Welcome And Why This Framework

Welcome to today's episode of Don't Step on the Bluebells. Today I am going to be walking you through what I call the awakening framework. So these are the four different stages that someone goes through when they're experiencing a spiritual awakening. And if I'm honest, this is exactly the kind of information that I would have loved to have something like seven, eight years ago, when everything started to open up and I didn't really have any context for what I was experiencing and didn't really know a lot of other people who had had a similar experience. So the process of awakening for me had felt quite lonely and fragmented, and there wasn't a whole lot that I could grasp onto that still made sense in my world. So I'm gonna take us back to that point in time, about eight years ago. I was in a leadership development consultancy. I was not getting along with my boss. We saw things very differently. She was under the impression I was not at all senior enough to be leading the role that I was leading. I was under the impression that she was not at all a good leader, helping to guide the company forward. So, needless to say, there was a lot of tension in my work life every single day. When I was working in this leadership consultancy, it was off the back of seven years working in wildlife conservation, where I had also really outgrown the work that I was doing. And in that time that I had been working for WWF, I had been in a relationship. I was previously engaged. We had broken off the engagement. That relationship had really broken my confidence and my spirit in a lot of ways. So I was just starting to get back into knowing who I was, getting to know myself, feeling strong within myself again. I had also done an MBA because I wanted to move out of the conservation world and wanted to give myself the best possible chance to succeed in the business world. And I thought the way to do that would be through an MBA. Holy shit, that was really hard. It was a part-time MBA, but alongside working full-time, it was really exhausting. So by the time I got into that leadership consultancy, I was pretty much already crispy-fried. And while I was working there, I just knew everything inside of me already knew that I couldn't stay in this company, that something bigger had to change. And I knew at that point in time that even if I had left the company and gone somewhere else, the exact same challenges would come to the forefront again. So this was a point in time where I basically knew I had no other choice but to embark on a journey of the unknown. So what I'm going to be walking you through here is using my own journey, weaving in what that spiritual awakening was like for me, and then telling you about the different stages. The stage that I'm describing right now is this first step, which is called the call. This is that moment in time where you have that knowing, you have that yearning, you just have that awareness that things cannot remain as they are and that something needs to change. And while at this stage you don't really fully know what it is that needs to change, you are certain that you have to do things differently than you've done them before. Now, this stage is called the call because it is really that moment of realizing that life and business as usual is not going to serve you any longer. So in my own life, that was that moment in time where I realized this corporate life was not working for me. Working in this job full time was not working for me, and that going into another job just to do the same thing again or some variation of it wasn't gonna fly. This is when I started to get that knowing that there was something else out there. There was something else that was waiting for me, and I needed to be brave enough to go out and explore and find out what it was. Now it's really important to know that at this stage, spiritual awakening is not a word that is even in your vocabulary. For me, I didn't really believe in all the spiritual woo-woo stuff. I mean, I knew that there was something I did believe in energy, but I didn't really know what that meant. But it's not that I left and said, I am on a spiritual journey now. Quite the opposite. I just wanted to feel better. I just wanted to feel like I could be confident in what I was doing. I could be happy in my work, and I didn't feel trapped in the life that I kept creating for myself. So, what's important to know here is that most of us embark on a journey of awakening because we can no longer tolerate the life that we're living. Most people are not going out in search of spiritual wisdom. They don't even know that that is a thing, or it might not be something that anyone in their surroundings has done or has talked about. So for most people, it isn't really that kind of journey. It is just, I just know I can't do this anymore. There has to be something else. So the thing is that most people think that this is a unique moment in time. And for each of us, it feels very individual. So I am not denying anyone that your situation is yours and yours alone. But it is a very common phenomena that happens to so many of us at a certain point in our life. You might look back and think of all the times that you've heard people call, you know, situations a midlife crisis, for example. That could be a really potent moment in someone's life that they are getting that call that something needs to change, and they don't know how to change it. So they are exploring. Maybe it's buying a new car, maybe it's quitting your job, leaving your relationship, things like that, that we can make fun of and look at in the movies. But the truth is that that is a person who has received a call and know that they need to embark on the next stage of a journey to figure out who they are, what makes them happy, and what does a good life actually look like for them. So this is the moment when something starts to crack open, when you start to feel more willing to change the way that you've been living your life, when your heart is more open to different possibilities of what that life could look like. So I had had this idea in mind of, you know, being engaged and getting married and growing in my career and all of this. And suddenly I'm sitting there going, I don't want any of these things. I don't want my life to look like that. So what am I supposed to do? Where is the framework? Where is the roadmap to be able to create a life of meaning when most people around me seemed pretty happy in their jobs and in their careers? And this is something I really couldn't understand because I was so unhappy. It was difficult to even fathom that there were people who just genuinely loved what they were doing and the situation that they were in. So some signs that you might be in this stage would be that you really feel called to something new, that the life that you're living feels too small, that you have this inner knowing that there must be something more than this. And this stage is really asking you to be open-minded, to allow yourself to explore and see