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# 2023-03-12 - Spiritual Emergencies | |
Bring it on | |
"Spiritual Emergency" refers to a crisis during one's spiritual | |
transformation. Spiritual emergencies may happen after dramatic STEs | |
(Spiritually Transformative Experiences) and due to challenging | |
unusual states of mind that may happen during a person's spiritual | |
awakening process (aka spiritual emergence). The terms "spiritual | |
emergence syndrome" and "spiritual emergency" were coined by | |
California psychiatrist Stan Grof MD and his wife Christina Grof. | |
Spiritual Emergencies are not a mental illness. Traditional | |
psychiatry might misdiagnose and treat spiritual emergencies as a | |
mental illness. However, spiritual emergencies are not mental | |
illness. [IOW: Don't medicate me, bro!] | |
Spiritual Emergencies usually resolve on their own, with adequate | |
support for the Experiencer, with the passage of time, and with the | |
Experiencer increasing their grounding activities. | |
# Signs of Spiritual Emergency | |
STE Experiencers having a Spiritual Emergency may have some of the | |
following signs: | |
* Challenged. Feel challenged by the intensity or nature of their STE | |
experiences. | |
* Difficulty functioning fully. Feel challenged to function fully in | |
their daily outer activities. Feel they need time to sit with and | |
process their inner experiences. | |
* Distracted. May feel very distracted by the STE experiences. | |
* Unusual ideas. May have temporary inflated or unusual ideas, but | |
otherwise their thought processes and judgement are clear. | |
* Difficulty separating from inner experiences. May feel challenged | |
at times to separate inner and outer realities. May at times feel | |
overwhelmed by their inner experiences. | |
* Aware of inner process. Are aware at some level that their STE | |
experiences are part of an inner process. | |
* Fear of mental illness. May have fear of losing control, or a fear | |
of having or developing a mental illness. | |
* Unusual behaviors. May have some mildly unusual behaviors. | |
* Inner visions. May be challenged by distressing inner visions, but | |
is able to tolerate them. | |
* Inner voices. Can ignore or block out inner voices and inner | |
guidance heard, if they so choose. | |
* Ethical. Moral and ethical values remain intact. | |
* Emotional sensitivity. Has fairly appropriate emotional responses, | |
although they may be very emotionally sensitive. | |
* Slower decisions. Has some difficulty and requires extra time in | |
making discerning judgments. | |
# Grounding Strategies | |
Grounding strategies help restore balance. Grounding strategies tend | |
to decrease the frequency and intensity of STEs, and help you feel | |
more connected to the outer world, while you are integrating your | |
STEs. If you feel "spacey", unbalanced, or overwhelmed by the | |
intensity and frequency of your STEs, inner calm and balance can | |
usually be restored by using some of these grounding strategies. | |
* Moderate the length of time spent in daily meditation. If you | |
meditate regularly, for grounding decrease your meditation time to | |
a maximum of half an hour, twice a day, or for more grounding to 15 | |
minutes twice a day. If you are in a supportive spiritual | |
environment such as at a meditation retreat, meditating several | |
times a day for moderate lengths of time, may be very helpful and | |
grounding. If you do not regularly meditate, strive to sit in | |
silence for at least 10 to 15 minutes twice a day. | |
* Pray. Short prayers several times a day are more grounding than | |
long meditations. Anchoring in Spirit regularly, and asking | |
inwardly for spiritual help during your crisis can be very | |
comforting and grounding. | |
* Increase your daily physical exercise. Do some aerobic physical | |
exercise daily, such as walking, jogging, cycling, or swimming. | |
Walking outdoors in a peaceful natural environment is very | |
grounding. | |
* Slow down, decrease stress in your life. | |
* Increase your sleep, rest, and relaxation time. | |
* Do some manual work, such as cooking, housecleaning, or yard work. | |
Manual work where your hands touch the earth, like gardening, is | |
particularly grounding. | |
* Follow a routine. Try to follow a fixed daily routine. The | |
structure will help ground you. | |
