Could you be using your spirituality to escape from life, just like people use alcohol and drugs? It’s denitely possible to abuse spirituality and this article will help you to diagnose it.
Can you relate to any of the following?
You You don’t like like paying attention to realworld realworld matters !like !like nances" # you’d rather be working on your personal or spiritual de$elopment. You You sometimes use your spirituality as as a form of escapism. escapism. %or e&le, e&le, you learn about the law of attraction and feel great about all the possibilities and the potential. 'ut you fail to create anything tangible from it !so you e&ist perpetually in the realm of ideas rather than action." You You are not comfortable comfortable here on (arth and the world world seems $ery harsh to you. You You prefer to hang around around with people who who are $ery spiritual, like like you and you you a$oid ha$ing friends who don’t share your world $iew. If you could, you’d happily erase from your e&istence some aspects of physical life # like ha$ing to eat, wash and support yourself. You You spend a lot of time time thinking about how to create create your utopian $ision $ision for life here on (arth and you nd it di)cult accept the state of things here on (arth. You You ha$e a strong tendency tendency to be reclusi$e and and you spend a lot of time time in introspection. You You like meditating meditating for hours on end. You You get frustrated at how slow slow e$erything mo$es in the physical physical plane and the e*ort it takes to make things happen. Your Your sense of purpose and spiritual spiritual mission is at the forefront forefront of your life and and you think you’re a lightworker. You You are $ery empathic+intuiti$e empathic+intuiti$e and pick up negati$e negati$e stu*’ from other people people all the time !one more good reason for being reclusi$e-" ow did you do? If you could relate relate to more than si& or se$en statements statements !most importantly # the rst $e", I’d $enture to say that your strong sense of spirituality may be stopping you from li$ing your life fully.
/hat does it mean when you’re out of balance with your spirituality?
It means that you li$e for !and enjoy" spiritual e&periences more than you enjoy human e&periences. In terms of your auric eld+energy body, your upper chakras will be $ery open, with a lot of energy running through them while your lower chakras are neglected and small.
In case you don’t know what I mean by o$erde$eloped upper chakras and under de$eloped lower chakras, here’s a 0uick guide to the chakra system1
Chakras are energy centres in the human energy body. !2he energy body is a re3ection of the physical body and our life here on (arth." 4uch of the information in your energy body is organi5ed and centred at these chakras, which are located in certain places in your body. ere is some information on each chakra1
uman Chakra
6oot chakra !red" # go$erns sur$i$al, safety, home, money, family, connection to reality. !7ocated at the perineum."
8acral chakra !orange" # go$erns se&uality, emotions, sensuality, $itality, creati$ity. !7ocated just below the belly button."
8olar ple&us chakra !yellow" # go$erns personal power, selfcontrol, getting things done. !7ocated just abo$e the belly button."
eart chakra !green" # go$erns selflo$e, selfcare, selfacceptance, selfworth. !7ocated o$er the breastbone."
2hroat chakra !blue" # go$erns selfe&pression and communication9 speaking and listening. !7ocated at the throat."
2hird eye chakra !lilac" # Intuition and truth. !7ocated between the eyebrows." Crown chakra !white" # Connection to 8pirit and your igher 8elf. !7ocated just abo$e the head." :ote that those aspects of life which are downtoearth, human, basic, and grounded are all go$erned by the lower chakras !the root, sacral, and solar ple&us chakras"1 • • • • • • • •
4oney !root+sacral chakra" Connection to !sometimes" cold and harsh reality !root chakra" 8ensuality+se&uality !sacral chakra" 8ense of belonging, family and community !root chakra" (njoyment, laughter and fun !sacral chakra" 4aking things happen in the real world !solar ple&us" :utrition and physical nourishment !root chakra" 6outines and habits !root chakra"
;n the other hand, the upper chakras !crown, thirdeye and throat chakras" go$ern aspects of life such as1 • • •
• • • • • •
ngels, 8pirit =uides !crown chakra+third eye" sychic e&periences such as clair$oyance or clairaudience =i$ing to, caring for and ser$ing others !heart chakra" 8piritual teaching !throat chakra" /riting and speaking !throat chakra" Introspection and solitude ealing
/hen you focus a great deal !for a prolonged period" on the acti$ities which are go$erned by the upper chakras !like psychic de$elopment and introspection", it will shift your focus and energy away from the lower chakras !which go$ern your connection to reality and the real world". /hen you focus a great deal !for a prolonged period" on the acti$ities which are go$erned by the upper chakras !like psychic de$elopment and introspection", it will shift your focus and energy away from the lower chakras !which go$ern your connection to reality and the real world". 2his can result in the symptoms mentioned at the beginning of this article.
