This was medicine. Most people chase the high of awakening but never talk about the hangover. You caught it perfectly. The sacred flatline where the ego stops supplying dopamine and the soul hasn’t yet learned to breathe on its own.
That quiet ache is holy. It’s not failure. It’s fermentation.
I usually do not comment on the posts; but the content I've witnessed here is just unexplainable. And this would be my first one on this platform.
I have always been the dreamer, passionate, ambitious, achiever, basically a polymath. But from past few months I have been experiencing so many changes in myself.
Things that felt very outstanding, began to feel ordinary. Dreams that were full of liveliness got shattered into the reality. Goals that I would shatter my blood, sweat and tears for, became meaningless. There were times when I wanted to do everything but started to feel more of the moments where all I wanted was to stay in silence (doing nothing and staying in silence are way different).
Many people still see all these as normal circumstances but the drive behind it is different.
People who feel all these without spiritual awakening may not get the idea that Carl Jung had mentioned earlier.
However, those who have witnessed such awakening would really be thrilled reading this.
The depths that this article has rooted in is so commendable.
I deeply appreciate such literary works that take this world beyond limits...
Thank you, Vallary. Thank you for sharing this so openly. What you’re feeling isn’t loss… it’s a quiet outgrowing. The old drive fades, and a deeper stillness begins to take its place.
I’m feeling exactly as described right now. I’ve been meditating daily, following Dr Joe Dispenza routines. I’m just at place where I want to be in silence. I have no motivation to even do anything.
So this article is so helpful to me. I understand what I’m going through better. Thank you.
The world will call it depression. But our inner Being knows it’s sacred.
What we feel after spiritual awakening is not a clinical problem; it’s a collapse of ego structures. The checklist, the dreams, the drive—they stop moving us.
Because now, we feel like going inward. It’s not brokenness. It’s re-orientation.
This is why I landed on Substack! Working with others to figure out how we move from convincing people we are more than we think to deciding how we act and live in this space of collective awareness?!
When you surrender the old self, at first it’s a relief, then it can be panic, what have I done? Then you feel lost because you haven’t build your new self yet. So you wonder, for a while you walk around like you’ve lost everything, you feel empty. But that’s actually a good sign.
This hits so close to home. I went through a 'Dark Night' a couple of years ago, and the hardest part was the isolation—having people close to me label it as 'just depression' because they didn't have a map for the spiritual death you're describing. Like I wrote in my first post, it was actually a stranger who held up the mirror I needed to navigate that fog. It's so validating to see the 'sacred pause' explained this way
This article is right on. I've lived it. I was a serious student of A Course in Miracles for many years. I sturdied and read the whole text and did the workbook which took well over a year. I was very ambitious before this. I lost my motivation and ambition. I was confused because I literally questioned all I had believed was true and then I had little to stand on. It was uncomfortable for years. Eventually I came out the other side and just as you wrote about here, I began following things that were calling out to me. More creative projects. More writing. More meaningful relationships. More joy in ordinary things. Thank you for writing this. It will be helpful to many.
This is spot on ☺️😎🌠🙌🏾✨💖🌌 I have experienced quite the journey so far! Things that I was already doing before my awakening happened and only deepened... I'm truly so thankful for each soul on this journey of evolution, changing the world, healing other's in the process of becoming, until we reach the void and fully become whole on every level, moving beyond while still in the present. Transmuting in silence. Every part of this post I see myself in. I'm present, I am alive, whole and standing in Unity with all Creation ❤️🔥🙌🏾✨🌌😌
The process of individuating—this limbo where one awakens from the ego but is still finding the authentic path forward—is deeply relatable. 2025 truly feels like a turning point, both personally and collectively.
Now that Saturn is retrograde back into Pisces until mid-February 2026, it's a critical time for reckoning and transiting the dark night of the soul. This is a moment to mature and understand how the Saturnian reality check is deconstructing and reconstructing parts of our souls, clearing the path for the true self to emerge.
As the ego's old motivations fade, a more subtle, authentic excitement can emerge. This isn't the loud, driven ambition of the past, but a quiet certainty. It’s like a watercolor of the future—a gentle sense of purpose where the road ahead is already being drawn by a calling that is both new and deeply familiar. It's the feeling of your life's true work coming to meet you, rather than you having to chase it down. A new sense of calling.