* Keep your eyes open while awake. Avoid closing your eyes and | |
drifting into your imagination. Focus your attention on the world | |
outside of you. | |
* Take several deep slow breaths, with your eyes open. | |
* Decrease all forms of concentration. | |
* Decrease amounts of reading. Give your mind a rest. Keep your mind | |
grounded on the outer world and worldly tasks, rather than focused | |
on inner thoughts. | |
* Eat smaller, more frequent meals instead of three large ones per | |
day. Eating a light snack or small meal every 3 hours or so often | |
helps those in spiritual emergency feel more balanced and | |
grounded. | |
* Eat a healthy diet. Strive for a balanced healthy diet. Avoid | |
excessive sugar and junk foods. Note that some people crave sugar | |
after an intense STE, and at those time a small sweet snack can | |
have a positive grounding effect. | |
* Increase your daily intake of protein, such as cheese, yogurt, | |
other dairy products, nuts, legumes, chicken, and fish, for a | |
natural grounding effect. | |
* Avoid caffeine. | |
* Cut down or cut out alcohol. Limit yourself to an occasional glass | |
of beer or wine. | |
* Stop all recreational drugs, including marijuana, if you haven't | |
already done so. | |
* Rub your body. Increase your body awareness by rubbing your body, | |
massaging your legs and feet, or taking a warm bath or shower and | |
vigorously scrubbing your body, massaging your scalp, and washing | |
your hair. | |
* Have a vigorous massage to increase body awareness. | |
* Spend time in nature. Regularly spend some time outdoors daily in a | |
park or other quiet natural environment. | |
* Be exposed to natural light daily. | |
* Walk or play outdoors with your pets or children. Looking after | |
young children or pets will help to pull you out of your thoughts | |
and keep you grounded. | |
* Moderate your sex life. Listen to your body. If your sex drive is | |
very high, having sex and orgasm with your partner may release | |
sexual tension and have a grounding effect. However, if your sex | |
drive is very low, it is more grounding to not have sex nor | |
pleasure yourself at that time. | |
* Visualize your energies moving down from your head, moving down to | |
the base of your spine, and staying grounded there. | |
* Visualize your energies traveling down your legs to your feet, and | |
focus on feeling your feet firmly planted on the ground. Feel your | |
energies linking you to the ground. Stamp your feet on the ground. | |
* Visualize your energies extending deep into planet earth, radiating | |
down from your feet, then moving down to the center of the earth. | |
Feel your energy connect or hook to the center of the earth. | |
* Find a creative outlet to express your energy, such as art, dance, | |
music, or writing. | |
* Journal. Start a daily journal to write down your thoughts, | |
feelings, and experiences. | |
* Take time off from work if necessary, and spend some time in a | |
peaceful, quiet environment, such as a cottage or a retreat. | |
* Try to flow with surfacing psychological or spiritual issues rather | |
than trying to resist or struggle against them. Spontaneous | |
surfacing of unresolved memories happens frequently after STEs, and | |
is part of an inner psycho-spiritual housecleaning process. This is | |
a normal, healthy, and important part of the spiritual awakening | |
process. | |
* Get support. Talk with supportive, understanding friends or family. | |
Go to a local support group. Speak with a supportive counselor, | |
therapist, or doctor knowledgeable about STEs. This will help you | |
feel less alone, and with their validation and support help you | |
feel more grounded. | |
# Suggested Further Reading on Spiritual Emergency | |
Bragdon, Emma. | |
A Sourcebook for Helping People in Spiritual Emergency. | |
Los Altos, California: Lightening Up Press, 1988. | |
Bragdon, Emma. | |
The Call of Spiritual Emergency: | |
From Person Crisis to Personal Transformation. | |
San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1990. | |
Grof, Stanislav, and Christina Grof, eds. | |
Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis. | |
Los Angeles: Tarcher, 1989. | |
Kason, Yvonne. | |
Touched by the Light: | |
Exploring Spiritually Transformative Experiences. | |
Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2019. | |
tags: article,self-help,spirit | |
# Tags | |
article | |
self-help | |
spirit |