Consciously or not, we all go through personal transformations.
The reason and purpose for people being born on Earth is to do inner work and reach a new level of consciousness.
Unfortunately, there is little literature on this, and people are reluctant to talk about the dark periods of their lives. And when a person falls into a personal crisis, they often don’t understand what is happening to them, so they are forced to resort to psychotherapy, antidepressants, alcohol, and other means of escaping reality.
A crisis comes into our lives when we are ready and must move to a new level. A crisis is not a punishment, a crisis is an opportunity. But when it comes, we usually don’t know what to expect. It all starts with an inner impulse — with a desire for change.
Read about the stages a person goes through in the process of transformation.
5 Stages of Personal Transformation
Stage 1 — Inner Impulse
A person develops an inexplicable desire for change, a drive to radically change their life, quit their job, get a divorce, dye their hair, go volunteer in Timbuktu…
At this stage, a person encounters a strong inner motive to start taking action and step out of their habitual life script.
It becomes difficult to live a “normal” daily life when you feel like you are suspended between two worlds — the world of trivial material reality and the complex, vibrant world of the Unconscious.
Sometimes a person clings tightly to their comfort zone and simply ignores the inner call. But this experience cannot be avoided; if we don’t go into it consciously, a higher power comes that pushes us out of our comfort zone, destroying everything in its path. And then, we get fired from our job, a loved one leaves, and a streak of obstacles begins. It’s as if everything starts to fall apart.
Challenges of This Stage
1. Fear
“When faced with fear, the mind shows extreme ingenuity in its attempts to cling to something. In such a position, a person can create multidimensional illusions, convincing themselves that everything is already good enough and there is no need to change.
But no being can reach a higher level of existence without the cessation of its ordinary existence.”
Ananda K. Coomaraswamy
The process of personal transformation can be fast and unexpected. Suddenly, comfort and safety seem to disappear, and you start moving in an unknown direction.
Familiar ways of being no longer work, but new ones have not yet appeared. During this period, it is impossible to latch onto any reference points in life, impossible to return to old behaviors and old interests. It may feel like everything you ever were is dying, and the process is irreversible.
See also: Fear of Transformation. Three Reasons.
2. Society
Your native “village” — your familiar close circle, which often does not support the drive for development. Why?
First of all, because they don’t have the inner call. They will try to keep the hero in their comfort zone. Otherwise, they would have to admit that something in their own life isn’t quite right either…
Stage 2 — The First Step into the Unknown
On the path of personal transformation, you must be ready to let go of everything. Release what you’ve accumulated to find something new. Let go of beliefs, values, aspirations, people. When the old no longer serves you, and the new has not yet arrived.
There is always a pause. The result is the most terrible kind of loneliness — a complete and perfect existential alienation that permeates a person’s entire being.
See also: Give to Receive – The First Basic Principle of Transformation
Stage 3 — Trials
A turning point, death, rebirth.
The most painful periods of life are opportunities for change. A wound is not just a wound. A wound is an invitation to its healing. You need to cooperate with the experiences and energies when they arise. The trials come in the form of states, emotions, new circumstances, and difficult experiences.
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote: “The greatest blessing comes through madness — madness truly sent from heaven. It is in a state of madness that the prophetesses at Delphi and the priestesses of Dodona achieved so much, for which both states and individuals in Greece are grateful. In their right mind, they could do very little or nothing at all… madness is a sacred gift when it is granted by the grace of the gods.”
See also: Three Steps Needed to Activate a Sense of Inner Strength
Stage 4 — The Gift of Power
Great pain brings great transformation. When the hero emerges from the painful process, having successfully overcome the trials and won the battle with their past self, they gain pearls of wisdom.
Every situation becomes a gift when you live it consciously and extract grains of knowledge. The gift of power becomes a solid inner stability, the development of non-attachment, the discovery of self-worth, a new paradigm of thinking, and a higher level of consciousness.
See also: Changes in Life. What They Mean for You
Stage 5 — Return and a New Life
After successfully completing the journey, the hero returns home and lives a full and honorable life with a new awareness of the universal order and their own divine nature.
To ecologically walk your hero’s path without getting stuck in hopelessness, depression, and despair — remember the impermanence and temporariness of any state. Nothing in life is guaranteed except constant change. This is the law of nature.
Day gives way to night, winter gives way to summer, and vice versa. On Earth, we experience a vast spectrum of sensations and states. Remember that they, too, are not eternal.
They exist only within the framework of our physical body, only in this incarnation. By developing acceptance and gratitude, we learn to accept everything as a priceless gift of life — both happiness and pain equally. Attention and awareness are friends on the path.
See also: 4 Traps of Transformation
Nowadays, many people display pain points or traps of transformation: the inability to switch from the mind to feeling; the desire to control, to manage, “so that it is the way I want it”; a feeling of one’s own specialness/uniqueness/being above or below another; ego desires.
The article examines each of them in more detail.