3 Reasons Why You Feel Spiritual Sadness
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“Rain patters on the rafters of your mind. Dark emotions fill the voids where the sun once shone. Dreams feel out of reach, or maybe just past the grasp of your own fingertips. The shelters you once hunkered down in to weather the storm, now feel hollow and empty. Night has now dawned, no matter the time of day, and slowly but surely, you feel yourself slipping away.”
Does this sound familiar? Just walking down your spiritual path, minding your own darn business. You’re cruising through playlists and podcasts, slamming chapters closed on audiobooks, absolutly crushing the goals you’ve made for youself and you feel on top of the world. And then, AND THEN
Dark clouds seem to be everywhere. You brush your teeth and toothpaste falls on your fresh out of the dresser shirt so you’ve been deduced to the chair shirt. You know the one. Not clean enough to go in the dresser, but not dirty enough to get washed either. All the stoplights are red and you’ve been cut off 3 times on your way to work this morning. As you pull into the parking lot at work, your gas tank light shines bright and realize you have a nail in the sidewall of your tire.
Life sucks today, and you don’t know why. You’ve been doing all the things you’re suppossed to do, you know? You’ve been riding this path and kid, this isn’t even your first rodeo.
Friends, this has been my life the past few weeks. I won’t go on and on about the dark night of the soul, or the trenches we find ourselves in when walking the enlightened path, but I will say that I lived it. And I lived through it, long enough to see the other side.
I was experiencing something I call Spiritual Sadness. If you’re in the doom and gloom state now, don’t beat yourself up too hard. There’s reasons for the seasons, right? Let’s try to figure this one out together. Find out below why I was feeling so blue, and how I worked through my spiritual sadness and actually gain respect for it.
Why Does Everything Suck Right Now?
From home life to the work grind, everything feels off. You can’t put your finger on it, but somethings hanging around that you wish would just git up and get. I sure did. I felt like I failed, and I hate feeling that way. All of my usual coping skills were not working, and honestly, the embarrising and abrupt screams I made into the void just made me feel guilty rather than expressed.
Here are the 3 biggest reasons I was in such a funk, and how I worked through the musty stank of spiritual sadness. I hope that you can find peace in my journey that there’s someone else out there that has experienced the same things you have.
1. Burnout from Shadow Work and Inner Child Healing
Diving deep into the reservoirs of my past traumas and the shadowy corners of my psyche is in no way a small feat. It’s powerful, necessary work. But just as the body can tire from too much physical exertion, so too can our emotional and spiritual selves feel exhausted from the constant digging and delving. I was doing so many healthy, helpful things that I thought were helping me, but I forgot about the Rule of Moderation.
I was EFT Tapping for 2+ hours a day. If I wasn’t doing that I was listening to Inner Child Healing Affirmations . Oh and the amount of Shadow Work journaling I was doing? Insane. Then, every night, I’d meditate until I fell asleep. But then came spiritual sadness to help me see that I was pushing myself past my own limits
I let spirituality and my egotistical want for my goals instant manifestation take over my life. I released so much energy and trauma, but my body had no way to recover because I kept hitting it with more.
If this sounds familiar, then let me say this: You’ve been brave, dear soul, facing those hidden parts of yourself, but remember—every digger must occasionally come up for air. Spiritual sadness is real, but it’s nothing to fear.
Affirmations seem to really help me when I’m consumed in darkness. Below are affirmations I created to help me see the light.
Using These Affirmations
- Daily Practice: Integrate these affirmations into your daily routine. Say them in the morning or before bed to set a positive tone for the day or promote restful sleep.
- Meditation: Repeat them during meditation to deepen their impact.
- Journaling: Write them down in a journal, reflecting on each one and how it resonates with you.
- Visual Reminders: Create visual reminders by writing these affirmations on sticky notes and placing them around your home, workspace, or anywhere you’ll see them regularly.
Visualization
While repeating these affirmations, visualize yourself feeling joyful, peaceful, and fulfilled. Imagine the light within you growing stronger and brighter, dispelling any darkness. Feel the love and support of the universe surrounding you, guiding you through this time of spiritual growth.
By consistently practicing these affirmations, you can shift your mindset and open yourself up to healing and transformation.
2. Goals Feel Distant and Unattainable
When I first set these goals, they sparkled with possibility, gleaming like stars to guide me through the night. But the journey has been longer and more winding than expected, hasn’t it? (It sure has, it sssssuuuuuurrrrreeee has). Sometimes, those stars seem to recede into the darkness, no closer than when you first began. This distance isn’t a sign of your failure; rather, it’s a natural feeling when the paths we walk stretch us beyond our current limits. Spiritual sadness is a sign from your mind, body, and spirit.
I wallowed for a few days. I’d find myself crying and then become mad at myself for doing so. My Spiritual sadness manifested my negative self talk back full swing, pedal to the floor, and it wasn’t playing nice. I felt so far away from my goals and ever futher from myself. Instead of seeing the small steps I was taking toward my goals, I was only seeing how far away they really are. I began using goal setting software to help me reach these top tier goals that felt unattainable. It’s really helped me compartmentalize and actualize my goals into tangible, workable pieces.
When we loose sight of the bigger picture, and narrow in on only the pleasentries that we want to manifest, we loose the understanding of the process. I knew from the rip that it wasn’t going to be easy. I never asked or begged for it to be smooth, but when the times did get tough, I folded.