This is an amazing description of being in between. Any ideas about how long the process takes? I’ve been feeling as though I’m in this in between place, like an internal bardo, for about three years. While internally I’m feeling contentment, and a peacefulness that wasn’t there before, I have no energy for things that I used to do. And I do sense that there’s something I’m meant to be doing but haven’t “found” that. At the same time I’m not concerned. What motivates other people doesn’t motivate me. Is this a years long process?
Thank you for naming exactly what I'm going through at the moment, I'm in that void. I was worried about my lack of motivation and the fact that I don't seem to be doing anything and that my motivation has gone. A lot of people have been mentioning Jung to me I will read further, thanks again
This struck a chord, on so many levels. Thank you for making me aware. Continue to illuminate consciousness, I look forward to more of your insightful writings.
After my spiritual awakening, I was elated and felt like I was walking on water. Now I have fallen flat. I have written about the opposite of this and that theory for some time, though. So, I feared landing here after skipping across the water. My ego is drowning. It wants action, identity, and direction. But the Self knows, Let it go. I’m meandering, noticing all sorts of things. I always felt alone, but never knew I could feel more alone. HAHAHA
I love Jung. I never knew about Carl Jung’s 'enantiodromia'. Wonderful. Thank you. Namaste.
This was medicine. Most people chase the high of awakening but never talk about the hangover. You caught it perfectly. The sacred flatline where the ego stops supplying dopamine and the soul hasn’t yet learned to breathe on its own.
That quiet ache is holy. It’s not failure. It’s fermentation.
The hangover. brilliant way of thinking about it.
I usually do not comment on the posts; but the content I've witnessed here is just unexplainable. And this would be my first one on this platform.
I have always been the dreamer, passionate, ambitious, achiever, basically a polymath. But from past few months I have been experiencing so many changes in myself.
Things that felt very outstanding, began to feel ordinary. Dreams that were full of liveliness got shattered into the reality. Goals that I would shatter my blood, sweat and tears for, became meaningless. There were times when I wanted to do everything but started to feel more of the moments where all I wanted was to stay in silence (doing nothing and staying in silence are way different).
Many people still see all these as normal circumstances but the drive behind it is different.
People who feel all these without spiritual awakening may not get the idea that Carl Jung had mentioned earlier.
However, those who have witnessed such awakening would really be thrilled reading this.
The depths that this article has rooted in is so commendable.
I deeply appreciate such literary works that take this world beyond limits...
Thank you, Vallary. Thank you for sharing this so openly. What you’re feeling isn’t loss… it’s a quiet outgrowing. The old drive fades, and a deeper stillness begins to take its place.
I’m feeling exactly as described right now. I’ve been meditating daily, following Dr Joe Dispenza routines. I’m just at place where I want to be in silence. I have no motivation to even do anything.
So this article is so helpful to me. I understand what I’m going through better. Thank you.
Glad it resonated.
I can’t believe how much this hits home to where I am now!
Thank you, Thomas.
The world will call it depression. But our inner Being knows it’s sacred.
What we feel after spiritual awakening is not a clinical problem; it’s a collapse of ego structures. The checklist, the dreams, the drive—they stop moving us.
Because now, we feel like going inward. It’s not brokenness. It’s re-orientation.
💯 so many on the spiritual path hit a wall of “depression.”
True
This is why I landed on Substack! Working with others to figure out how we move from convincing people we are more than we think to deciding how we act and live in this space of collective awareness?!
Substack is conscious space..
When you surrender the old self, at first it’s a relief, then it can be panic, what have I done? Then you feel lost because you haven’t build your new self yet. So you wonder, for a while you walk around like you’ve lost everything, you feel empty. But that’s actually a good sign.
Beautiful understanding Esther.
Maybe I’ve been there a few times…
This hits so close to home. I went through a 'Dark Night' a couple of years ago, and the hardest part was the isolation—having people close to me label it as 'just depression' because they didn't have a map for the spiritual death you're describing. Like I wrote in my first post, it was actually a stranger who held up the mirror I needed to navigate that fog. It's so validating to see the 'sacred pause' explained this way
Thank you for this beautiful msg.
This article is right on. I've lived it. I was a serious student of A Course in Miracles for many years. I sturdied and read the whole text and did the workbook which took well over a year. I was very ambitious before this. I lost my motivation and ambition. I was confused because I literally questioned all I had believed was true and then I had little to stand on. It was uncomfortable for years. Eventually I came out the other side and just as you wrote about here, I began following things that were calling out to me. More creative projects. More writing. More meaningful relationships. More joy in ordinary things. Thank you for writing this. It will be helpful to many.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It’s really enlightening.
