Your spiritual awakening is calling you home to your soul’s authentic self

Your freedom is on the other side of the pain

If you find yourself on a spiritual awakening journey, most likely it is because some crisis or significant life event has triggered your emotional pain body. A painful breakup, an encounter with death, the loss of a job, or some other significant loss that has left you bereft, destabilized, and utterly unsure of what may once have seemed like a certain, predictable future.

Until now, you were probably managing your emotional pain somewhat effectively through various coping mechanisms — addictions, distractions, preoccupations, or simply the illusion of being in control of life. You were suppressing your pain, so that you could get through life. So that you could maintain a job, a social life, a relationship.

But this last trigger was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. You lost something that was previously your anchor to emotional safety and security. You’ve realized that everything in life that you believed was controllable was actually never under your control, and that your sense of safety was tenuous at best.

Your pain has finally become so loud and unavoidable that it has forced you to come to terms, once and for all, with the lifetime of trauma you have endured. This trigger caused you to look deep within and to start peeling back the layers of your trauma, which you discovered was like an endless onion — including the tears. And you have come to the realization that at the core of that onion is a wound that originated very early in your life. Someone you relied on for safety and support — quite likely a parent — either abandoned, neglected or abused you in some way.

From the moment you sustained that original wound, you somehow attracted more of the same treatment in every subsequent relationship or interaction you encountered. You found yourself in toxic friendships, relationships and work environments. You now realize that many people you have encountered were mirroring that original wound. And with every subsequent injury, that wound deepened, and it became more and more as though it were a part of you, possibly causing you to believe, “This is who I am,” or, “This is what I deserve.”

You start to realize that you never truly fit in, that you were always mistreated, overlooked, scapegoated or treated like the “black sheep.” Even if you became very good at blending in, you start to realize that truly, you have always been a misfit, and that even when you were “fitting in,” you were actually pretending, for the sake of your survival.

But now, your soul has come knocking. It has always been knocking, but you have been ignoring it. Now, your soul has become so loud that its cries are deafening, and you have no choice but to listen.

This is a moment to celebrate.

Because until now, you were living with all that pain locked deep inside of you. Until now, you have been denying your own soul because you didn’t know what else to do. The only thing you knew to do, was what you have always done; what you were shown by others. Now, your soul is leading the way. You are being pointed in the direction of that wound, of that pain, not to make you suffer, but so you can heal and release it, once and for all.

On the other side of that pain, lies your freedom. It is your true, authentic self, which has been hidden away underneath all of those layers of pain. Your soul has been waiting for you. Your soul has infinite love for you, and it wants you to live a deeply fulfilling, joy-filled life of authenticity. It wants you to leave behind that mediocre “good-enough” life of mere survival. You were made for more than just survival.

Do not fear the pain. Do not fear the transformation. You will emerge from this process, from this cocoon, like the beautiful, magnificent butterfly that you are, and you will find the courage to spread your wings and fly. The only thing that will cause you greater pain, is resisting the pain. Surrender to the process, trust the process, and open yourself up to everything that the universe wants to bring to you. The universe is on your side and it wants to see you thrive.

Trust that this is only the beginning, and keep going. You’ve got this!