/hat kind of person gets out of balance with their spirituality?
8ome people who are $ery drawn to spirituality can nd it di)cult to embrace the human e&perience fully. In fact, some spiritual people don’t like being human and the human condition is frustrating to them.
'eing human can feel pretty bad at rst to a huge, e&pansi$e spirit who is used to whi55ing around in the ether. !4aybe that is why babies scream so much when they are born-" It feels $ery conning to suddenly nd yourself in a physical body. @nlike being in the ether !where things manifest as 0uickly as you think of them", things don’t happen as 0uickly as you want, and you ha$e to make an e*ort here. You are encumbered by a body which is your $essel for e&periencing human life. >nd your body needs fuel otherwise you can’t function, so you are slowed down by the demands of your body from birth. In addition, you are slowed down by th at pesky issue of money and physical resources.
4odern
If you were incarnated $e hundred years ago and mostly concerned with the acti$ities listed abo$e which stimulate the upper chakras !like connecting with spirit, healing and spiritual ser$ice" you would probably ha$e chosen a religious or spiritual path of ser$ice in that lifetime. You’d be a monk or a nun of some description. You’d be able to deliberately forget about the physical aspects of your life # like money and feeding yourself # because your religious order would take care of them for you. In fact, there would be no negati$e, realworld conse0uences to neglecting your physical life because the support system would be in place to pick up the slack from you neglecting it.
I belie$e that if you identify as a lightworker and feel a strong sense of spiritual mission in this lifetime, you are among those souls who >A( incarnated countless times in a lifetime of spiritual ser$ice # such as a nun, monk, oracle, druid or spiritual teacher !to gi$e a few e&les".
In the end, what we are all working towards is a balance between the spiritual and the physical. /e came here to be incarnated and to enjoy the physical plane as fully as we can, while keeping a connection to spirit.
Conclusions
8pirituality should not consume your life to the detriment of the human aspects, unless you choose the life of a renunciate, where your physical needs are taken care of by others. You can ha$e a strong calling for spiritual ser$ice and li$e a full, rich life which honours all of the facets of being human. 2hat means accepting and enjoying all the human, physical functions too.
ow I reali5ed that I was out of balance
2he rst time I had my palm read a few years ago, the reader told me I was barely here’. I didn’t know what he meant straight away. 2o clarify, he told me that I didn’t like earthly life $ery much. I was here reluctantly, and wasn’t willing to engage with all aspects of life.
I would ha$e made a really great nun because I started going to church around the age of ten+ele$en on my own # !I felt called to go." 8ince the age of B, I was ha$ing !and seeking" spiritual and psychic e&periences. !You can read more about my early e&periences here."
In my late teens, I was able to tap into my spirit !or higher self" to such an e&tent that I’d feel ama5ingly e&pansi$e, high and able to take on the world. Connecting to spirit brought feelings of bliss, ecstasy and connection with e$erything. I had the ability to see the beauty and spirit in e$erything. /hen I wasn’t happy in my life, I’d escape into this world. It was like putting on a pair of tinted, rosecoloured spectacles.
2his was an enchanting but also $ery isolating path for a teenage girl to take. I didn’t know anyone besides my =randmother who knew about connecting to spirit and getting high on that !and we’re not talking the li0uor kind either-" It felt like no one really could relate to me.
In addition, at the time, life got a little bit harsher. 8ome traumatic things happened in my family that I wanted to escape from, and I escaped them by sleeping for up to BD hours at a time when I could. /hen I turned BE, I escaped them by running away and tra$elling and that is a pattern that I was still in, eight years later. /hen I was BF, my family mo$ed to :ew Gealand !without me" and as weird as it may sound, I was glad. 2here was no more drama in my family, plus I had my spirit guides and my connection to spirit and whate$er bad stu* happened to me, I felt I would be ;H because of that.
'ut on the negati$e side, I was 8; spiritually focused and needed the spiritual support so much, that I became di55y, impractical, absent. I was away with the fairies and in another realm, with my upper chakras wide open and my lower chakras !my emotional and human life" completely neglected. I did the bare minimum to keep my human, physical life ticking along.
7osing my 6oots
2o make matters worse, when my parents mo$ed away, it remo$ed a solid foundation from my life because I lost my family o$ernight and I didn’t see them for a long time. 2hat further weakened my connection to the (arth plane, and sense of belonging somewhere. > couple of years later, I became in$ol$ed in healing and psychic work, worked from home and bam # some time last year I reali5ed I had become a nun, but without the support of a religious order. I must ha$e seemed reclusi$e, fragile and a bit otherworldly because I was so ungrounded.
