always blissful and can be very hard, even completely absorbing. We may not feel like going to work, completing school, or washing dishes.

One label to use for this kind of period in awakening is “spiritual emergency.” It generally includes some disorientation and a need for compassionate, knowledgeable support for a re-orientation. Why? Those in the experience may be absorbed in difficult questions that can only be answered by an alignment of body, mind, and soul. What I hear from clients are questions like: “I’m conflicted. What’s more real—my family responsibilities or my spiritual perceptions?” or “Who am I really—a manifestation of a Divine spark or a wife and soccer mom?” “Am I with the right partner if they don’t perceive things the way I do?” Questions grab attention sometimes dramatically: “If I’m a Divine spark and God lives within me—then how should that manifest in my life?” This can get more complicated if there are also physical manifestations such as kundalini phenomena, when energy usually dormant in the base of the spine awakens it can create shaking, problems with sleeping, and trigger strong emotional highs and lows.

Getting the Right Support

Where can you go to get support for this kind of opening? IMHU.org offers free courses, coaching from certified “Spiritual Emergence Coaches®,” as well as skill-building on how to manage spiritual emergency in yourself or someone you care for. It’s a valuable resource to address the fear and anxiety that can grip a person in an intense period of transformation, when they are seeing the world anew. We need to be careful at these times. It’s the fear and anxiety and sleep problems that can catapult us into the medical system that is trained to offer psychiatric medications when the skills to clearly recognize and manage spiritual emergency are what’s needed. Education and training are essential.

IMHU, Integrative Mental Health for You, offers introductory, free courses that are very useful: “Spiritual Emergency: What is it?” and “Spiritual Alchemy,” as well as an international directory of “Spiritual Emergence Coaches®.” To support your own emergence and to assist others you can take an online course with five webinars and two live meetups: “How to Effectively Support Someone in Spiritual Emergency.” You will then know the particulars of recognizing spiritual emergency and building skills for appropriate care. You learn theory as well as practical steps. Those who complete the course are better able to help an individual harvest the fruits of the crisis: deeper peace, more self-acceptance, expanded perceptual abilities, and a desire to be of service to others. Some students go on to take IMHU’s advanced training to become “Spiritual Emergence Coaches®” and be part of an active international network to support awakening worldwide.

We Welcome You

Please join us in supporting this collective step towards awakening so it can be as gentle as possible for you and those you care for. Now’s the time! The stresses in the world are throwing increasing numbers of people into the disruptive state of spiritual emergency.