What Is Spiritual Awareness? How to Develop It & Unlock Benefits
Ever felt like you're watching your life from the sidelines—a quiet observer amid the chaos of thoughts, deadlines, and endless scrolling—wondering if there's a deeper 'you' waiting to wake up?
That's the whisper of spiritual awareness calling, and it's not some distant enlightenment; it's the key to unlocking inner peace, profound connections, and a life that feels truly authentic.
TAPPING INTO SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
Like many things on the spiritual path, spiritual awareness can be difficult to grasp if you haven't experienced it knowingly. I say knowingly, because it's such an inherent part of who you are, for sure, there are times in your life when you have been spiritually aware.
Whether it was a deep knowing that you couldn't explain, a psychic experience that came from nowhere, or a sense of pure beingness that permeated you for a moment. Your spirituality is just one dimension of who you are amongst others, and being aware of your spiritual dimension is part of what it means to be a human being.
Some people develop their spiritual awareness along the spiritual path. Others catch glimpses of their spiritual awareness randomly. But for most people, they are unaware.
That's because on a day-to-day basis, most people live in their heads. Modern society is cognicentric. We value cognitive ability and thinking. Our biggest influence is the constant stream of thoughts running through our heads. This pre-occupation and distraction result in us being totally oblivious to our other dimensions.
As multi-dimensional beings, when we strive to understand and develop awareness of our other dimensions, we flourish and grow as people. Today, I'm going to focus on spiritual awareness. If you're interested to learn more about how multi-dimensional we are and the benefits of working with these facets, find out more in my wellness wheel article.
WHAT IS SPIRITUAL AWARENESS?
Spiritual awareness is awareness of the nonphysical world, the nonmaterial world. The more ethereal aspects of life. Those that are more intangible and ineffable, but just as real all the same.
The manifest physical world is transient, ever-changing, and impermanent. Spiritual awareness is directing our conscious awareness towards that which remains when everything goes. And that gives us a sense of inner peace, connection, and a deeper meaning to life.
MY PERSPECTIVES ON SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
My perspective on spiritual awareness has developed over the thirty-something years I've been on my spiritual journey. And it's a bit eclectic to say the least.
I searched for answers in the Bible, embraced Eastern religions and philosophy through practices like yoga, breathwork, meditation, and Qi Gong, explored crystals, Reiki, psychic and mediumship, and took a deep academic dive into transpersonal psychology.
Ultimately though, my perspective is informed by the mystical experiences I've had along the way. You could say a mystical experience is spiritual awareness at its peak, and I lived in that state for over a year.
Spiritual awareness is, for me, the natural perfume of spiritual awakening. It's the recognition through experience that we are spiritual beings living in physical bodies. And orienting ourselves to that spirit self, our true nature. It's the ability to tap into that spiritual essence, the truth of who we are, at our core. The part of us that never dies. That sacred part, that beingness, that expansiveness.
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS ACROSS TRADITIONS
Every culture, tradition, and civilisation has its perspective on spiritual awareness. And it's good to dive in, because they each speak to something deeper inside of us - our spiritual awareness!
YOGIC PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
Yoga is all about the cultivation of higher consciousness and spiritual awareness, uniting the individual soul (Jivatman) with the universal soul (Paramatman) through the Eight Limbs of Yoga.
Through yoga, we develop moment-by-moment spiritual awareness of the true Self (Atman or Purusha), transcending ego, mind fluctuations (chitta vritti), and the illusory material world (Prakriti).
Spiritual awareness is achieved via practices like pranayama, dharana, dhyana, and meditation, which lead to Samadhi—a state of blissful, non-dual absorption in pure consciousness (Chit)—fostering interconnectedness, compassion, inner peace, enlightenment, and balance of the gunas (tamas, rajas, sattva).
If you want to understand spiritual awareness through yogic philosophy, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with commentary by Swami Venkatesananda is by far the most amazing book I have come across. Check it out in my spiritual book shop in the spirituality section.
TRANSPERSONAL AWARENESS
Transpersonal psychology investigates the use of spiritual concepts, practices, and states of consciousness for well-being and human flourishing. It's a psychology that, unlike traditional psychology, acknowledges the importance of spiritual and transpersonal awareness.