what's at the outer edges of that call that go beyond the reality that you've been living and the life that you have known until now. So once you actually answer that call, that is when stage two begins. And this stage is called the quest. This is when we are embarking on a journey. And I'll tell you that in my own life, the way that this worked was I moved from Berlin, I went to Singapore to do my coach training, and in the room of the coach training, something really cracked wide open. It was a reckoning. So anyone who is listening who has embarked on either coach training or has done therapy or whatever, you know that there's this, there's this point of reckoning where you have to face yourself before you can ever go and work and support clients. So before I am qualified to actually help someone else get through their own life stuff, I have to go through it myself. And so in these classrooms or workshop rooms in Singapore, I started to see all the facades that I had built around myself as they crumbled down. I've told it in other stories before on the podcast and also in articles that I've written about this one moment in particular where I had to shake off the armor that I had been wearing for probably decades without even realizing it, and actually face myself to see who was I without that armor? If I wasn't so busy protecting myself against the whole world around me, who was I underneath? This is the stage where you're really starting to ask deeper questions. You've probably had some experiences by now that let you know there's definitely something else out there. So you start to really believe, but you're still in this phase where the people around you are not having the same experience and you're wondering, am I just crazy? Like what's going on with me that I'm seeking endlessly for this information? Meanwhile, everyone around me, look how happy they are. Why can't I just be happy? Why can't I just let things be as they are? But you already know too much. You already have cracked open to something new that most of the people that you know may not have. So for me, after I did my coach training, I then was traveling around Asia for a little over half a year, and I went to Thailand, and I just knew that I was meant to be a healer. I can't tell you exactly how I knew. It was just this one moment a voice came through loud and clear that told me you are a healer, and it felt true. So I found a Reiki teacher in Thailand who could teach me energy healing. And I had no idea what that really meant. I just knew that I wanted to learn it. I had heard about Reiki a couple times, it sounded interesting. And it was in the room with my Reiki teacher Emma when I had my first attunement to be able to give Reiki that something shifted, that literally the energy and fabric of the world around me shifted, the vibration of the universe. I could feel this like sensation of expansion and contraction that I had never experienced before in my life. And I just knew that something big was happening. I still didn't have the words for it. I still wouldn't have fully called it spiritual or spiritual awakening. It took many, many, many years for me to actually recognize what that was. But that was my process of starting the search for something deeper, for something that felt more meaningful and felt more real for me. So someone who is in this stage is looking for information, looking for knowledge, looking for teachers, mentors. You might be reading books, you might be signing up for courses, you might be going on an ayahuasca retreat or other plant medicine retreat, you might be experimenting with healing, you might even be hiring a coach at this stage. So you're really starting to open up your horizon and look around to get an understanding of what's actually happening here. And this phase, and I think that this is very often overlooked, this phase can take years. So it's not that you have this call, you decide you want to change your life, you go take a course, you have a spiritual awakening, and ta-da. No, this phase can go on for years and years and years. And I wish that someone had told me that. I wish that there had been, you know, a mentor or a teacher who I could have asked these questions to. What's happening to me? But I didn't have that. I didn't know how to even articulate it. So for me, it was just always thinking somehow I was behind or there was something I wasn't getting, or I needed more information. And it was like peeling back the layers of an onion, literally piece by piece by piece, so slowly, trying to get to the root, trying to get to the core to understand what actually is happening. And this was also the phase that for me I started to really identify more with my spirituality, to really identify with being uh, I wouldn't even say, well, yeah, I would say a healer. I started to step into that identity to really recognize myself as a person who was helping others heal through the spiritual tools that I had learned. So this stage is asking you to remain open, to be curious, to not rule things out too quickly, to give yourself the opportunity to really go deep on that journey and search for knowledge to find out what happens when you do. And then after you've been in this phase of the quest, it could be years, it'll be different for every single one of us. Then you move into stage three, which is called embodiment. So embodiment is the phase where you start to really integrate what you have learned. This is a phase where you start to practice the things that you've learned more regularly, you start to feel like you're getting some deeper levels of understanding. Things start clicking a bit more, they make a bit more sense. You've learned different tools, you've learned different techniques, but you stop this endless search and quest for tools and techniques and mentors and training and understanding because you recognize that actually the work to be done right now is within. So, embodiment is where you really truly start to embody the wisdom that you have picked up along the way. So, in my case, this was when I really started leaning into being a healer, when I started openly talking about the healing work, when I stopped feeling like I needed to prove myself and to find the next course and the next teacher who was going to help me finally learn the thing that was going to crack it all open. And I started to realize that I already had all the tools that I needed, and that it was up to me to really work with those tools and fully own the gifts that I already had to sort of ground in and become more centered in what I was already capable of doing. And at the same time, for me, was building up a relationship with the spiritual world. So that meant getting in touch with guides, that meant working with my ancestors, that meant connecting with guardian angels and really opening my mind up to the possibility that we're not doing this alone. That there's this whole spiritual realm that even though we can't see it with our eyes, we can feel it and we can recognize the support that is always around us and that