You're Not Dying, You're Just Waking Up

The terms "Waking Up" or "Awakening" are used to describe someone that starts to realize there is more than the physical material world. It means that you are "waking up" to the energetic universe or to the fact that you are more than the physical body. It's actually an interesting process that many people experience and I myself have experienced as well. There's a book called, You're Not Dying You're Just Waking Up by Elizabeth April (I'll use EA for short) that describes the process very well. Let me share some concepts from the book.

In the book, EA says that the process usually starts in one of two ways

1) Route 1 Blissful Questioning: "This is the route where everything in life is so blissfully fantastic you become bored and complacent. For example, you are 40 years old, have a beautiful family, a stable job, and a loving relationship. You begin to look around in your successful and abundant life and start to question things. I have everything society tells me I should have, and yet, I'm still unsatisfied. I feel like there needs to be more but I'm not sure what that 'more' is."

2) Route Two Fearful Questioning: "This is the more common route of awakening, and simultaneously a much more difficult method. This process begins when everything in your life is collapsing. You begin to have those huge 'ah-ha' moments. It comes through these startling moments when we begin to detach from our false perception we have projected into our lives. It's shocking, it's painful, it's emotional, but honestly it will help you wake up faster than route one."

I believe that many people wake up in point two above because of the death of a loved one. I have taken quite a few mediumship classes with people that were there because they experienced the death of a husband, wife, or child. It is very shocking to the system because our culture does not teach or discuss the process of death, where we go after death, and the purpose of life. People are left questioning, what just happened?!

Once we start waking up, we can experience anxiety. EA describes anxiety in detail and explains what this feeling is:

1) Anxiety created from ignorance: "This occurs in the beginning of awakening. It happens when deep down we know something, but on the surface, we are unaware of it. Anxiety is simply a physical reaction to a lack of knowledge. It forces change."

2) Anxiety created from a switch in vibration: EA provides a good example of this, "You just went to a spiritual retreat and you are on a natural energetic high. Then, after your soul connection, a friend asks you to go out to a bar. I'm not saying that every bar is full of disconnected and self loathing energy....but many are. All anxiety is, is your body telling you this vibration is not like the last".

EA explains that we can use anxiety as a spidey-sense, a super-power to alert us to something. She explains that anxiety is a really helpful tool. We usually react negatively to anxiety because of the fear of the unknown which creates a cycle of fear and anxiety. However, we can use anxiety to understand ourselves by observing our anxiety objectively.

Another major step during the awakening process is ego death. We start to realize that everything we were taught by our parents, grandparents and society may not be true. It creates a blank page and then curiosity of what is true and who we really are. Below is EA's definition of Ego and Ego Death:

Ego: "The accumulation of memories, thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions to create a sense of self or identity in this incarnation."

Ego Death: "The loss of attachment to a perception of the sense of self; loss of a sense of self. On average, we experience around 10 major ego deaths per incarnation, and hopefully many little ones along the way."

Since there is so much information out there to consume, EA brings up the importance of discernment. Her definition of discernment is "The ability to differentiate what is in alignment with you and what is not." I agree with her that this is very important.

EA also discusses the, why bother or the apathy stage. She defines apathy as, "The overwhelming sense that no matter what you do, it won't change anything so why bother doing anything at all." I can definitely relate to this. When I was doing my research the last couple years, I went through a stage where I was talking to people about this amazing and shocking information that I was reading about, but quite often I saw people's eyes glaze over like I was boring the bejesus out of them. Obviously, that's when I came up with the blog idea to get my thoughts out, and at least my parents will read it because they have to support me right hehe.

Anyway, EA says the following, "In 2014, out of curiosity, I channeled the effect that ONE awakened individual with a high vibrational frequency could have on the planet. The answer that came back to me was astounding and surprising, even for me! One awakened (high vibrational human) equates to a positive and uplifting impact on around 72,000 people per year. When we see the good, even in the darkest of things on this planet, we allow others to wake up to the light without getting lost in it all." Essentially, what she's saying is that when we work on ourselves by clearing out all that gunk, I'm talking about the belief systems that don't serve us, the guilt, shame, and fear, and we focus on gratitude, purpose, and pursuing what excites us, then we inadvertently affect other people.

Let me end this post with a quote from EA that I really like, "Your identity is always just who you are in the present moment. Who you are in the present moment is an accumulation of everything you've been before, up until now." To summarize, we are not just this one physical incarnation, we are so much more. Our souls are millions of years old and we've had hundreds, if not thousands of incarnations. We also all have jobs, hobbies, and learning we do in the spirit realm. As I've said over and over, we are all powerful, multi-dimensional souls having a human experience.