A spiritual awakening is an extraordinary moment when a person reaches a point in their existence when they begin to question their old beliefs, practices, and customs of living, thus they have a “wake up” experience of life. A spiritual awakening is not fixed; it can happen at any moment in one’s life. It can be inspired by a major illness, a breakup, which creates a deeper desire in a person to search for a greater meaning in their existence. Common signs of spiritual awakening may include bouts of depression and anxiety, feeling as though their life has changed forever and they are no longer the same person anymore or feeling a sense of uncertainty or fear about the path their life is taking.

The emergence of a spiritual awakening in a person marks the beginning of the search for our soul work and spiritual paths. The purpose of every being is to realize their life’s destiny, which depends on their personal tastes, interests, and dreams. Despite where we come from, our skin color, gender, or ethnicity, it is vital for every being to go through a spiritual awakening once in their life because it makes them a soulfully and spiritually mature person. It shreds of our immature, childish selves and makes us realize our worth and our purpose in this life.

A step to receive physical and spiritual maturity is going through a process of soul work, which is the process of figuring out who we are and what do we want in life. The aim of Soul Work is to help the being realize who they are and what they want in life, it helps us feel soulfully mature. In order to figure out our soul, we must listen to it, understand ourselves, and learn how to embody our goals and ambitions. A being who has gone through the process of realizing their soul work is called an Elder Soul: someone who knows themselves and what they want in life. Someone who has matured to a great extent by weathering through storms, navigating through life’s most dangerous and pivotal moments, received setbacks and struggled through them to stand tall as an awakened being and self-actualized person.

Before we can start listening to our souls and understand the purpose of our lives, we must begin by removing the obstacles in our paths such as toxic beliefs, stereotypes, old fears, repressed feelings, etc. since these barriers might prevent us from discovering our inner selves and create a vicious circularity of fear, anxiety, and depression. There are six ways through which one can progress through the process of soul work and advance to a level of inner peace and self-assurance.

  1. Self-discovery: this is a method of understanding our own personality, who we are, and what do we want from our life. We explore elements of our personality to understand ourselves better such as sexual preferences, strengths, weaknesses, etc.

  2. Core beliefs: these are the root beliefs through which guide our behavior, thoughts, and decisions. These are an important core to investigate because they are the elements that build up a person’s personality and can lead to aggression, rebelliousness, or anger so it’s important we validate them.

  3. Self-love: this is a process of learning to accept ourselves as who we are, our insecurities, flaws, and perceived views about ourselves. It is important the being goes through this process because we must learn to understand how to love ourselves so we can learn how to love others.

  4. Shadow work: this is another core of self-love but it is about accepting the darker side of our selves unconditionally, which requires a significant amount of maturity and courage.

  5. Soul communication: this is a process one must go through in order to understand the nature of our souls. Which can be done through lucid dreaming, ceremony, ritual, vision quests, prayer, etc.?

  6. Self-inquiry: this is a process of questioning and examining our inner thought patterns-which could be done through developing a sense of self-awareness. Self-awareness is a method through which one realizes it is never the person or situation to blame, it can only be ourselves and our thinking patterns. Self-inquiry helps us distinguish truth from reality and help us achieve inner peace and calamity.