Bonnie Greenwell is a transpersonal psychotherapist and non-dual teacher in the lineage of Adyashanti. She founded Shanti River Center in Ashland, Oregon, and the Kundalini Research Network in 1990. Her books include Energies of Transformation: A Guide to the Kundalini Process based on her dissertation research, and The Kundalini Guide and The Awakening Guide from her 30 years of advising people in a spiritual awakening process. Her new book, When Spirit Leaps; Understanding Spiritual Awakening, will be available through New Harbinger Press in 2018. She has trained people internationally to work with spiritual emergence and kundalini phenomena, and now mentors people through private Internet sessions and webinars. She believes the awakening of consciousness to Truth is a natural state available to all who sincerely long for Self-Realization, and that kundalini is fundamentally a clearing and transformative energetic support for this process. You can meet her at the SAND conference in October where she will be a featured presenter.

While a spiritually transformative experience, or STE, can invite you temporarily into a transcendent and blissful space, it is also often disruptive of your previous way of being. It may strip away old habits and assumptions, and cause the mind to become frightened of the changes that are happening. Because both energy and consciousness are reorganizing and transforming within you, confusion often arises or you may feel out-of-control.

Spiritually transformative experiences are invitations to let go of unconscious patterns and remember your vast, collective, and unitive connection with all. Of course you are already always connected to your True Nature and to the Source from which we have all emerged. Humans usually do not remember this because the demands of our physical and psychological needs, and the influence of conditioning, block our ability to relax into the pure consciousness and awake presence that underlies all of life.

If kundalini energy – your life force – activates as part of an STE, it will amplify your interior experience and release old patterns and toxins, all apparently without your intention and cooperation! If you have trauma in your history, the energies may shake loose repressed feelings to be released.

Here are a few basic guidelines that may help you to deal with the changes and lay the groundwork to deepen and embody your connection with your True Nature:

1.  Recognize that consciousness is available to a much broader range of experience than is commonly understood and than you may have previously experienced; thus, you have entered a new range of potentiality. Even when you feel you no longer fit in with others, trust that the process is bringing you into a new perspective that will ultimately be of service to you and others.

2.  Interpret any anxiety that arises as energy. Breathe into the energy, focusing on the belly. Imagine anxiety as excited curiosity. To the extent you can substitute curiosity for fear, you will navigate these new experiences much more easily.

3.  Put attention below the neck – do not overthink what is happening. If you are thinking about the future, or obsessing on something in the past, you may stay divided, and anxious. Sit down and be present right where you are – preferably find a beautiful place in nature as your go-to spot for being present. Remember, however, that you are always present right here and now. If you can bring attention to the feeling of connectedness to this moment and this place, you will connect with the part of yourself that is always peaceful and at-home. Your True Nature is eternally right here, but thoughts can carry you into far-off fantasies that do not support your grounding. Practice being present.

4.  Do something you love every day. Become a good nurturer of yourself. Find a place to sit and enjoy a cup of tea, read a poetry book, listen to music that is soothing, play with an animal, write in a journal, or paint. Make a list of a few things you might enjoy and take time to do them.

5.  If you know there is abuse or other trauma in your history and you have never addressed it fully in therapy, this is an optimal time to heal the wounds of the past. You can’t leap over a wounded part of you but, with understanding and healing, you can include it in the process of awakening so that it can transform along with the rest of you. You need a therapist who understands healing. They do not necessarily need to understand the drama of awakening or kundalini, as long as they are open and not alarmed by your experiences.

It is important to let go of self-judgment and criticism. We need to embrace and support the human aspects of life, even our failings. Love and Truth begin with your relationship with yourself. Through Self-support and encouragement you will find grace and expression for your own unique way of participating in our collective consciousness, and your unique life will unfold spontaneously.

If you are in a kundalini or a spiritual awakening process, you may find more support in my books, The Kundalini Guide and The Awakening Guide (on Amazon), my websites at www.kundaliniguide.com and www.awakeningguide.com, or my Awakened Living Blog at shantiriver.wordpress.com.

Remember!! The facilitator training for ACISTE’s peer-led spiritual experiencer support groups begins this year. If you are interested in learning more about the training, please email Elizabeth Sabet at info@aciste.org.