is always with us. So some signs that so some signs that you might be in this stage of embodiment would be that you stop the endless searching, that you start to feel more grounded within yourself again, that you really start to integrate the tools and practices that you've learned. For example, having an altar that you really go and you speak to every day, or that you put flowers or crystals or whatever it is that speaks to you on that altar. So really developing those regular spiritual practices and routines that have meaning for you. And you stop questioning it all so much. You just start trusting more and more that you are really being guided and that there is a level of support that's always around you, whether you can see it or not. This stage is asking you to trust, to surrender a bit more, and also to really start leaning on and integrating all of those tools and practices that you've picked up along the way and making them your own. So not asking for someone outside of yourself to give you permission or tell you how it's done, but you actually start to find your own best method of working with those tools when no one else is around in a way that serves you and your spiritual practice. Now, the next phase, once you feel and have experienced embodiment of your spiritual gifts, this is when you move into phase four. So, stage four is what I call mastery. And this is not to be confused with the concept of mastery that we all have in our mainstream dialogue. This is not about getting it perfect or having reached the end goal and knowing that, okay, I reached the end. What's the next adventure? Mastery is the knowing that you are eternally learning and growing. There is no real end, but someone who has reached this level of mastery knows that and is comfortable with that. So they are living in this stage of being awake and being aware. This is no longer a process of awakening from really being asleep in a way. This is actually fully living embodied as a spiritual being and knowing that you will continue to get things right and wrong, that you will continue to grow. This is about being fully present in your life and really understanding the cyclical nature of life that you will continually be awakening to new information, new insight, and going through these processes of integration and searching and embodying all of that wisdom that you pick up along the way. So I like to think of mastery as the phase where you really feel at home within yourself, no matter how much uncertainty or questions there might be all around you, that you actually feel integrated and whole, and that you're willing to go on new journeys, but from not from a place of trying to fix yourself, but from a place of trying to just expand what already is. So when I started to enter this phase of mastery, and I would say I'm still working my way through it, I am not by any means calling myself a master because I don't believe there is that, you know, one end destination that I'm reaching. But I feel that I am more embodied in who I am, that I feel more complete as a person, that I am not searching for something or someone to help me feel whole or to help me feel more like myself. So I dip in and out of this. Sometimes I feel more in mastery, sometimes I feel that I'm more in embodiment. And I think that that will always be so because there's always different phases of growth and different tools or techniques that I'm working my way through. But I definitely feel that I am a teacher on this path and that I am here to support others who are moving through their own process of awakening. And I do believe that it's possible to teach even when you're not reaching the mastery level. I've always been teaching as I learn. I think it's important to share that wisdom far and wide and not hoard it all from my own experience. But I definitely find that in the mastery phase, I want to share what I've learned from a really grounded place. That I want to be able to support others who are on that journey of coming home to themselves and finding their own sense of spirituality. Or what it means for them to be a spiritual being. So someone who is in this stage, some of the signs might be that you feel grounded, you feel whole, you're not endlessly searching for something else that can explain the mysteries of the world, that you have a grounded practice that supports you. That might be altarwork, that might be exercise routines or meditation or yoga or whatever it might be for you, but you feel grounded in that practice that you know supports you and lifts you up as you're moving through different phases of growth. You might feel the desire to support others on that journey. And that is not from a place of being above or on a pedestal, but that's from being a fellow traveler on that journey of awakening and helping people to reach up to the level that you're at, knowing that there's no competition in that process at all. And this stage is often asking you to recognize that at any point you can move back into the call. And the call will continually come, and it will continually be for some new level, some deeper level of awareness or understanding that you will be working your way through different questions, different searchings, but it will feel different this time because it's not the first time that you have gone through this process. So it's important to know that we are not talking about perfection in any of this. We're just talking about making this journey a bit simpler as you're moving through and also recognizing that you are not alone, no matter what part of the journey that you're in, you're not alone. There are hundreds, there's probably millions of us who are either going through the exact same experience or who have been through it before. So know that you are not walking this path on your own and that you can identify for yourself where you feel you are in these four stages of awakening. It's not static. You could continue to move a little bit back, a little bit forward, but there is definitely this cyclical nature that you will continue to meet these phases again and again and again. So I would love for anyone who is listening who wants to share with me where you think you are along the journey. So you can go ahead and leave a comment or you can go on to my Instagram and send me a DM that is amandaparker.co on Instagram and share with me where you find yourself on the journey and what are the challenges that you're facing in that phase. I can guarantee you're not alone, and I am definitely here to support you through that because I know what that process feels like when you think you're going through it alone, and no one can seem to answer the questions that you have. So, just to recap for you, we have the four stages of spiritual awakening. This is the awakening framework. Stage one is the call, stage two is the quest, stage three is embodiment, and stage four is mastery. Thank you so much for tuning in today. I really look forward to hearing from you of where you find yourself on this journey and cannot wait to see you next time.