This is spot on ☺️😎🌠🙌🏾✨💖🌌 I have experienced quite the journey so far! Things that I was already doing before my awakening happened and only deepened... I'm truly so thankful for each soul on this journey of evolution, changing the world, healing other's in the process of becoming, until we reach the void and fully become whole on every level, moving beyond while still in the present. Transmuting in silence. Every part of this post I see myself in. I'm present, I am alive, whole and standing in Unity with all Creation ❤️🔥🙌🏾✨🌌😌
Beautiful to witness this in you.
That quiet depth, that gratitude, that presence… it’s all being lived, not chased.
Thank you 😊 it's truly so beautiful to witness it with others and simply be 💖
The process of individuating—this limbo where one awakens from the ego but is still finding the authentic path forward—is deeply relatable. 2025 truly feels like a turning point, both personally and collectively.
Now that Saturn is retrograde back into Pisces until mid-February 2026, it's a critical time for reckoning and transiting the dark night of the soul. This is a moment to mature and understand how the Saturnian reality check is deconstructing and reconstructing parts of our souls, clearing the path for the true self to emerge.
As the ego's old motivations fade, a more subtle, authentic excitement can emerge. This isn't the loud, driven ambition of the past, but a quiet certainty. It’s like a watercolor of the future—a gentle sense of purpose where the road ahead is already being drawn by a calling that is both new and deeply familiar. It's the feeling of your life's true work coming to meet you, rather than you having to chase it down. A new sense of calling.
This is an amazing description of being in between. Any ideas about how long the process takes? I’ve been feeling as though I’m in this in between place, like an internal bardo, for about three years. While internally I’m feeling contentment, and a peacefulness that wasn’t there before, I have no energy for things that I used to do. And I do sense that there’s something I’m meant to be doing but haven’t “found” that. At the same time I’m not concerned. What motivates other people doesn’t motivate me. Is this a years long process?
Yes, it can take years.
You’re in a kind of Bardo… the old self is gone, the new hasn’t fully formed.
The lack of motivation is natural. The peace you feel is the real sign you’re on track. Don’t search for what’s next. It will emerge on its own.
Thank you for naming exactly what I'm going through at the moment, I'm in that void. I was worried about my lack of motivation and the fact that I don't seem to be doing anything and that my motivation has gone. A lot of people have been mentioning Jung to me I will read further, thanks again
Thank you, Melinda. Start with the book "The Power of Now" by eckahrt tolle.
Only after that, read "Be as you are" - (Ramana Maharshi, written by David Godman.
Thank you yes I've been listening to the power of now read by Eckhart himself and its clicking, thanks for recommending the next book
Just Wow! This has so defined what I’m feeling!
Thank you kittie
This struck a chord, on so many levels. Thank you for making me aware. Continue to illuminate consciousness, I look forward to more of your insightful writings.
Thank you!
This resonated. 💚
I often think of this as the space in between.
The place where you're no longer the person you were, but you haven't fully become the person you're becoming.
What makes that space so uncomfortable is that it's not just our old goals and motivations that begin to fall away.
It's the masks.
The roles.
The identities.
The coping mechanisms.
The versions of ourselves we built in order to survive.
And when those begin to dissolve, we can find ourselves asking a difficult question:
Who am I underneath all of that?
Not who I was taught to be.
Not who I needed to be.
Not who others expected me to be.
But who I truly am.
Perhaps that's why this stage can feel so uncertain.
We're not just letting go of an old life.
We're rediscovering ourselves beneath everything that was never really us. 🙏💚
Thank you, Michael
Wowww 🤍
😊
After my spiritual awakening, I was elated and felt like I was walking on water. Now I have fallen flat. I have written about the opposite of this and that theory for some time, though. So, I feared landing here after skipping across the water. My ego is drowning. It wants action, identity, and direction. But the Self knows, Let it go. I’m meandering, noticing all sorts of things. I always felt alone, but never knew I could feel more alone. HAHAHA
I love Jung. I never knew about Carl Jung’s 'enantiodromia'. Wonderful. Thank you. Namaste.
Thanks chelsea for this beautiful msg.