So you’ve been devoting months, years, or perhaps even decades of your life to your spiritual practice.
But unlike physically tangible pursuits, there’s no easy way to know if you’re ‘making progress’ or not when it comes to your inner spiritual life.
If you’re wondering whether you’re actually growing and evolving and whether spiritual growth is indeed occurring in your life, keep reading.
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What is Spiritual Growth?
Spiritual growth is the process of awakening to your true nature, purpose, and potential. When you undergo spiritual growth you experience an expansion in awareness and insight, also known as higher consciousness.
All spiritual growth has one objective: to help you embody your Soul or Higher Self. Once you are able to shift from ego to Soul, there is the potential for you to experience what is understood as spiritual enlightenment, self-realization, “heaven,” Oneness, or moksha in varying degrees.
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Spiritual Growth: 12 Signs You’re Growing and Evolving
Here are the major signs that you’re growing and evolving on a spiritual level:
1. You embrace challenges as lessons and opportunities
Whether your car has just broken down, or someone you love is terribly ill, you sense that there’s an underlying lesson and opportunity in the obstacle before you. Instead of feeling like a victim, you feel like a student of life. In other words, you see that life is not happening to you, it is happening for you.
2. You see through the seduction of the material world
Once upon a time, you might have loved buying expensive things, focusing on enhancing your social status, earning more money, or even indulging in spiritual materialism. But now, you understand that the material world doesn’t ultimately bring you the deep happiness you seek.
3. Your sensitivity has heightened
In the past, you might have been living in a numb state where you were disconnected from your body, heart, mind, and soul. But now, you are a great deal more aware of what is going on inside and around you. As such, you might experience more empathic suffering, which can often feel like both a curse and a gift.
(If you can relate to this spiritual growth sign, see our book: Awakened Empath for more guidance!)
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4. You feel more love and compassion (for yourself, others, and the world)
With heightened sensitivity, you also feel more connected to yourself and the world. You may feel higher levels of compassion and true empathy for others – even those who are harmful to themselves, others, and the planet. Your open heart brings you more joy, but also more pain. And yet, your heart is slowly learning how to expand and hold that pain.
5. You stop seeing life in black-or-white dualistic thinking
If you’ve been taught anything by your spiritual awakening, kundalini awakening, or dark night of the soul, it’s that there’s more to life than meets the eye. Something that may seem negative may turn out to be positive. Something that seems beautiful may actually be ugly deep down. Everything and everyone have two sides that are interdependent – nothing is totally black or white.
6. You can show more understanding toward difficult people
Because you can see underneath the surface of a person’s behavior – and the various wounds and traumas that may have caused them to misbehave – you no longer carry as much anger or resentment as you once did. You find it easier to show tolerance and understanding toward others, no longer reacting with as much judgment, condemnation, or self-righteousness.
7. You see that life is cyclical and like a spiral
Instead of getting stuck in one mode of being or mindset, you’re beginning to see that life is cyclical. There are good times and bad times. After spring comes autumn and after day comes night. All things are destined to come and go, rise and fall. As such, you don’t get as affected as you once did when life waxes and wanes – it’s just part of life and the journey of Soul Work.
8. You become less attached to mental stories
The more you become acquainted with your mind, the more you recognize that thoughts, ideas, and beliefs don’t actually define you. Instead, these mental occurrences are like clouds that float into the sky, and then eventually drift away. When you attach to mental thoughts and beliefs, you suffer. But when you recognize that your thoughts and feelings don’t define you – instead, you are the vast Consciousness beneath them – you find it easier to let go and find a sense of inner peace.
9. You find it easier to slow down and do nothing
Our thinking minds are always wanting us to “do,” “get,” “achieve,” “go-go-go!” but the soul, the spiritual center of our being, finds true nourishment in slowing down and enjoying life as it is. If you’re finding it easier to wind down, or at least catch the desire to constantly be “switched on” and change course, this is a clear sign of spiritual growth.
10. You are more interested in letting go of the old than gaining the new
As an ongoing student of the Tao Te Ching – an ancient wisdom text from the Taoist tradition – the topic of letting go constantly arises.
Among many verses on letting go, verse 44 packs quite a punch:
One’s own reputation—why the fuss?
One’s own wealth—why the concern?
I say, what you gain
is more trouble than what you lose
Therefore, a huge part of authentic spiritual growth is the capacity to be not only accepting of letting go, but actually preferring it to “gaining more.” The desire to accumulate is from the ego, but the desire to surrender and be free is from the soul.