Transpersonal psychology explores and advocates for experiences that extend awareness beyond the individual sense of personal identity. It includes non-ordinary states of consciousness, such as those from meditation, psychedelics, EHE, or peak experiences like mystical experiences, leading to a profound sense of interconnectedness and oneness with all beings. This awareness promotes psychological development, emotional resilience, compassion, and a sense of purpose by integrating spiritual and psychological insights.
CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
In Christianity, spiritual awareness is the consciousness of spiritual matters resulting from Christ's redemption, where believers are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
Spiritual awareness involves having opened spiritual eyes to recognise sin, God's grace, the enemy's lies, the Holy Spirit's comfort, and the ongoing spiritual battle. This awareness shifts focus to heavenly things over earthly ones, enabling worship in spirit and truth, though it must be discerned to avoid deception by evil spirits.
If you're interested in developing spiritual awareness, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas À Kempis is a powerful tool to help you make the ground fertile for spiritual awareness to flourish. You can find it in my book shop.
BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE ON SPIRITUAL AWARENESS & MINDFULNESS
The Buddhist concept of mindfulness is really a prerequisite for spiritual awareness. The more we master our minds, the more our spiritual awareness grows.
The Buddhist perspective of spiritual awareness is a direct, non-conceptual awareness that we develop through the First Foundation of Mindfulness (mindfulness of the body). By becoming aware of sensations arising in the body without clinging, reacting, or identifying with them, our awareness is awakened.
Spiritual awareness reveals core truths of suffering (dukkha), impermanence (anicca), and not-self (anatta), leading to insight into the Four Noble Truths, non-attachment, equanimity, and ultimate liberation from suffering via the Eightfold Path.
If you're interested in developing spiritual awareness through Buddhist philosophy, I highly recommend doing the 10 Day Vipassana Meditation Residential Course. These retreats are held all over the world. In truth, they are sectarian, and you won't see a single Buddha painting or statue, but you will learn meditation and start to develop your spiritual awareness.
If 10 days sounds too intense or overwhelming, try doing an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course, which was inspired by the Vipassana residential. These courses are held in person and online over 8 weeks, meeting once per week for a couple of hours.
ADVAITA VEDANTA PURE AWARENESS
Spiritual awareness from an Advaita Vedanta perspective is the self-luminous, non-dual consciousness that is the essence of the true Self (Atman), identical with Brahman, the ultimate reality characterised as sat-chit-ananda (existence-consciousness-bliss).
It is the unchanging witness to all phenomena, transcending duality, ignorance (avidya), and illusion (maya). Realisation of this awareness, through knowledge (jnana) and practices like meditation, dispels misidentification with the body-mind, leading to liberation (moksha) and recognition of oneness with all existence.
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS ON THE SPIRITUAL PATH
Developing spiritual awareness is a fundamental aspect of the spiritual journey. And while I talk about developing spiritual awareness, I think it's more of a side effect. Spiritual awareness is what unfolds as we move deeper into our spiritual practices and grow spiritually. It's the fruit of spiritual awakening.
Spiritual growth is a journey of self-discovery, leading to a deeper understanding of life and its meaning. While many people think that spiritual growth comes from transcendent practices like meditation, in truth, we also have to work on our subconscious baggage and psychology. By digging deep into our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world.
This two-pronged approach, known as inner work, helps us become more spiritually aware in a balanced and healthy manner. It protects us from spiritual bypassing, which can happen when we are more spiritually aware than we are aware of our emotions and baggage.
DEVELOPING SELF-AWARENESS
Self-awareness is the foundation of spiritual growth, allowing us to understand our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. By developing self-awareness, we can gain a deeper understanding of our motivations, desires, and fears, and can make choices that align with our values and goals.
Our self-awareness keeps one eye on our ego as we develop spiritually, so we have fewer blind spots. It is self-awareness that protects us from spiritual bypassing as we become more spiritually aware.
This process involves self-reflection, introspection, and a willingness to confront our ego and limitations. As we develop self-awareness, we can begin to see ourselves and the world in a new light, and can experience a sense of freedom and empowerment.
By cultivating self-awareness, we can also develop a greater sense of emotional intelligence, allowing us to navigate relationships and challenges with more ease and clarity.
