STAGE 1:
"Unhappiness, despondency, and feeling lost." This is a time of confusion, disconnection, alienation, depression, and great unhappiness with life. You are searching for something, but you don't quite know what. There is a great looming emptiness inside of you. This stage either emerges spontaneously or due to a life crisis (e.g. breakup, divorce, death, trauma, illness, major life change).
STAGE 2:
"Shifting perspectives." In this stage, you start to perceive reality in a totally different way. You start seeing through the lies and delusions propagated by society. You feel unhappy with life, disturbed by the suffering you see and hopeless to the ills of the world. Overall, you no longer see life as you once did in your previous state of complacent unawareness.
STAGE 3:
"Seeking answers and meaning." There must be a point to all this, right? In this stage, you're asking all the deep questions. You are in search of your life purpose, spiritual destiny, and the meaning of life itself. You will start dabbling in different metaphysical, self~help, and esoteric fields in search for answers and truth.
STAGE 4:
"Finding answers and experiencing breakthroughs." After a lot of soul searching, you'll find a few teachers, practices, or belief systems that ease your existential suffering. You will feel a sense of expansion as old patterns dissolve and your true self (soul) begins to emerge. You may have a number of mystical experiences or brief moments of satori (enlightenment) that give you a glimpse into the ultimate nature of reality. This is a time of joy, hope, connection, and awe.
STAGE 5:
"Disillusionment and feeling lost again." In this stage, you become bored and tired of your spiritual teachers or practices. You may become disillusioned by the faux spiritual BS out there and crave for something deeper. You may have even experienced long periods of connection with the Divine, only to become separated again (this is normal). Understandably, you'll feel disturbed and deeply upset by this experience.
STAGE 6:
"Deeper inner work." In this stage, you're not interested in dabbling in feel~good spiritual philosophies or surface practices anymore. The abiding pain you feel inside motivates you to do deep inner work. You may become a serious student of meditation, mindfulness, ritual, inner child work, shadow work, body work or various other transpersonal philosophies.
STAGE 7:
"Integration, expansion, joy." In this stage, you'll experience the most profound and long~lasting changes deep within. Life will become less about you and more about We. Your perspective will expand and you will start seeing things from the big picture. Above all else, you will feel connected, at peace with yourself, and deeply aligned with Life.