7 Stages of Spiritual Awakening: Signs, Symptoms and Meaning

You may have encountered people with great spiritual insight and the common signs that distinguish a spiritually awakened person from the common people. The people with great spiritual gifts have a different outlook on life. Their approach to life and different experiences that we all encounter are quite unique. A spiritually awakened person has a gift that makes them a better person in life. So, what actually is spiritual awakening? What are the signs, symptoms and stages? In this article, we discuss various aspects of spiritual awakening. Keep reading. 

7 stages of spiritual awakening, its signs, symptoms and meaning

What Is Spiritual Awakening?

Spiritual awakening is the faculty of having improved and sharpened intuition, sixth sense, and ability to look through the unknown and unseen aspects of our lives, world and universe. Most of the people in the world believe that there is nothing beyond the physical dimension of the world and all that we can see and experience is the ultimate reality of the world while this is not true or at least does not define the complete facets and aspects of life.  There are things beyond matter and only a person with a spiritually awakened eye can see through it. 

Spiritual awakening occurs when our mind opens up to the larger realm of the world both seen and unseen and we begin to realize there is so much happening outside the mundane reality of life or physical plane of life. The people who only believe in scientism, matter and physical dimension of the world cannot comprehend the aspects of spiritual awakening because it relates to spirituality and spirituality has more to do with soul, spirit, and mind than physicality. 

The process of spiritual awakening is ongoing and the pursuit continues till our life lasts. Nevertheless, there are some surefire signs and stages that tell us how far we have come and grown spiritually. The most common and visible symptoms, signs and stages are below. 

1) Third Eye Opens

The third eye refers to the ability to see, sensing and having an awareness of things that cannot be discerned physically or with our physical eyes. We all have two eyes through which we see, sense and bring into our percept the outer world but a spiritually awakened person develops the ability to see things are common people cannot. 
  

When we are not awakened, we take great interest in things that appeal to the common masses, the everyday hustle and bustle of news, events across the globe. However, once our third eye opens, our interest in such things quickly fades and we no longer become a part of the common and general public. Our thirst for knowledge and information both esoteric and normal increases. 
Once we become awakened, we enlighten the parts of our mind that were dark until now. Those aspects of our mind begin to shine and we get to know more secrets about life, people and the world in a more authentic manner.  Our mind begins to operate at higher vibrations than it did in the past usually. 

Also Read

How to awaken your third-eye

2) Pursuit For Improvement

An awakened person is in the quest for constant improvements in life. A spiritually awakened person tends to have this constant urge to get better. They believe and buy into the idea of constantly evolving. 

The give up harmful habits and review their day-to-day activities and drop the ones that waste their time or are absolutely fruitless. They cut down on the negativity in life including people who harmed them or never benefited in terms of spiritual growth. 
The spiritually awakened people constantly look for improvements in terms of both material and spiritual growth. They, however, do not lose sight of kindness and empathy in the process. The let go off all the negative things, emotions and people in their life.  They begin to embrace and nurture the positive and loving side of their personalities.

Also Read

How spirituality improves social life and connections

3) Break Away From The Past

When we become spiritually awakened, we begin to break away from our past. The past memories whether good or bad have bearing on us. We look into past as a distant memory: almost another lifetime and in another space. We no longer identify with our past and begin to live in the present moment. 
Our outlook on life changes dramatically. We lose friends and even some family members in the process. Superficially, this may appear to be a negative thing: leaving old friends and memories behind but a spiritually awakened cannot bear the presence of toxic people. 
We begin to make new friends and find new avenues to spend our leisure time. A spiritually awakened soul cannot stand the memories and relationships that do no good for their own spiritual development. They grow through what they go through.

4) We Become More Sensitive

After going through the process of spiritual awakening, the sensitivity level within ourselves grow. As part of evolving through our spiritual journey, our souls begin to operate at a higher level of consciousness. Our chakras become balanced and we gain the ability to see the things as they are and not as we want to see. 
Do you ever wonder that most of the times we are trying to see things as we want them to be instead of seeing them as they actually are? We also become more psychic and sensitive to energies. We literally begin to sense and feel the vibes from people and places around us. 
The people who operate at a lower level of spiritual awakening often tend to protect themselves using negative energies as a shield. They believe that the only way to survive in the society is by using negative energies both covertly and overtly. They mistakenly believe this is the only way to protect themselves and they become quite reckless and insensitive as a result. 
While the people going through the phase of spiritual awakening become more sensitive despite sensing and feeling the negative energies around them, the people with lower consciousness levels use negative energies and cynicism to protect themselves. 
The spiritually awakened people are the exact opposite of people at the lower plane of consciousness. The general public who have no idea of what spiritual awakening is as they tend to close their minds to new ideas, suggestions for positivity and improvement. This does not mean that a spiritually awakened person also become sensitive to the negative people around them. They just become sensitive to the level of negativity and harm around them. 
There is a downside to this aspect of spiritual awakening. We become more sensitive thus open to external attacks of negativity. When we begin to understand the spiritual realm and dimensions of the world, we unconsciously invite negativity to attack us and distract from the path of love, harmony and peace. However, this does not last long as positivity trumps negativity. 

5) Getting Closer to Higher Spiritual Purpose

As we continue our journey to ascend our path towards spiritual awakening, we keep getting closer to our higher spiritual purpose. Everyone on this earth was born with a higher spiritual purpose. The people who do not believe in the spiritual side of life die without having to know their actual higher spiritual purpose. 
The major sign of spiritual awakening is that we begin to understand what our higher spiritual purpose is. We begin to do things that are aligned with our higher spiritual purpose leaving the petty and trivial details of life behind us. 

6) Heightened State of Self-Belief and Love

If you are having a heightened sense of self-belief and self-love, this is another sign of spiritual awakening. A spiritually awakened person begins to have stronger self-belief and self-love. This, however, does not mean they become absolutely self-centred without any regard for people around them. 
We begin to understand that we belong here and there is no sense of inferiority. A spiritually awakened person never envies other peoples' blessings. They create their own blessings because they know it is through gratitude and repentance they can achieve far greater and better things in life. 
Their strong personality leaves its mark wherever they go. The pre-awakening life and feelings of being lesser and inferior to other people cease to exist. We begin to appreciate and love ourselves in a positive manner. Many people might mistake it for self-centred approach towards life, narcism or egotism. These attributes do not belong to the spiritually awakened person.
The driving force behind the heightened state of self-love and self-belief is the understanding and recognition and God created us all in the best perfect way. We are born perfect and only a spiritually awakened person recognizes this fact. Also, we begin to understand that God and the universe is all love with no room for imperfections and problems. All the problems in this world are man-made and we must love each other. 

7) Stronger Connection to God and Angels

Having a stronger connection and sense of unity to God is also a sign of spiritual awakening. We establish a strong connection with God and all the positive universal forces that govern our planet. The belief that we are here to help our fellow beings become stronger too. 
When we are not awakened, we tend to get upset about the past, present and uncertainties of the future. There is a constant fear of the unknown that we might face hurdles and problems in our lives and that we are vulnerable to a disaster at any moment in time. 
Once we grow in spirituality, we come to realize that the fear of the unknown and the future uncertainties are merely an outcome of our ignorance. We wrongly believe that we are just physical bodies that are here to live for a definite period of time. We are actually a soul that has a physical body and existence. 
Guided by this unshakeable belief, we grow closer to God. We come to see the world in a manner as we should see rather than how we want to see. We have a strong belief that we are protected by God and His angels around the clock and any harm or profit that comes towards us is from the source: God.  God guides us and runs our lives in a manner that we were unaware of in our previous lives--the time before spiritual awakening.