11. You have more capacity to be discerning
Spiritual growth is not just about experiencing love, bliss, and expansion – although that is part of it. As we deepen and mature, spiritual growth is also about the capacity to think clearly and distinguish truth from falsehood. This ability to use the mind like a sword is what is known as spiritual discernment.
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12. You can access more moments of ‘ordinary magic’
While it’s normal at the beginning of the spiritual journey to want glitz, glamor, and exciting sparkly experiences, the more we grow, the more we recognize the beauty of what is already here, right now. This ordinary magic can be accessed whenever we are present, grounded in the Now, and connected with the heart and soul.
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Keep in mind that the above list isn’t exhaustive. Furthermore, you don’t need to check every single box to be experiencing spiritual growth. Recognizing yourself in even just one of the above points signifies that you are indeed experiencing transformation instead of stagnation.
I hope this article has been of help to you. If you think I’ve missed out on any points, I’d love for you to share them with me below in the comments!
Three paths to inner transformation – here’s how I can help you go deeper:
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How did you know that this is exactly what I need to hear today and remember every day when I think I am losing hope? Thank you, Dear Soul.
People who are part of the same Soul family just know I suppose *grin* :-D
Thank you Linda!
This was brilliant, spiritual growth is a wonderful and freeing thing.
Wow- I love the happening for me not to me part. It’s been very stressful for me these past few months due to many unexpected changes. Nonetheless, I’m learning to see the beauty in the “mess”.
Well done, Day, that is such a hard thing to do!
Oh my god! Thank you, this was exactly what I needed to read right now!
It always comes down to be aware and my ability to let go of thoughts. The hardest and the most trickiest path to walk.
I always forget…
“I always forget…” – you’re so not alone, Anders! It’s both a simple but tricky path, a total paradox. That’s why it’s worth being realistic and setting the intention each day through a ritual of some kind (like journaling, prayer, or meditation). Thanks for reading and sharing ♡
Love reading and gives me more empowerment and boost my spiritual being knowing I’m on the right path. Thank you!
Much love!
Much love!
Ivy
I fall in with all of these categories and I knew it all along, but not until I saw them and read about them did it open up my eyes. It’s no wonder I feel stuck, trapped, and I’ve even enclosed myself from the outside world. What a shame.
At least you’re conscious of these patterns now, Best! That’s a good sign because with self-awareness comes the ability to grow and evolve.
. Blessings and loving kindness to all human beings in this Loner Wolf pack, no matter what stage of inner development you find your completing. ️⭐⭐
I started my journey not long ago, your article helped me so much. Once all of this starts it is so powerful and the same time confusion and overwelming that I feel lost on daily day to day emotional responses to the external world which is part of our experience on hearth. This made me completely understand that setting boundaries, and sometimes been trigged and react badly to certain situations is part of the awakening process.
Hi everyone :)
My way of enlightment was through religion, and ultimateley, leaving it for good ater I have found out that my soul was raped there without me even knowing it.
It become obvious to me after opening myself to the sacred texts and observing nature, rejecting the one and only trubexplanation offered me by the “priesthood” of the cults I was involved in.
Truth screams but when someone is full of false doctrine, he just can not accept it, one must be humble, and ready to poir out of himself, old broken, and pickled, acidified, beliefs and ideas provided and nortured by the “scribes and pharesees”.
I hit all of the mentioned above traps, thanx to the untrue and harmful teachings.
And also by the PC narrative of the Jehovahs Withneses, that just didnt like to talk about ineer feelings without the submission to the main ideology, this kind of place where You can not speak freely and express yourself with others lead me to all of the 11 above traps.
I had a very bad point of refference, and everyone was afraid of speaking about what they really feel, awakening and leaving this place was the most beautiful thing I have ever achieved thanks to the “Spirit of truth”
In the new testament there is a writting tha adresses people of God as “temple of the spirit”
A temple has an outer court, an outer courtyard, the external wall, the inner courtyard, the holy place, the holy of holies.
Every room has it’s meaning, and we build it on our own as the teaching of the apostles further explain.
Certain places of our temple are not for everyone, some people just should’t keep close with their negative approach and ideas anywhere but at the “outer wall” of our temple, some otther ideas however are welcome to visit the outher court, and few of the best are even being welcome to the holy place.
Godly people have God in the internal place of their soul, not the ritualistic external place, as the new testament states.
This is our place to take care of, and we are responsible of how our ” temple” will look like and what it will manifest to the external world.
