The Hermit: A Phase of Awakening

One of the most well-known phases of the awakening process is the spiritual isolation phase or the hermit phase. You are likely entering this phase, deeply immersed in it, or emerging from it. What I want to tell you is that it is just a phase in a process and it is temporary, even though it might feel like your world is falling apart.

I want to share a bit of my personal experience and challenges, and how I managed to come out of this phase. During this phase, we generally lose friendships and our sense of who we are, which makes it very difficult to integrate, leading us to isolate and exclude ourselves. We step away from our social circles, and often leave our jobs and careers, and sometimes long-term relationships are transformed. Many profound changes are happening?—?you’re shifting perspectives, changing the way you see things, beliefs are healing, and you’re seeing yourself more clearly, removing veils, recognizing your own masks. You’re going through a lot, and generally, you’re not understood.

Our family sees us as if we’re completely lost and dejected. Sometimes we have very little energy and feel completely scattered. We fill ourselves with information because, indeed, we are seeking answers. We fill ourselves with ideas, concepts, and our minds are divided into many things. It is unclear what we want to do, where we are going, but something keeps us from returning and something drives us to keep going.

I would consider that my spiritual awakening, my awakening of consciousness, began two years before entering this hermit stage. During my awakening, I felt liberated, very happy, with many synchronicities. I started meeting new people, discovering new authors, books, and everything felt magical. I felt very brave. I also left my city, my relationships, my job as an engineer in a reputable corporate company, and I wasn’t afraid?—?I fully trusted the universe, and I trust, I trust life.

At that time, I wasn’t clear about many things, but I knew there was something more. There was a divine law, and everything would work out, I had faith.

As time passed, and those initial emotions faded, I found myself in an even deeper and also painful process. Painful to see myself, to see the infinite potential of the soul while simultaneously experiencing the limitation of the material, being in between and not knowing who you are, where you are going, or what you want. It is very difficult to integrate into society.

When I started this process, I didn’t know who I was, and I couldn’t relate normally. I couldn’t even relate to myself. I didn’t know who I was and didn’t want to continue in a world that I didn’t understand, which seemed increasingly superficial and distant, and I sought isolation. It was during this time that I delved deeply within myself with many insecurities and doubts, and then I decided to close my social media accounts.

This was in 2013, and for seven years, I remained completely isolated from family, friends, with minimal contact with my family, as necessary because I didn’t feel understood. There was a lot of love, but something wasn’t working, and I couldn’t explain what was happening. It was madness because, in addition, we are emotionally sensitive, our hearts, our feelings, our empathy?—?all are opening up. We become more sensitive to people, places, situations, the world. I needed space and to isolate myself until I understood what was happening with me.

At that time, I didn’t understand that it was just a phase, but it helped me have a lot of faith that something would come out of this, that God had not abandoned me, that I wasn’t just in a dark night or several dark nights, times of darkness. Inside all that, there were magical places within me where I rediscovered that flame and kept myself afloat in this experience.

Yes, I lost friendships, I had no job or employment. I sustained myself doing any temporary job that allowed me to cover my basic needs and focus on what I most wanted to do: to learn. To study, understand myself, know myself, and this was made possible by that time of isolation. It allowed me to go deep, see my own light, and gradually come out of this stage. Emerging with greater self-confidence, greater understanding of who I am, a better understanding of what essence lies within me. Growing in confidence, growing in self-empowerment, taking greater responsibility and leadership over my life and situations.

I learned to protect that empathetic and sensitive part of myself to integrate into the world and with people, and it is a process I am still undergoing, still integrating.

That’s why I want to remind you that if you are in this phase, stay calm; it will pass, but make the most of it because this phase is important.

Let yourself be destroyed so you can be rebuilt. Live this process with faith. Connect with your spirit; there lie the answers. Other teachers are just guides, signs on the path, directing you where to look, where to go, and they will generally lead you to yourself, to your inner self. That’s where you will find it and begin to develop that mastery of yourself. Knowing yourself, knowing your dark and negative sides, and also seeing your positive and luminous side, creating a harmonious, balanced, and congruent personality. But this can only emerge after a process of destruction, destruction of your beliefs, your thoughts, letting go, and letting go, and letting go, and continuing to let go. Because consciousness, understanding, happens in stages, and we advance, we evolve.

My family also saw me as a lost cause, and I saw myself that way too. There were days when I doubted, wondering, “What am I doing? Is my life passing me by, and am I completely lost? What have I gotten myself into?” It happens, don’t worry, you’ll be okay.

We are supported. Yes, if life has guided you to this process of isolation for spiritual awakening or another process of self-discovery, embrace it. Welcome it, hold on tightly to a higher power, to God. For me, it helps to see God as a Father, to relate from a sense of filial connection; it gives you strength, faith, and guidance. The spirit guides you and speaks to you.

Let’s help each other to become, to transform into better human beings, conscious, present, useful for this world that needs our light, and that’s why we’re here.