With the advent of Elizabeth Gilbert’s smash bestseller “Eat, Pray, Love” much focus and attention has been placed on travel as a means of experiencing a spiritual awakening. While there is no doubt that travel can be an invaluable tool in seeing the world through fresh eyes, it is not actually a requirement for experiencing a spiritual awakening. A spiritual awakening often happens when you create the right environment for one to happen. Here are 5 key steps to experience spiritual awakening right at home.
1. Create space
A spiritual awakening is not something you can rush, it takes time. This is why many people go away to spiritual retreats, because it takes them out of their busy lives and places them into a quiet space with time to think, reflect and ponder. Since a spiritual awakening cannot be rushed, the first thing you need to do is create space in your busy schedule for one. If possible, try and set aside at least a full, long weekend if not a full week.
2. Get quiet
A great enemy of the spiritual experience is all of the outside chaos and noise of the modern world we live in. Turn off the TV, turn off your phone, unplug the computer entirely. A spiritual awakening will not happen from without, it comes from within. You have to get quiet enough to get in touch with what it inside and that involves silencing everything that comes from outside. Regardless of whether you are an introvert or extrovert, spiritual awakening is generally an “introverted” or inward process. There is a reason most introverts are deep thinkers. For a spiritual awakening to occur, you generally have to embrace the qualities of an introvert.
3. Get rested
Our busy, chaotic lives create stress and a stressful place is not a place conducive to a spiritual awakening. When you carve out the time to experience a spiritual awakening, you must first spend time resting, relaxing and getting into the right spiritual, emotional, mental and physical place to experience that awakening. Getting quiet isn’t just about turning off all the external noise, it’s about achieving a calm, quiet place within. That starts off with getting rest.
4. Get inspired
Once your heart, mind, soul and body are rested, they become receptive to new thoughts and ideas. A spiritual awakening often occurs as a result of seeing something in a whole new light. One of the very best ways to create this condition is to read something that inspires you. It might be the biography of someone you admire or a book by your favorite inspirational author. You might read a book you have read many times that always inspires you or you may try reading a different version of the Bible. If you generally read a New American Standard Bible, you might try reading from the King James or New International Version Bible. Sometimes, by reading something you’ve read hundreds of times phrased in a whole new way, it can help you see it in an entirely new and different way. This, in turn, can inspire you in a whole different direction.
5. Make it count
If your spiritual awakening does not create change, give you a new direction to head in or inspire you to achieve new heights, there is little value in it. Journaling is a great way to carry your inspiration forward with you. Writing down your goals and making use of the remainder of your time to chronicle a new vision for your future will help you carry your newfound inspiration forward with you when you step back into the chaos of the world around you.
A spiritual awakening can happen any time, anywhere. All you need to do is create the right environment for it to happen in and it generally will. It is also not something that generally only occurs once. Spiritual awakening is more like advancing grades in school. When you master one level, you simply move on to the next one and the next one and the next one. There is always more to see, to learn, to experience and more growth to be had.