I really liked the idea of the Spiritual danger and traps posted by You above, and also other sites aswell.
For what more do we have in this world if not our souls? our garden as You called it (really like the term garden You used)
Being oriented on the surpreme being is a way to have our “machinery zero” or our “foundation” “root” to have a point of refference.
A garden is a great type of a ilustration I always used the term temple, however observing nature gives a great and insightful explanation to the concept of being a part of the whole, and showing what responsibility is towards the garden.
Wothout the knowledge of how to keep the garden there can be no garden.
Kind regards
Sergiusz Statkiewicz.
Poland.
Hi Sergiusz, your description of your soul being “raped by religion” struck me deep to the core as this was exactly how I felt, yet described it as feeling like “my soul was dying.” It is truly chilling and nearly impossible to describe to those who haven’t experienced it. Thank you for sharing your story and thoughts here, and also for your continued journey of growth and transformation. ♡
Dear Aletheia
You’re reply has been noted, and highly appreciated… and also… if I say needed it would be an understatement.
Thank You so much, now I am alone, alone with my thoughts.
What happens next was that I shouldn’t be starting with the 7 chakra, but from the first, my life is in ruin, after years of crying, finally found another job, and starting everything from scratch, 1 level achieved got a job and where to stay, (23 job btw, and 6 times changing profession) 2 level in motion to find a girlfriend, and be ready to go to the 3 and till 7 chakra ( I’m using it in a figurative sense as some sort of leveling in order to be more word-saver/mental shortcut. but there is definitively more to it)
Thank You so much for Your kind words, it touched my, I would really want to cry of happiness right now after You’re reply but i have no more tears.
PS:
Yes my soul was raped, and the worst of all was I WAS NOT AWARE OF IT !!!
I pray that someone in need reads this, and … I’m not a specialist of any sort, but I hope that the concept of, a soul being raped without even knowing it will, ignite a will to dig into it, for some people who are unaware of it, and don’t even feel it.
Cause it is a real problem, after a certain age You can see it, but until the “3 eye opens” (figuratively speaking it can be just maturing or whatever )
Love You all, You are my brothers and sister, cause You seek the same things as I, and I want You to now that wherever You are right now, I just really hope, I could spend some time with You in this life or in another, in front of a fire, eating sausages or marshmallows, and crying together and laughing together, I miss this so much.
Love You all.
I have got the visions of different dimensions and where as especially on psychadelics it’s a dimension existing with a lot of sex and if not wanted it feels as if it happens anyways and a bit more forceful. Is this kind of the same you mean by having the soul raped? Cuz sometimes it feels as if a part of me is trapped and not really belonging to me or as it’s as I should just give in and let it happen joyfully, but it also feels as a trap and it has gotten me confused.
And also yesterday I smoked a bit weed, I was a big stoner before and it felt as it helped me a lot with working on myself deeply because I could care less about that “uneccesary” stuff about what people did that didn’t really matter in the end. And it led me to a road of knowing I have to care more for myself and to not be a pushover, which led me to an end road of being heartsad and angry a super pushover for I don’t know why but like on the mens side for or I thought it was the us side but maybe it was the patriarcy because I saw in life that it’s not about gender really how we treat each other, and loosing all my friends because I wasn’t able to either say no or to explain my truth at the time because in the same time didn’t want to be a victim or a martyr. Giving myself to men i didn’t want to give myself to really and smoking got more about healing but also to paranoia and scarity. And I’ve felt super attacked while also not knowing if that’s really a thing and more a way to scare. And understood I’ve got super obsessed with smoking and figure stuff out instead of living. Not really searching for enlightment, maybe a bit but I never thught that would be a path for me in life (it started on psychadelics), more wanting to understand what’s inside my body and what this life really is. Caught in the illusion I guess.
