After Spiritual Awakening: What's Next?

What happens after a spiritual awakening?

So, first, a bit of honesty. For most of us, the weeks after the glimpse aren't all bliss.

The peace comes and goes. Old feelings come back up, sometimes louder than before. Things that used to fit, a job, a habit, a few friendships, suddenly feel too small.

Did you do something wrong? Well, no.

As you rise, you feel more, because your emotional body finally feels safe to release what you pushed down. A block coming back now is proof that you're ready to let it go.

And if things seem to fall apart for a while, it's the false identity built by conditioning, finally crumbling. The real You was never damaged.

Why the peace fades, and why your light was never lost

What I see, again and again, is the peace getting covered, like the sun on a cloudy day. The clouds never block the sun. Above them, it keeps shining the whole time. That's how the truth works too, like the sun that doesn't mind the clouds.

The clouds are thoughts, old beliefs, the speed of a busy week. Most of those beliefs were picked up long before you could choose them (And most of them were never yours to begin with). So when the peace fades, nothing is missing. What blocks the peace simply gets removed, and nothing gets added.

You can never not be who you are. You may forget, but only for a while.

Awakening is a remembrance. Once you wake to your true nature, you can't go back to sleep. The light you touched is still shining, right now, as you read this.

What comes next: three simple movements

Peak experiences show oneness. The beautiful part comes next: embodying it, and living from it. Many teachers call this integration. And integration is trusting in the truth of the lessons learned.

Knowing the shift and living from it are two different things, and living from it takes repetition. So it happens in three simple movements. Here's how.

I Remembering the I AM

The part of you that's always at peace has never died and never will. That is who you are. And you can come home to it in five seconds.

I call it the 5-Second Shift, a way back to the I AM from anywhere. You take a deep breath and say "I" inside, then a long exhale, longer than the inhale, saying "AM", and then you simply feel what it is to be, for at least 5 seconds. That's it.

I invite you to do at least 9 a day. That's less than a minute in total (I promise you have a minute). If it helps, you can set a few alarms, or write I AM on post-its next to your mirror, your computer, the kitchen sink.

First you get familiar with the I AM in meditation. Then you embody it in daily life: at a red light, in the shower, in the middle of a conversation.

II Dissolving what covers the light

When a heavy feeling shows up, it doesn't mean you lost anything. Your emotions are your Emotional GPS. The joyful ones need no reason at all. The heavy ones always have an origin point, and they point straight to it.

Emotions are messengers. Each one has a message for you.

You can drop the story and feel the feeling, right where it sits in your body: a tightness, a weight, a knot. And allowing it to be there is what lets it leave.

Becoming your truest self is undoing what is not you.

III Shining from your heart

And then comes my favorite part.

Living from the heart is a grounded, loving presence. You put your hands on your heart and smile. Then you let the smile travel down into your chest, until your heart is smiling too. And with every breath, you turn up the light of your heart, like a dimmer dial.

Your heart smiles.
And the light overflows.

For some of you, this next part will sound like a lot, and that is ok. The first time I did this heart meditation was on a porch in San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala, with 20 people. When I opened my eyes, people told me what they saw. "A glow around you." "You're shining." "An aura of light." Pretty wild haha!

What it confirmed for me: whenever you're in this state, others can feel it, even if they don't see it.

A few gentle reminders for the way

A few things I've learned to watch for.

The light you feel is the same light that's in everyone, so nobody gets put on a pedestal. A spiritual ego is still ego, and what you're looking for is found beyond it.

If you miss a day of practice, the key is to not beat yourself up. It's all good. Consistency is more important than speed.

And you don't need to become the light. You already are it, and always have been.