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 and my own experiences:

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."

For me, this is a feeling I had my whole life. Throughout my teenage years, I felt feelings of unhappiness and anxiety even though life was perfectly fine so I would say to myself, "I think when I go to college I will be happy". Then I went to college and the same feelings came up so I said, "I think if I get a job, I will be happy". Then after that, "I think if I move to a different city, I will be happy". So on and so on, until I've done everything and I have a house, husband, and three children at 39 and I'm still wondering what I'm missing.

One major realization for me was that I was using alcohol during this time to mask the anxiety and unhappiness I felt. This is a not-good cycle because alcohol causes anxiety and depression. When I cut out alcohol 6 years ago, it provided a window for me to think about why I had been using alcohol and then start to question my reality. I started to understand that these feelings of anxiety and unhappiness were due to the lack of spiritual connection to who I really am.

I also believe that deep down we remember the spirit realm but this darn amnesia gets in our way. Sometimes, I can sort of remember the spirit realm, it comes back to me when I read certain books with detail and when I meditate. That's why I read all these books and share my research. It's as if I'm touching into it for just a few minutes and then the amnesia comes back.

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."

For me, I grew up Catholic but the rules and dogma didn't feel intuitively right for me. This propelled me to swing the opposite direction and become atheist, focusing on a materialistic science-based view of reality. I then pursued material possessions and job success to define who I was, which is an endless road to nowhere. It's totally cool to enjoy the material pleasures of this physical plane and be excited about a job but when you use the material possessions and job to define who you are, is when things go south. You aren't your job, you aren't the car or house you buy, and you aren't the success of your children. What I realized is that we are all individual souls with personality traits and gifts that are unique to each one of us due to our own journeys.

What I also realized is that we don't have to believe the same beliefs our parents or community believe. Just because your parents are catholic or atheists doesn't mean you have to be catholic or atheist. As EA says in the book, "I want to remind you that you are the only one creating your reality. The more you hold on to an old belief, no matter what that belief may be, the more you limit yourself from the unexpected and limitless potential surrounding you."

EA also discusses the topic of the knowledge gathering stage. Obviously, I hit that stage hard. There were a few times in the last couple years where I said to myself, I think I'm going to stop reading about this stuff and go back to my old self. Well....it doesn't work like that. EA also says this, "Have you ever heard the phrase, 'once you know, you can't un-know?' It's entirely true when talking about awakening your soul." It's funny because I think I said this exact phrase many times. I couldn't go back to who I was before I knew all this, it changed me. She also says that it's interesting we go through life without this knowledge and then we can't get enough of it. That was absolutely true for me. My soul wanted to experience life on this planet and I can see that it was part of the plan for me to "wake up" around the age of 40. If I knew twenty years ago what I know now, I probably would have been a buddhist monk somewhere meditating instead of all the experiences I did have.

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. I went to one woman that seemed like a really great medium and channeler but I was pretty disappointed by her. I also took an online class with a world renowned energy healer and she said something which didn't make sense at all. Even though spiritual teachers or religious leaders seem like they really know their stuff, they are human also and capable of fallacy just as all humans are. Everyone should use their own heart to figure out what is true for them. Truth comes from the heart, not the brain and the only way you can figure out your truth is to sit in solitude or walk in nature and quiet the brain.

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.

As we start learning about who we are as a soul, we inevitably start digging into our past lives. Since EA describes herself as a starseed (see my blog post about starseeds for an overview), she discusses galactic races and politics. She says that starseeds have a mission to help the planet evolve into a more unified and loving planet. She explains that there is a Galactic Federation of Light that is composed of different galactic races supporting humanity's expansion and growth. She herself meets with a Pleiadian being frequently from this Galactic Federation. This is the same information I wrote about in the blog post Are Galactic Beings Trying to Help Humanity.

She walks through a few galactic races that have been involved with the history of our planet. She says that many people on Earth have past or current incarnations as other galactic races and will be able to identify with the descriptions of the galactic races below. In my own experience and research, I know that there are billions of galactic races across the universe. There are other humanoid races just like us, blue-skinned humanoids with elongated skulls, reptilian, aquatic, amphibious, and feline beings. You can buy a book called Encyclopedia Galactica by Elena Danaan if you want to see descriptions and pictures of these beings. If you were the Source, wouldn't you want to create all different beautiful beings across the universe? Of course! I'll write a separate blog post about my research into this but below is a description of a few galactic races that have incarnations on Earth as starseeds:

Pleiadian: "Pleiadians are all about service to others. Whatever they can do to help, they will. Pleiadians are extremely involved in the Galactic Federation, which also makes them sticklers for Universal Laws."

Angelic: "The angels have an extremely similar energy to the Pleiadians since they are both loving, graceful, and of service to others. The angels however tend to have a much softer vibration and are specifically talented healers."

Annunaki: "Annunaki are usually large and in charge. They enjoy positions of power and control. The high vibrational ones will stop at nothing to create harmony and justice, usually through action."

Reptilian: "As a matter of fact, all of us have Reptilian DNA, we even have something called the 'reptilian brain' which drives our fight-or-flight mechanisms. At this point, I have met so many high vibrational Reptilians along with the not-so-high vibe ones. There needs to be no fear or judgement associated with them."

Grey: "Similar to Reptilians, Greys have been demonized in society and UFO communities. There are good and bad within the Greys as well. Greys are extremely evolved in their technological and genetic pursuits. They have an undying curiosity toward evolution, and this is precisely why they were asked to help humanity's evolution!"

EA explains that galactic beings are not better than humans. Oftentimes, higher dimensional beings find the 3rd dimension fascinating because we have physical senses and everything is so physical compared to their higher dimensional experience. I agree with her that both humans and galactic beings are all souls just having an experience for learning. Souls have free will to incarnate anywhere they want so they may incarnate hundreds of times on Earth or they may want to venture outside of Earth and incarnate on other planets. It's all about the path that the soul wants to take. I haven't fully figured out how a soul determines that path yet, that is still an interesting open question I have.

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.