8ince then I ha$e been working on opening up my lower chakras and agreeing to fully engage with life # all aspects of it. 'ut I had to su*er a lot emotionally before I reali5ed that was necessary. 2he su*ering I went through was perhaps necessary for me to be su)ciently moti$ated to nally break an old $ow of spiritual ser$ice to the e&clusion of e$erything else. 8ymptom of Imbalance B1 You feel lightheaded and spacey in your body.
8uggestion1 Check in with your eating habits.
Your eating habits can either help tether you to the earth plane or they can destabili5e and unground you.
'oth $eganism and raw $eganism I nd to be ungrounding for me, personally. ;ften people ask during spirit guide coaching if a raw or high raw $egan diet is right for them at this time and the answer is usually something along the lines of no, not unless you are willing to su*er some imbalance.’ 'eing on that kind of diet as a psychic or $ery spiritual person re0uires a $ery st rong foundation and a good connection to reality. If you don’t ha$e that, it will unbalance you.
I bring this issue up because many people do become drawn to a really pure and light diet when they begin to get interested in spirituality or psychic de$elopment. /hen you open your upper chakras, you might be drawn to gi$ing up meat !the meateating students on my spirit guides coaching course often tell me that they notice an a$ersion to meat as the weeks go by".
2hen as people become e$en more sensiti$e, they may be drawn to gi$ing up sh. 2hen some people take it one step further and gi$e up animal products. 8ome then feel drawn to gi$ing up cooked food and become raw $egans. 2his is a natural !but rather e&treme" progression and one I went through about BJ months ago. %irst, I was $egetarian, then $egan for a while, then I tried raw $eganism for K weeks, twice. :ow I ha$e come full circle and I’m eating sh and chicken again. 8ome people ha$e arguments against eating meat but this is the most grounding diet for me personally.
;ther ways to unground yourself with your diet includeL
:ot eating enough and not eating regularly. (ating three good meals daily and at regular inter$als is more grounding than eating small snacks here and there because it sends your energy out of your head and into your digesti$e system on a regular basis. If you miss meals regularly or if you fast, it isn’t good for the lower chakras # or put in a nonjargon way, it’s bad for you as a human being who is trying to stay tethered to the (arth plane. 6egular eating connects us to the earth.
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8ymptom of Imbalance K1 You neglect your body habitually and you don’t care about your personal appearance
>nother 8uggestion1 ay more attention to your body
> great way to take your focus away from your upper chakras and put it on your lower chakras is to pamper your body !on an ongoing basis" and really pay it some attention.
/ays to do this include1 spending more time and money on grooming # getting a new haircut, painting your nails9 getting a pedicure or manicure9 updating your wardrobe !throwing out all your old clothes that you no longer wear and getting some new ones that you lo$e wearing and which make you feel great". In$esting money and energy on your appearance and the way you feel in your body !instead of in$esting it in psychic de$elopment, spiritual growth or some such thing" will help to mo$e energy out of your upper chakras. If you’re $ery out of balance, it might be a good idea to set aside some of your budget each month especially to celebrate and take care of your physicality and beauty. I know that this may seem not a $ery appealing task, especially if it’s the middle of winter and you ha$e no money but those are the times when you really need to go shopping !e$en if it’s to the thrift+charity shop". I myself ha$e been guilty of wearing jogging bottoms to work and brown and black all the time !especially in the winter and seeing as I work from home". 'ut it’s great for your sacral chakra if you can dress up in something beautiful and colourful more often, and allow yourself to wear nice things e$en if you’re not lea$ing the house.
You ha$e probably seen those 2A shows where they take a drab, unhappylooking person and turn them into someone who looks and feels ten times better because of their haircut and the way they dress. 2hat’s the power of spending time and money on your appearance # it gi$es yourself and others the message I honour, lo$e and celebrate my physical aspect.’ >nd that’s important if you are out of balance with spirituality.
>nother way to honour your physicality is to e&ercise regularly # walking is ;H but something that raises your heart rate on a regular basis is e$en better. I walk a
couple of miles per day but presently I don’t ha$e acti$ities such as cardio which raise my heart rate. I ha$e done in the past, though and I ha$e noticed the di*erence it makes to feeling physically present.
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8ymptom of Imbalance 1 you spend loads of time working on your beliefs, goals and plans but you rarely create real change in your life or accomplish anything
8uggestion1 =et out of your head and just take the ne&t ob$ious step in front of you.
