Spiritual awakening and other major spiritual shifts can leave us at a total loss for words.

And why would we have words for these shifts?

Our words and vocabulary are built around what we know, and so if we are taken into a brand new experience and/or set of experiences, then we very rarely know how to describe what is going on. It’s to be expected.

What comes next is a time of finding those words and learning how to understand what has arisen. The more powerful the spiritual experience, the more time it may take to settle down and understand. Additionally, if someone awakens, a lot of energy moves and creates a lot of different experiences for a long time (typically in the duration of years). Dealing with this ongoing newness and sense of discovery can be overwhelming, but hopefully, this blog post can help you put words to what you’ve experienced.

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After the Initial Awakened Shift

For the sake of this post, I’m assuming that I’m talking to someone who has had an awakening as I describe it. The short version is that a true awakening moves independently of your will, and it moves intelligently in opening you and freeing you of your ego. For a longer definition, you can read the below article:

What Is a Spiritual Awakening?

The period during and initially after the first experiences of awakening are not times that you generally can express very well. These are times of being with the experience and allowing things to settle. This settling period is crucial, and while awakening often moves so much that settling is difficult, it is important to make space to do less in your everyday life to grapple with what you’re discovering.

Slowing Down to Catch Up

Fortunately, the mind tends to be fairly quick at understanding things. The heart, body, and subtle energy are usually slower (although energy can sometimes be very quick too–it depends on the density of the energy). So as someone gives themselves space to be with what has happened, they can start to think and find words. They begin to be able to describe the sensations they felt or are feeling. They find words for the emotions, and certain ideas and realizations float to the surface from all of this sensory information.

Additionally, sometimes realizations and revelations come up on their own just by slowing down and being still. The slowing down really is important. Rushing around through daily life gives you no time to process a major or ongoing spiritual shift of any kind. By slowing down, all the different aspects of you–mind, heart, body, and subtle energy–can process what has changed, and in processing, you begin to be able to talk about it.

Spiritual Revelations and Realizations Roll Through You

Journaling to the Rescue

Any long-time reader of this blog knows that I highly recommend journaling, and this is an instance where it can be a truly amazing ally. Whether you have an online personal journal or apply pen to paper, what matters is that you have a private space to write things out. You need a space to be messy, unclear, and cluttered, and your journal is a perfect venue for that. This is a space that no one else needs to see, and it is an amazing practice ground to figure out your words so that you can communicate to others what is going on with you–which is a big concern for a lot of people after awakening. I can’t tell you how many times people ask me how they’ll explain this shift to a spouse, to their boss, to their families, to their friends, and to others.

Well, journal. Figure it out there. Then, you’ll find it much easier to tell people what happened because now you know how to tell yourself.

Learning from Others’ Awakened Experiences

This tip is tricky. It’s tricky because a lot of people call a lot of spiritual experiences “spiritual awakening.” That’s why I am so strict about my use of that term. I want you to be clear about what I am talking about, particularly if you are developing your vocabulary around a spiritual experience.

Spiritual openings are a lot more common than an awakening. Openings are moments where something is realized, experienced, or even shifted. If something shifts, then the person stays at that new level of understanding. However, many spiritual experiences don’t even evoke a shift. They, instead, evoke a desire for more experience as the person returns to their habitual way of living, thinking, and acting.

Spiritual Awakenings, Openings, Revelations, Oh My!

Take for example an experience of oneness with life. Many people have these experiences in all sorts of ways. It’s very powerful to feel like you are nobody, but are also everybody/everything. Then that opening ends, and the person returns to their normal state of understanding. Most people want to get that experience back, and that becomes the person’s spiritual quest. As you read other blogs and watch different user-made videos, you can expect to hear this type of experience a lot. It might even describe yours.

The main thing when you are figuring out your words and are learning about others’ experiences is to understand that there are a vast array of spiritual experiences. Pay attention to the duration. Is their experience still ongoing, or did it start and stop? How much control do they have over it? Pay attention to whether this person has developed a desire or fear of the experience. And pay attention to what they feel like they learned more than how it made them feel. Realizations that stick are interesting. Short-term feelings are an ego-trap because the ego loves emotional and sensory highs. It doesn’t care much for its own destruction and acknowledging the whole truth which includes beautiful and ugly realizations.