But so this saturday I smoked and realized it’s a lot about the relationships we have all the things going on inside my body but I’m still a bit scared (of to die and to hurt) so I’m just getting glimpse and not really diving into it and also not really understanding what really is happening. But I guess it’s a journey and I hope I my body and my mind will work it out and manage to either understand my soul has been here all along or we will find it! But so yesterday I smoked again to try and explore it more. And it’s all of these energies I see, geometries or whatever, and they can be white sprinkles (assuming this is the enlighted death and so it scares me even if it feels blissfull I don’t want to kill all of inside of me, not knowing if that’s my scarecity or a truth, but something tells me it’s whitewashing and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. And then theres the more blueish geometries that could lead in to pictures and memories, and then the dark and red colours feeling more like how I could feel on DMT and assuming it’s “hell”, not knowing if it’s really hell or just our pushed down sides. And my mind went to (yes I have hard time just letting it go by itself even if a lot tells you that’s how you should do it, but somthing in me really wants to understand it and I have hard time controlling my controlling haha) the thought of us being in bliss will put other parts or other people in the dark fire (where I saw glimpses of death was more like melting faces and so on, even if I believe it’s just a part of the inne journey). And I have hard time managing it and as I said before really dive into it, and let me expirience it even if that’s my intention. So I don’t know if it’s my ego fooling me or if it is protecting me. But I got to the conclusion that to be all white and blissfull will lead others to darkness and if oneness isn’t really only white or only dark but to be equal and linjear (not in a bring way of course) So yes now I really understand the meaning of oneness is love because that’s in the middle. Or maybe not love love, but the place of understanding and feeling fuck yeah we are. And if you leave a part of yourself either in the light or in the dark it will stay there in either horror or fuck yeah because we are afraid of it and forcing light on the darknes or darkens on the light or fake love on. Not embracing all in the way it is and nurturing it the way it wants or whatever. Now I feel I’m loosing myself and not understanding so much more of where I want to come. But yeah writing about it helped me a bit, but with everything I experience I understand it but also get’s more confused.
So this morning I woke up with still the feeling of the dark side (it feels more slow and viscous and I tried to feel it and not pushing it away and I guess it’s anger(?) or someting that hasn’t been felt in a while at least. And I thought of where I read somewhere here that you shouldn’t run away from the feeling but instead convert it, so I let it flow and be and convert itself I think and to more orgasmic feelings cuz I heard you could turn anger into orgasms. But I can’t see what I’m doing and went for my sisters voice with so do what feels the best.
But how can I know what’s happening and if I’m not killing myself off instead?
And also if you understand what I’m going trough and trying to explore and understand i wonder to not being to hard on my body and my mind; how could I explore this in a sober way or is that not possible? And also in a way where my mind isn’t putting so much analyzing on it and more my soul getting through, or me letting it flow without being brainwashed and trapped?
I’ve really felt for all of the traps above and I’m sick of it.
Maybe you don’t understand what I mean but that wouldn’t be the first time for me.
⭐⭐⭐
“setting boundaries, and sometimes been trigged and react badly to certain situations is part of the awakening process.” – yes, it most definitely is! None of us are perfect and we’re all prone to falling into traps, and that’s perfectly normal and okay – the goal is to become aware and practice humility not to beat ourselves up.
Setting boundaries has changed my life
This is really good. I’ve certainly fallen into so many of these traps. At one point i felt spiritually ‘superior’, only to sit here now and realize that I’ve still got a really long way to go. I love the wisdom of these articles. They really show that the true answers and enlightenment are from within!!
You guys cut through the bullshit and I love it! Facebook has become a gross platform for the “spiritually advanced”. I wrote an article after feeling like spiritual awakening has become a fad and just a way to step on each other’s backs, and there is nothing authentic about it. I saw a meme that said “the downside of being spiritual awoken is having to dumb yourself down 90 percent just to talk to others”.
The spirit is humble, I don’t believe someone would be on a Facebook group putting out memes if they weren’t trying to get validation. The soul needs nothing. Alignment with source has nothing to prove and doesn’t force others to believe their teaching. The articles that you have on your page always resonate with me and I appreciate it so much.
Thank you Allona, I appreciate your kind words and could agree with this more. It’s a natural progression that we all fall into, even Luna and I, where the ego redirects its old pursuits of status or wealth for more ‘spiritual’ sounding ones. We use to use the concept of soul ages more to describe this progressive process, but even that started becoming a competition between ‘old souls’ haha. It’s a funny game, where ego games are involved and the further you go into the journey, the more you see through them and they become the very obstacle.
Anything that is as big as facebook, suffers this problem. It’s very hard to ‘scale’ wisdom and spirit, as their very nature are beyond these games.
Some points you listed I agree others I don’t .
Point is, if you’re inttention in spreading this message was purely organic and natural , this page would not be asking for $ donations .
I should at this as 12.
“Sometimes we need to feed the sharks to keep the calm and live balanced lives”
You just lost all credibility for saying that . Yeah let’s feed them more more and more so that they can devour us in the future .
Greg I think you missed the point on this, meaning still taking personal responsibility for any negative experiences in life such as paying bills, servicing debt, paying taxes, while maintaining a spiritual practice