/hen you ha$e a lot of energy in your upper chakras, you may need to get something done, but you can be stuck in planning, $isuali5ing, dreaming, theori5ing, tying yourself up in knots and going nowhere fast with that. >t those times, you will need to turn your brain and mind’s eye o* and just ask yourself # what is the ne&t step that I could take now to mo$e towards what I want !e$en if it is really a baby step". >nd take it. 2hat takes you straight out of the realm of ideas and into the realm of action.
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8ymptom of Imbalance N1 2he world seems like a $ery harsh and tragic place all the time
8uggestion1 8top taking e$erything so seriously and go and ha$e some fun !stimulates the sacral chakra"
8piritual, empathic people can feel people’s plight and are often thinking about how to sa$e the world. %rom there it’s not an easy transition to ha$ing fun and seeing the light side of life, yet you need that too as a human being. 6emember that life is not just a school and your purpose isn’t to sa$e the world from itself. 7ife is also a fun playground, so switch o* from your spiritual mission and make sure you do something that really tickles you regularly. 2his isn’t about going for a walk on your
own or something dull like that. I mean real fun. =o and see a standup comedy act, see a friend who makes you laugh really hard, go dancing, etc. Connect with the fun and playful you. %ind something that you can do regularly in your week to ll this need for fun and playing.
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8ymptom of Imbalance O1 You are neglecting the practical side of your life
8uggestion1 %ocus attention on your nances and physical sur$i$al !stimulates the root chakra"
aperwork ;$erload Checking your bank balance e$ery day is good because it connects you to your nancial reality. 4aking a budget is $ery grounding because it reins your energy in and makes you aware of your present limitations.
Cleaning, organi5ing and tidying is especially good for grounding, as is attending to errands and all those little jobs you ha$e been meaning to do for a while. reparing food, cooking and baking are all $ery grounding too. >ll those aspects of physical life are what you need to attend to, in order to stay grounded.
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%I:>77YL
>ll this talk of cooking, baking and budgeting is all helpful stu* to some degree, but let’s get to the heart of the issue.
If you are out of balance with your spirituality, you might be running away from something or someone. Imbalanced spirituality can become a form of escapism.
/hat are you trying to escape from?
It could be a past situation that is too di)cult to address and process in a normal, human, emotional way, so you spirituali5e it. It could be someone who hurt you.
ere’s a good way of knowing what you could be escaping from1
/hat is the thing you still cry about for seemingly no reason? !especially when you’re ill or feeling down" /hat do you dislike about your life that you want to change? >t some point, we all ha$e wounds that make us want to stay in bed and hide away from the world. 2here are $ery few people who reach a certain age and ha$e no wounds at all. %ind out what yours are and address them in an emotional way. /e can resol$e things on the le$el of spirit, but we must bring the healing down into the emotional and physical plane for anything to change. 8ometimes action needs to be taken to put them to bed.
If you feel your spiritual addiction is connected to something traumatic that happened in the past !or to someone else", you might want to think about booking a cord cutting session. I am passionate about this techni0ue because it is the one that has helped me most with becoming more grounded.
/hat about you? /hat keeps you from engaging fully with life? 8piritual lo$e is the awareness that we are all ;:( and that the nature of 8ource is lo$e. 2herefore we can lo$e anyone and e$eryone as they are a re3ection of us and the ;:(+8ource+=od. 2his is a lo$e characteri5ed by detachment !stories, drama" and the absence of lower emotions. 2his is where we can surrender and lo$e what I8 and see the perfection in e$erything including the so called atrocities of humanity. 8piritual lo$e comes from our connection with 8ource through the embodiment of our igher 8elf. uman lo$e !for intimate relationships" on the other hand is characteri5ed by the attraction of polar opposites, a magnetism. It is based on separation with the underlying desire to become ;:( through the act of lo$e. 2his energy dynamic is what spawns feelings of passion, sensuality and the desire for connection. 2his lo$e
is largely based on emotions and attachment. /e can e&perience anger and strong reactions of defense and protection if someone threatens the safety of our belo$ed, lo$ing what is can sometimes become a challenge. /hen we are in a relationship we must balance how we e&perience and e&press these two types of lo$e. If we are always in a state of spiritual lo$e we would fail to emotionally connect with our partners and enjoy a healthy attachment. /e would appear to distant, too holy and inhuman, often a$oiding feelings of pain and sadness. ;n the other hand if we are fullon in a state of human lo$e then we can get too emotional and o$er e&perience pain, drama, su*ering and attachment. eople who are constantly ha$ing strong emotional and mental reactions ha$e not culti$ated enough the skill of detachment that comes with spiritual lo$e and self mastery. 'alance these aspects of yourself and you will enjoy a $ery fullling, rich and empowering relationship. >nd if you are constantly struggling when it comes to relationships then it might be $ery wise to cut all cords of attachments between you and other people.