My want for my personal desires overshadowed my need to work towards them. It’s funny how paradoxical we are. We want something so badly that we push it away. Yet again, this is not unheard of. You are not the only beam of light to wither in the pain of your bruised ego, and neither am I. I started to realize that this dense, fog-like darkness was another version of Shadow Work that I had to work through. Heal through. Cry through. This pain from spiritual sadness is real, but it’s also a necessary lesson.
Expectations of Progress
Ah, the visions we hold for ourselves! How cruel they can sometimes be. I thought I’d be further along by now. From feeling like a failure because I was ‘too far away’ from my goals, I then decided to re-assess my progress thus far, fully cloacked in the dark shadow. At first, this just made my spiritual sadness even worse.
So why do we choose to torture ourselves by getting upset that we’re not a level 50 when we log into the game? Why do we shame ourselves for grinding through the 49 levels before we have our prize? For me, it seemed that I just wanted to be sad. I allowed myself to become so exhausted that my body had to find a way to slow me down.
If I’m mad at everything I’m doing, and upset that nothing is working, I’m going to stop, at least for a little while. Do you see the connection there? It’s another big lesson for me in my spiritual transformation: Slow the eff down! You can’t get to 50 if you don’t actually play the game. I guess sometimes, spiritual sadness is a facet of the game that needs to be overcome.
We often judge our journeys not by the miles we’ve traveled but by the miles we haven’t. Yet, every step forward, no matter how small, is progress. The road to enlightenment is rarely straight; it loops and turns, dances and doubles back, each step a story of its own.
Lighting the Lamps Again: How To Recover From Spiritual Sadness
Ok lady. We’ve heard enough. We get you were sad. We get that there were lessons. But how in the hee-haw heck do we get out of this funk? We want our freaking lives back!
(I hear you). Feeling lost is a part of finding your way. Spiritual sadness is not as uncommon as you think, and actually, many great philosophers and spiritual leaders such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Mother Teresa have spoken on it. If we’ve never felt lost and hopeless, can we truly appriciate the feeling of belonging? Here are a few lanterns to light your path as you walk this dark night
Rest and Replenish
First, allow yourself the space to rest. If you’ve been deeply engaged in shadow work or healing, it’s okay to take a break. This doesn’t mean you’re giving up; you’re simply giving yourself the chance to integrate what you’ve learned, to heal from the healing. To reset. Like fields left fallow to restore their nutrients, so too does your spirit need time to regenerate.
I live by the 1% rule. As long as I am doing something within my day that will bring me happiness, joy, or bring me closer to my goals 1% more, then I feel accomplished. Sometimes this looks like writing full articles or blog posts on my website, and sometimes this looks like playing videogames with my boyfriend. I am (very slowly) starting to get a hang of the balancing act between work and play.
Reevaluate Your Goals
Sometimes, we set our sights on a star not meant for us, or perhaps we outgrow the dreams we once held dear. Take a moment to look at your goals. Are they still what you want? Do they need reshaping to align with the person you’ve become? It’s okay to redraw the maps of your ambitions.
Other times our goals are very large and meaningful to us, but not easily attainable (this is where I’m at right now). I want so badly to move to another part of the world, yet it feels so far away. In meditation, the word ‘adjust’ keeps popping up, and I really feel that’s a word anyone dealing with the stress and anxiety of unfruited goals needs to hear. Adjust your strategy to change your trajectory.
Celebrate Small Victories
In the vastness of the spiritual landscape, it’s easy to overlook the small milestones. Celebrate them. Each and every one is a testament to your resilience and commitment. Write them down, speak them aloud, share them with those closest to you. Let them remind you of the ground you’ve covered, rather than the distance you’ve yet to travel.
Sometimes, getting out of bed is a small victory. Other times finishing up a project on time, or making that phone call you’ve been dreading for days. If we don’t pat ourselves on the back for the small things we accomplish in this life, no one else will. Don’t seek others approval, create that apporval within yourself. That’s the appoval that really matters.
Connect with Community
Remember, you are not alone. Others have walked this path, felt this despair, and found their way through. Reach out. Share your journey, your struggles, your victories. There is immense power in community, in the shared experiences that bind us. Let the wisdom and compassion of others be your guideposts.
I am very introverted and interospective. It’s hard for me to create and maintain relationships with people outside of my daily life. It’s been a struggle for me for as long as I can remember, and when I brought it up to someone, they too had this issue. The more I began speaking about it, the more people I realized actually choose to suffer alone because we don’t know where or who to go to.
If you’re looking for a nice, healing community, The World Tapping Circle comes highly reccomended from me. It’s filled with tons of like-minded, kind-hearted souls that want what is best for humanity.
Of course, if you feel your spiritual sadness turning more into spiritual depression, please consider seeking professional help. I reccomend Calmerry‘s online therapists. They offer a wide variety of talk and text therapy modalities that can be super helpful in times of need.
And so friends, as you continue to walk through this dark night of spiritual sadness, remember that it is always darkest before the dawn. The reaching of destinations is what we stive for, but it’s the transformation that occurs along the way that is the real gift. Transformation cannot occur without drastic, dramatic, and unstablalized energies entering our paths. Keep going, keep growing, and soon, you’ll find that the sun has begun to rise on the horizon, greeting you with the promise of a new day, filled with new light and new possibilities.
With so much love and gratitude,
If you’re looking for more content like this, visit my full website below, which has lots of information and resources on a wide range of spiritual subjects
