What Does it mean to have a Spiritual Awakening?

Sep 21

“I expand in abundance, success, and love every day as I inspire others around me to do the same.”
- Gay Hendricks from The Big Leap

In my early 20’s, a car in front of me on Peachtree Road in Atlanta, GA had numerous groovy bumper stickers that I admired. One that stood out to me and became emblazoned in my memory said:

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.

We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

To this day, I wake up each day and try to embody this understanding. And each day presents new challenges! To me, this is what a spiritual awakening is. It is about accepting this understanding and then committing to walking the path each day, even when the path is dirty, ugly, frustrating, and discouraging.

We are all spiritual beings having a human experience so whether we see it this way or not, we are all having a spiritual awakening. Life is about awakening. We each come here in this human form to grow and expand and open up to our “real” self. We search for who we truly are underneath all the layers we’ve created during our lifetime.

Some people have rapid awakenings that are quite radical and we see them change their lives overnight. This is often seen after a person has a life-harrowing experience like a brush with death like the authors and speakers Anita Moorjani and Hal Elrod.

Most of us have awakenings that are slow evolutions that wax and wane over time. There is no judgement on how an awakening unfolds. This is where the Unalome symbol comes in for me and why it is part of my logo.

The Unalome represents the path of spiritual awakening that each of us navigates while we are here on Earth in this human form. As you look at the Unalome, you see that we start along the center of the spiral and radiate outward. Then we travel loop-d-loops back and forth. Eventually, we acend along a heaven-ward path up to the ultimate point of light. Along the path, we experience pain and suffering -- our own and others’. We grow and change and make mistakes. Sometimes we repeat experiences over and over again while we learn. The Unalome reminds us that we are always moving forward even when we feel like we aren’t. To learn more about the Unalome as a symbol click here.