There’s an uncomfortable truth we all need to face sooner rather than later on our inner work journeys of healing and awakening:
We’ll not only get stuck at some point, but we’ll start to stagnate and rot.
This might sound macabre, but the reality is that if we don’t allow the freshness and vitality of new information, discoveries, and opportunities to enter our lives, we’ll become stranded.
Often, we don’t even realize that we’ve become spiritually stagnant until something shakes us out of our stupor or slaps us across the face.
In fact, many years – sometimes even decades – might go by before you realize that you’re living in a crypt of your own making.
As someone who has recently had a rude awakening and come face to face with my own spiritual stagnation, I want to help you avoid this pitfall so that you can continue to grow, evolve, and Self-actualize.
Table of contents
What is Spiritual Stagnation?
Spiritual stagnation occurs when we get stuck in any limiting worldview, habit, or pattern of being that limits our growth and internal evolution.
Typically, this is a quiet and gradual process that we become completely oblivious to, occurring “behind the scenes,” often after a period of intensive seeking and personal study.
Am I Quietly Integrating or Slowly Shriveling? (The Difference)
One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again. – Abraham Maslow
Having owned up to my own spiritual stagnation recently, a thought entered my mind:
Am I quietly integrating or slowly shriveling?
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They both have a slightly similar appearance, but underneath, they’re both vastly different.
Quiet integration happens after we’ve gone through a deep experience of contacting, embracing, and liberating certain wounded parts of our psyches.
Take the specific example of reconnecting with our wounded 5-year-old self. Perhaps we’ve done some thorough reparenting inner child work, have earned the trust of this exiled part of ourselves, and have freed much of our creative potential.
This inner work is tiring and emotionally demanding (while simultaneously being beautiful, expansive, and liberating), and a period of quiet integration is needed to process what we’ve gone through – this can take some time.
But slowly shriveling – what I call spiritual stagnation – is different.
On the surface, it may appear quiet. But instead of being an experience of restfulness, reflection, and recovery, it’s a sinkhole of lethargy, laziness, and lost connection to our inner vitality.
In other words, if you’re quietly integrating, you will internally feel like a calm and clear lake. But if you’re internally shriveling, you’ll increasingly feel dry, parched, and empty like a desert.
7 Signs You’re Spiritually Stagnating
Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still. – Chinese Proverb
It’s an uncomfortable and irksome thing to admit that you’ve been slowly stagnating for some time.
In my case, this has happened to me behind the scenes for at least 3-4 years after a period of about 8 years of intensive spiritual and psychological work.
Perhaps some part of me was just exhausted on some level, and that exhaustion led to rest, but that rest led to a slow creeping stagnation.
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Whatever the case, I’m thankful to have finally received the “wake-up call” to leave my routine mausoleum of comfort and begin fresh again with a “beginner’s mind.”
Having experienced spiritual stagnation directly for many years, I want to share with you some of the main “red flags” to look out for within yourself:
- You’re not allowing much new information into your mind or heart, and therefore …
- You’ve lost the passion to learn about different facets of yourself and life
- You feel trapped or stuck in one place in life, but you don’t know why
- You keep repeating the same mental, emotional, or behavioral habits to the point of boredom and frustration
- You’re disconnected from a sense of curiosity and wonder
- You feel intellectually, emotionally, or metaphysically “parched” or thirsty
- You’re stuck in the shadow of the Sage archetype, thinking that you’ve already seen and done it all (stages 9 and 10 of the journey)
Can you relate? If so, don’t be hard on yourself.
Anyone on the inner path long enough is bound to experience spiritual stagnation at least once, no matter how much they’ve learned or evolved.
How to Prevent Spiritual Stagnation: 3 “Spirit Protectors”
When I write “spirit protectors,” I’m referring to the fact that spiritual stagnation has a deadening effect on our innermost essence: our lifeforce energy.
Using any one of the following spirit protectors can help to guard and preserve your inner flame from being temporarily extinguished by the quietly oppressive force of spiritual stagnation. Here they are:
1. Keep reading and learning no matter what
Letting my reading habit slip was the first sign that I was spiritually stagnating – and it eventually led to me feeling internally parched and weakened to the point of emotional numbness.
So my advice is to read far and wide. Do this every day without fail with whatever time you can set aside. No, you don’t need to read for three hours a day – even just twenty or thirty minutes will suffice.
The point here is always to allow new information to enter your psyche because it has a naturally revivifying power.
2. Change your habits and experiment with something new 2-3 times per year
Commitment is essential, don’t get me wrong. To go deep in any modality, we need to stick with it for a long time. But don’t let that block your interest in experimenting with other ways of being.
For example, if you dedicate a lot of time to painting as a way of connecting with your wounded healer archetype, try something different, like dancing, singing, writing, or exploring somatic healing.
If you journal a lot, why not try something more energy-based or explore a modality like journaling and breathwork, journaling and color psychology, journaling and dream work, etc.?
3. Get feedback and see yourself from a different perspective
If you have a trusted friend, family member, or therapist, ask them for their honest thoughts on your spiritual practice and what they think you could try changing or including.
If that’s not accessible to you, try the following card spread used with a tarot, oracle, or other self-reflective deck:
- Where am I mentally blocked?
- Where am I emotionally blocked?
- Where am I spiritually blocked?
- How to become unblocked (choose three cards in total).
Here’s another all-purpose card spread:
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- What is my current spiritual state?
- A hidden block or resistance within me.
- My untapped potential.
- What action do I need to take to grow?
For more accountability and direct support, you can connect with me or Mateo within our Shadow & Light space. We answer direct questions in-depth as often as you need (way more than you get here in the public comments), and if you’re feeling spiritually stagnant, we can help you find more clarity and soul alignment.
***
It’s vital to be radically honest with ourselves as we journey through life and walk the spiritual path.
Are you quietly integrating or actually slowly shriveling? Are you open, curious, and welcoming of new information, or do you feel jaded, cynical, and tired?
It’s okay to take a break if you feel exhausted. That itself is a form of integration and self-care.
But if you do have the energy to keep moving yet find yourself getting stuck over and over again, it might be worth considering whether this silent thief of inner growth is operating in the back of your psyche.
What’s your experience with spiritual stagnation? Do you have any advice to share with our fellow wanderers and travelers? If so, share below!
If you need more help, we offer 3 powerful ways to guide you on your inner journey:
1. The Spiritual Wanderer Course: Feeling lost or uncertain about your path and purpose in life? Gain clarity and focus by learning about the five archetypes of awakening within you. Discover your deeper path and purpose using our in-depth psychospiritual map. Includes 3+ hours of audio-visual content, workbooks, meditations, and a premium test.
2. Shadow & Light Membership: Seeking ongoing support for your spiritual journey? Receive weekly intuitive guidance and learn to embrace your whole self, including your shadow side. Deepen your self-love and receive personal support from us.
3. Spiritual Awakening Bundle: Ready to soul search and dive deep? Access our complete "essentials" collection of beloved journals and eBooks. Includes five enlightening eBooks and seven guided journals, plus two special bonuses to further illuminate your path.
I resonate with this article as I am going through this phase currently and as always the universe has its ways to confirm my understanding. Last few days; I have been made conscious of spiritual stagnation that I was perceiving as an integration phase for long. And the very first sign was me not learning anything new or reading and losing excitement and inspiration to grow. And today after doing self Reiki Healing (I am a Reiki Master Healer); I landed up reading this article. It further confirms it’s time I got back to track. Thank you for sharing your insights. Stay blessed.