When I first embarked on my spiritual awakening journey, I was filled with hope and optimism for profound growth and enlightenment. I eagerly dove into meditation, self-reflection, and studying the teachings of various spiritual leaders, expecting my life to radically transform for the better.
At first, I was enthralled by the initial stages of my awakening. As I peeled back the layers of my conscious and subconscious mind through practices like meditation, I started gaining powerful insights about myself and existence. I felt a blissful interconnectedness with all beings and discovered divine love as my true essence.
Early Signs of a Problematic Awakening
However, as I ventured deeper into murky territories of my inner world, the journey started taking unexpected dark turns. I unearthed intense fears about death and non-existence. Horrific visions filled my meditations, and I struggled increasingly to separate reality from fantasy.
While earlier I floated through life feeling carefree and confident, now I constantly second-guessed myself, plagued by confusion and self-doubt. Simple decisions overwhelmed me. I started withdrawing from friends and family, losing motivation to keep up everyday responsibilities.
Losing Sense of Self and Reality
The deeper I went into spiritual exploration, the more disconnected I felt from consensus reality. I started believing strange conspiracy theories and adopted bizarre lifestyle habits to “raise my vibration.” I became convinced that the material world was an illusion, so things like hygiene, jobs, relationships seemed pointless to engage in.
My personality started unraveling as I lost touch with my old identity. I had mystical experiences where my sense of self dissolved entirely into cosmic oneness. While gurus talk about “no self” as the pinnacle of enlightenment, actually living that way made me feel scared, unstable, and rudderless.
I lost the ability to distinguish between spiritual vision and practical reality. I believed I could manifest anything I wanted just by thinking it. But when my wild desires failed to materialize, I would spiral into despair and hopelessness.
Alienating Loved Ones
As I grew more detached from consensual reality, I started conflict with loved ones who were concerned about my bizarre beliefs and behaviors. I arrogantly lectured them about spiritual truths, trying to get them to raise their consciousness.
I stopped participating in family gatherings or social events with old friends. I believed they were all trapped in illusion while I had broken through to mystical revelation. This perceived spiritual superiority isolated me further.
Spiraling into Darkness and Confusion
Without a grounded sense of self and physical reality to operate in, I struggled to function or even exist peacefully. I spent days in bed, perpetually exhausted even without doing anything. Severe depression sunk in, and I saw no way out of the endless darkness I had spiraled into.
I started having suicidal thoughts, believing death would free me from the suffering of human existence. I became convinced all of reality was a sinister trap, and I had failed to escape it despite years of spiritual seeking.
Picking Up the Pieces and Reclaiming My Life
After hitting rock bottom, I finally sought help from a psychiatrist experienced with spiritual emergencies. I was diagnosed with depersonalization disorder and put on anti-psychotic medication to alleviate severe symptoms.
Slowly, over months dedicated to integration work I started regaining my lost grip on reality. I anchored myself firmly again in the physical world, re-embracing simple joys of embodied existence – hot showers, comfy pajamas, nourishing food, loving hugs from family and pets.
Stabilizing with Mental Wellness Practices
As I stabilized more, my doctor guided me to incorporate spiritual practices again – but this time, ones targeted for grounding and embodiment rather than transcendence. These included:
- Daily grounding rituals – walking barefoot on soil, hugging trees, carrying grounding crystals.
- Keeping a detailed journal documenting my thoughts, feelings, experiences.
- Practicing mindfulness meditation focusing on physical sensations.
- Yoga for relief from anxiety and supporting mind-body balance.
Rebuilding Relationships
An important part of my recovery was reconciling strained relationships with friends and relatives. I had to overcome ego and pride to sincerely apologize for behavior they had borne the brunt of when I was in the throes of my extreme awakening process.
Rather than dominating every conversation with spiritual soliloquies, I learned again how to ask others good questions and truly listen. I stopped seeing them as spiritually inferior and reconnected with their humanity.
I discovered that loved ones I had scorned as trapped in illusion actually had much wisdom to offer from living modest but meaningful lives. Their anchors of family, career, community now provided stability I desperately lacked.
Having journeyed to heaven’s heights and hell’s rock bottom through my awakening process, I have integrated profound spiritual insights with skills to exist harmoniously again in normal reality.
While awakening triggered temporary “psychosis,” with proper support I transformed those extremes into a holistic worldview embracing mundane and mystical equally. I maintain presence anchored in my body while also resonating with cosmic consciousness.
Now I appreciate the sanity of simple routines and find meaning again through creative hobbies and connections with others. Instead of rejecting the material world, I savor aesthetic details vividly alive through awakened senses.
Having conquered the darkest shadows of my being, I feel resilient enough to handle life’s ups and downs with grace. I enjoy serenity and passion equally, embracing all that diverse human experience offers.
My journey revealed spiritual awakening’s paradoxical nature – forcing us outside comfort zones into uncharted terrain both heavenly and hellish. But having survived the collapse of my old limited world, I constructed a new self with room for both mystical and practical to coexist joyfully.
Dreams, spirit, growth – I explore them all. Laugh, learn, grow with me. Unlock your inner guru.