EGO DEATH AND SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
Ego death is very much part of the process of the spiritual journey and spiritual awakening. And while we can have sudden ego death in a mystical experience or psychedelic experience, generally, ego death is a gradual process.
As we go through the process of ego death, our spiritual awareness automatically increases. It's like our spiritual dimension is hidden by a loud and boisterous egoic identity, but as that egoic identity starts to shrink, our spiritual dimension can start to shine out, and we become more spiritually aware.
DEVELOPING YOUR SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
There are many ways to develop your spiritual awareness. This article has already mentioned several practices like mindfulness and yoga. Any spiritual practice will develop your spiritual awareness. And there are even some surprising hobbies that develop spiritual states of consciousness, too.
A good place to start is to get out of your head. Living in your head, consumed with thoughts of the past and future, is just one big distraction from the more subtle aspects of life, like our spiritual dimension.
Embodiment practice takes our conscious awareness down into our body. We start to tune into the body and its wisdom. Which brings us into presence, the forever now, the home of spiritual awareness.
Breathwork is also a powerful way to still the mind and become attuned to the spiritual dimension.
I've dedicated a lot of my spiritual path to practices that developed my spiritual awareness, these include;
Sivananda Yoga
Qi Gong
Spending time in nature
Vipassana meditation
Mindfulness meditation
Developing psychic and mediumship abilities
Breathwork
Working with crystals
EXPERIENCE SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
Like I said before, spiritual awareness is not totally elusive to the untrained. It's a natural ability that we've forgotten how to use. We all have a spiritual dimension; we are all spirit. We are spiritual beings before we are physical beings. We are spiritual beings inhabiting physical bodies. Spiritual awareness is tapping into that dimension and becoming aware of our spirituality.
Let's see if we can do that now. You wanna try with me?
Close your eyes
Become aware of your conscious ability to direct your awareness towards different things. Like your feet, your hands, and your head.
Now see if you can place your awareness just in front of you so that your attention rests in front of your chest. See if you can expand your awareness just a little.
Now, place your awareness to your left and feel into that space.
Then, to your right, again expand into that space.
Now direct it behind you. Feel into the space behind your back and head.
You can repeat this above and below you.
You are using your spiritual awareness to feel into these spaces. Now expand that awareness out as far as you can reach.
If you managed to do this exercise, this is a great start to developing your spiritual awareness.
THE BENEFITS OF BEING SPIRITUALLY AWARE
Being spiritually aware is powerful on many levels and can have a transformational effect on many areas of your life. There's just something about being aware of our spiritual nature that adds something magical to life. It's what makes life a miracle.
This awareness has an impact on our other dimensions because it increases our sensitivity. We start to see things with new eyes, nature comes alive, we notice beauty where once we filtered it out, we notice how we are in the present moment and how others are too.
This awareness increases well-being markers like inner peace, joy, purpose, and fulfilment. It also increases non-judgment and empathy, enhancing our relationships with others and giving us a greater sense of connection to the world.
We feel more emotionally stable and resourced and experience greater clarity and perception, which helps us to navigate life’s challenges with more ease and clarity.
It also helps us to live in our bodies more and experience our bodies as the divine house of the spirit and part of the natural world, increasing a sense of connection and belonging.
By embracing our spiritual nature, experiencing a sense of wonder, awe, and curiosity becomes a daily occurrence. It's where the magic of life happens, and it enables us to live a more authentic and fulfilling life.
FEELINGS OF LONELINESS
I've shared a lot of positives about spiritual awakening and increased spiritual awareness, but there can be a downside. The more spiritually aware we are, the more we see the world differently from the people around us, and that can sometimes feel lonely.
If you're experiencing this, you might want to read my article, Wish I Had Someone to Talk To: Finding Comfort in Lonely Moments.
THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
Spiritual awakening is a truly transformative experience that can lead to a higher consciousness and a deeper sense of connection to the universe. As we embark on this spiritual journey, we begin to realise our true nature and the world around us, leading to a more profound sense of awareness and consciousness.
This awakening can lead to a sense of oneness with the world and a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of all things. By embracing this new perspective, we can experience a sense of peace, joy, and wonder, and can live a more authentic and meaningful life.
Spiritual awakening and its perfume, spiritual awareness, can also lead to a greater sense of intuition, guiding us on our journey and helping us to make decisions that align with our true selves.
