Why Your Spiritual Awakening Doesn't Always Feel Blissful (And Why That's Okay)

Many people think that once you become spiritually awakened, you'll never have any problems again, and everything will be bliss and joy for the rest of your life. I'm afraid I have some news for you: it's not like that.

In fact, you'll find the same thing if you study the lives of spiritual teachers throughout history, even people like Buddha, Jesus, Mother Teresa and Gandhi. The trials and tribulations are part of the game. And if it happens to even the most revered people in the world, it's most likely going to happen to us too.

The good news is that once you understand what the spiritual path really is, and how it actually works, you stop getting so upset about the ups and downs, and you can enjoy yourself far more along the way. This is the story of why the bliss comes and goes, and a simple practice that helps the peace return more and more.

Why doesn't my spiritual awakening feel blissful all the time?

Because a real awakening doesn't simply add bliss on top of your life. It gently brings up whatever has been blocking the bliss that's already within you, so it can be released. The peace was always there underneath. The tender, uncomfortable moments are just that buried stuff coming up to clear, and they come and go alongside the beautiful ones.

I'll be honest with you, with love, because I've walked this myself. When you begin real spiritual work, the joy doesn't usually arrive and stay like a switch left on. As I tell students: "It might start off theoretical. It might seem like a wonderful idea. But after a while, you feel the power." The bliss is real. It just deepens over time, as the clearing happens, rather than all at once.

One of our students, Sara S., found her way to peace with this:

"Going through a spiritual awakening, I thought I would feel blissful instantly and that my problems would be solved fast. Of course this is not the case, and I have come to peace with the fact that it takes time. It takes time because I need to do the work myself and heal what is surfacing." — Sara S., Awakened Academy student

If that's where you find yourself right now, please be gentle with yourself. None of it means you're going backwards.

Think of it like lovingly clearing out a room that's been shut up for years. The moment you start, it looks messier, not tidier, with dust everywhere and everything pulled out into the open. That's not the process failing. That's the process working.

It takes time — and it takes doing the actual work

Here's the part the "good vibes only" version of spirituality leaves out: you can't think or affirm your way past what's surfacing. You have to feel it and release it. Sara S. found her peace not by rushing the awakening, but by accepting that "the big blocks and issues within me take time, but I can enjoy life while I am working on it."

This is where a lot of sincere people get quietly stuck. They use spirituality to avoid the hard feelings instead of moving through them. Carrie T. named it with real honesty:

"I am good at talking the talk, but sometimes I need to remember to walk the walk. I avoid feeling negative emotions because I am afraid it will lower my consciousness or make me back-track. I thought having a higher level of consciousness means never feeling [bad]." — Carrie T., Awakened Academy student

There's no shame in this. Most of us do it without realising. But pretending we're fine isn't awakening; it's just a way of protecting ourselves from what hurts. And the gentlest truth is that you don't have to. Real peace comes from letting the hard things come up and softly surrendering them, not from holding a calm face over the top of them.

What is Maya — and why do the things you do to feel better often make it worse?

In the spiritual traditions, Maya simply means illusion, and in plain terms, here's how I define it: Maya is anything that stops you from feeling your natural joy. It's the stuff that gets in the way and suppresses the happiness that's already bubbling up inside you.

And here's the catch most people miss: "oftentimes the things that we are doing to try and make us feel happier are actually the very same things that are suppressing our joy." The scrolling, the over-shopping, the endless content, the keeping-busy: we reach for them to feel better, and they're the very things muffling the peace underneath. Awakening makes you start to notice that. It can feel like loss at first. It's actually freedom arriving.

The practice that actually brings the peace: shrink, surrender, remember

So what do you do when the awakening feels heavy instead of blissful? This is the simplest, most powerful method I know, and you can do it anywhere, anytime. It's three steps. Two of our students, Michelle T. and Malika A., named these three steps by heart, so you know they stick.

Step one — make it small

Take the drama of your life, the details and the people and the thing stressing you right now, and shrink it down. In my words: "Take the play of your life and shrink it down. Make it really small, and become the witness of that play." Picture your whole situation getting smaller, until you can see it's one tiny part of a vast reality.

Why this works: "Just doing that will make you feel profoundly more relaxed and at peace and sane, liberated and peaceful. If that's all you did, that would be a massive upgrade." When everything feels huge, there's no room to breathe. Shrink it, and space opens up.

Step two — surrender and let go

Once things are small, you let the burdens go. Not by forcing them away, but by handing them over. As I describe it: "We allow these burdens, these things we're holding onto, to come up — and we offer them up. We let them go. And they'll keep coming, by the way, because there's a lot of stuff we're moving through. So you say, alright, I got rid of that one — now there's another. And off it goes."

That last line matters when you're awakening: more keeps coming up because it's working. You're not failing. You're clearing. Karlie K. felt it the first time she tried it:

"I realised I have the capability to release suffering through surrendering it. I released the resistance to the feeling I'd been experiencing and surrendered that state of stress. The first time I did this, I felt like I was supported and receiving a hug." — Karlie K., Awakened Academy student

Step three — remember

The third step is simply to remember who you really are, and stay connected to that, through your day. This is what I call uniting your mind and heart with the light, your "companion." In plainer words: keep gently coming back to the truth that you're a spiritual being, you're safe, and you're not alone. Lacy C. built it into one small habit:

"I learned that by having a phrase, thought, or breath, I could pause, remember the truth, and become present. It helps me remember I am a spiritual being and that life is with me, never against me. I have significantly less anxiety now." — Lacy C., Awakened Academy student

I didn't invent this, and I won't pretend I did. The psychologist David Hawkins, who mapped human consciousness, said this practice of letting go was essentially all he did. It's that fundamental.