Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash
Regarding spiritual growth and experiences, spiritual awakening and mindfulness are a pair that’s not commonly discussed but are among the most synergistic.
Everyone is on the journey toward spiritual awakening. But how this path is taken and how long the road leads toward the destination varies from person to person. The question doesn’t revolve around whether people will achieve this state, which is already predestined. Instead, they wonder how long their journey will take and what they can do to speed this up, anticipating what life is with it.
The road toward enlightenment can be likened to a maze rather than a straight road, barred with obstacles and detours. It’s complicated – a puzzle filled with disguised successes that only lead people back to where they started. This journey isn’t easy to tread. It’s not one for the fainthearted or one less determined. It’s not as easy as crossing from one point to another. Instead, it’s one with diversions.
Although the goal is specific, its path is vague and crowded with hindrances and divergence.
Understanding The Road Leading To It
If spiritual awakening should be summarized into a single all-encompassing statement, it revolves around how people return to their original selves. It’s the unnerving process of discovering the authenticity of one’s identity, the answer to the question: “Who am I?”
In its name, spiritual awakening is the life-altering moment when people realize they’ve been asleep and are living away from their potential. It’s stirring awake and learning what they’re existing for, the purpose for their every breath and existence. This is often triggered by traumas or equally life-changing events that open doors to more opportunities or redirect people’s lives. It’s commonly accompanied by surrender or a feeling of total loss or crisis.
In one of Bill Mccracken’s books on mindfulness and spirituality, Spiritual Warfare Through Christian Unity, the author details how everyone is on a spiritual journey. Although this is taken separately and at different paces, they all lead to the same destination: spiritual awakening.
He highlights Christians’ ever-persisting debacle toward salvation. In a world filled with impulses and temptations, where people can easily be entrapped in their worldly desires and driven to do anything to achieve these, their desire for spiritual freedom also lies. To truly achieve their deliverance, they have to overcome these seductions and choose to live the life meant for them. This is how the journey of spiritual awakening is commonly defined.
It’s people’s voyage toward genuinely understanding their nature and living according to it.
This journey is woven around the persistent fight between good and evil, two forces influencing people’s behaviors. And the trip only concludes once they’ve consistently chosen to do and be good.
But how do they pick the right side?
Thriving In The Present, Spiritual Awakening And Mindfulness
Like every activity, the right decision that shapes people’s lives often comes during silence. When there’s peace, there’s an opportunity for people to reflect on their lives and the possible consequences of their choices. During this numbness or silence, they’re allowed to sit with their thoughts, giving them full opportunity to assess and address any possible conflicts.
Hence, spiritual awakening and mindfulness come hand in hand.
These concepts are interconnected such that one aids in developing the other. Mindful living is essential in people’s awakening process because it encourages them to be present and examine their thoughts, emotions, and actions. By practicing spiritual awakening and mindfulness, people become more self-aware, fostering a deeper connection to themselves and the spiritual realm.
While sitting with silence and inactivity may seem counterintuitive to achieving anything in life, these moments can be crucial in people’s spiritual growth. Enlightenment is better fostered in silence and being in the present. This space against the buzz and the world’s crowded nature allows people to see themselves in their rawness – their identity without any external influence.
Spiritual awakening and mindfulness nurture a more profound understanding and awareness of the self and the world. Both are tools to support and enhance each other, an integrating experience.
Cultivating Presence And Amplifying Inner Peace
Spiritual awakening is a universal concept that’s both understood and easily confusing.
People understand it’s profound and transformative. It’s the goal everyone aims to attain, their endmost state, that captures the bliss and successes of human nature. Yet, it’s also mystifying, a condition people achieve without knowing the process. The notion behind it has been passed on for centuries, and every generation is driven to unlock this state of living, an awakening that enhances their lives.
However, despite it being a desire people endlessly aim for, it can only easily slip past their grasp if they sit with their minds and be in the present. Being mindful helps people practice their spirituality. Although it may seem like mindfulness brings forward every thought hidden and shoved back into the mind, spotlighting any impulses, this practice can also help people cultivate inner peace. After all, this serenity will be genuinely and wholly achieved only after these thoughts have been addressed.
Spiritual awakening and mindfulness help people tap into their personal consciousness and the universe. This allows them to connect to something greater than themselves and welcome this consciousness that’s beyond them. Hence, these practices help bring peace and interconnectedness.
