When your spiritual path is blocked, overcoming spiritual stagnation and removing spiritual roadblocks is essential for every spiritual explorer. Do you know how to recognize the roadblocks of unhealthy thought patterns and stagnant growth?
Learning the warning signs and how to remove the roadblocks to your growth is important. It could be the Universe attempting to teach you something, an issue from the past that needs attention, or interference from some unhealthy programming.
What is Spiritual Stagnation
Stagnation in the spiritual sense is the lack of personal growth. It culminates in two primary ways. The first is feeling blocked, and this can be very frustrating. You may feel your life isn’t moving in the direction you think it should. Something’s blocking your path and holding you back. I didn’t say if you get blocked, but when because if you are walking an authentic spiritual path, you’ll encounter roadblocks.
The second way stagnation culminates is when people are stuck in a comfort zone. If you’ve been studying and doing the same thing for years, that may be comfortable, but it’s a sign of a spiritual trap. Overcoming spiritual stagnation is impossible unless you recognize it and decide to do something about it.
It’s a comfort zone which is an unhealthy zone. Some people follow routines ingrained by self-hypnosis. They aren’t growing; they get stuck in a rut and don’t realize it because they follow a religion, a teacher, or both. That’s when it’s time to diagnose what’s going on.
If you are growing spiritually and intellectually, you’ll discover the potholes caused by living in a modern culture that is permeated with enormous amounts of propaganda and negative programming. Eventually, you’ll need to remove spiritual roadblocks if you want to grow.
When your spiritual practice becomes a habitual ritual, and you feel you aren’t getting anywhere, you know something is wrong. Many people don’t recognize the warning signs or don’t want to know that their beloved religion is a dead end. I hope this isn’t you. But if it is despair not, there is a way out.
“Allow for many paths to your goal. Do not fixate on one path, because then you are likely to give up when that path is blocked.” — Po Bronson
When Your Spiritual Path is Blocked
The signs of stagnant growth are related to unhealthy thinking and behavior, which results in a lack of real growth and development. Read this list of behaviors and see if any of these seem familiar.
“Every individual has to assume responsibility for his or her own actions, even the poor and the young. A social system that decrees otherwise is inviting intellectual atrophy and spiritual stagnation.” — Tom Robbins
“Any hope that America would finally grow up vanished with the rise of fundamentalist Christianity. Fundamentalism, with its born-again regression, its pink-and-gold concept of heaven, its literal-mindedness, its rambunctious good cheer… its anti-intellectualism… its puerile hymns… and its faith-healing… are made to order for King Kid America. — Florence King
What Causes Spiritual Stagnation
1) Reading the same book repeatedly is a sign of indoctrination that reinforces self-hypnosis. Studying the same text repeatedly while trying to convince yourself that you are learning wastes time. What’s happening is just strengthening the hypnotic power of religious programming.
The more you study, the more likely you will accept extremist ideological points of view or conspiracy theories. Why? Because the fundamental aspects of organized religion are based on violent sectarianism. They preach peace but are behind almost all of the world’s ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
Groupthink manipulation tactics used by organized religion mask the self-hypnosis that keeps people trapped. You don’t recognize when your spiritual path is blocked because they keep you busy focusing on the mythology.
2) You spend time pretending and praying, which is religious programming, to reinforce their programming. You aren’t growing spiritually or psychologically by engaging in magical thinking. All you are doing is reinforcing the mythology and superstition of the imaginary friend who lives in the sky.
3) You attend worship services, another form of prayer, and pretending. You reinforce the hypnotic effect of superstition by singing songs with religious mythology.
4) You feel guilty about practicing meditation or other positive spiritual practices because of the doctrine or dogma of the rules in your religious paradigm. This programming prevents you from overcoming spiritual stagnation. Guilt and fear are two of the main weapons of organized religion. They want you to feel guilty for not supporting their dogma because you won’t support them financially if you don’t.
5) Worry and regret telling you you are wasting your valuable time. However, you are hesitant to break free because you fear the loss of personal relationships. You fear being labeled an outcast, an unbeliever, or even a heretic.
6) Anger in your situation in life is common when your spiritual path is blocked. You find many irritating things frustrating because dogma and doctrine confine your growth. Negative emotions are a good sign your Soul or Observer is trying to get you to make a change.
7) Addiction to religious television is common among spiritually stagnated people. They don’t realize it because they are exposing themselves to the tactics of self-hypnosis that keep them paying customers.
If any of the above issues resonate with you, you know the source of the problem. Eliminating or minimizing your exposure to the source will give you space to repair your internal programming. You may see the source but aren’t sure of the exact issue or programming you need to fix. So, the following steps will help you identify what is holding you back.
How Is Overcoming Spiritual Stagnation Possible?
Yes, it is possible. You must have the courage to identify and remove the harmful beliefs stagnating your growth. You can be successful in overcoming any roadblocks you place in your mind. The more beliefs you have, the more potential obstacles you create. If your beliefs are based on mythology and superstition, they are ALL roadblocks, no exception.
Don’t be afraid to start over. You can do it. Reevaluate where you are in your spiritual walk, and don’t be afraid to start over again.
On the positive side, when your path is blocked, it shows you are making progress. It means you have new insight into the programming of your mind. Good for you.
The sources of your spiritual roadblock come from one or more of the following:
1) Unhealthy programming from the cultural narrative (religion) or our Ego
2) The Universe prompts you to move in another direction
3) An issue from the past that you need to resolve
4) You are stuck in a victim or survivor mindset and are ready to progress to a victor.
What Causes Spiritual Stagnation?
The main cause of this trap is the old myths and superstitions that dominate Western organized religions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Many people don’t recognize them as myths because they are so ingrained in their thinking that they believe them to be true.
When you believe something is true, when it is not, there are usually negative consequences. (1) People call this behavior belief in alternative facts. They aren’t facts; they are the misinterpretation of data to form an opinion based on error.
If you encounter facts that contradict your worldview, you have two choices. You can change your worldview and opinion to align with the new evidence. Or you reject the new evidence as a threat to your worldview. Organized religions don’t want you removing spiritual roadblocks that keep you a paying customer.
The more often you reject new evidence, the more likely you will do it in the future. We teach the mind to interpret the boundaries of worldview as threats. This is the slippery slope that leads from moderate to extremist religious views. It sounds hard to believe and weird, but that’s what happens.
Weird old myths are the mythologies and superstitions on which some religions are built. You can spot these systems because they rely on bait-and-switch tactics to substantiate their systems. They have two common ingredients that they need you to believe. First, they need you to believe in an imaginary friend who lives in the sky. Then, they need to establish their authority to interpret what this inviable man says because of divinely inspired texts.
If you are involved with religions with these characteristics, you are nothing more than a pawn to be used. You are a paying customer stuck in the mind game of weird old myths that date back to the ancient mystery religions of the Medditrainian region circa 2000 BCE. Let’s look at how these myths cause spiritual stagnation.
Tactics for Removing Spiritual Roadblocks
You can remove these obstacles. It is a process that requires some courage. You’ll need to be able to venture onto your sacred ground and examine what’s buried there that may be false.
First, pause for a few minutes. Stop thinking about what the issue could be. Give the active mind a rest. Sometimes, just pausing the active mind will clarify the issue or issues. Be sure to use a spiritual journal to document everything. If you don’t know what this is, follow the link first.
1) Pinpoint the Obvious Issues
First, try this simple exercise to help identify the issues.
Close your eyes. Sit up straight but comfortably. Allow your head to float above the shoulders. Bring your attention to your body posture and breath. Observe your breath, but don’t change it. Breathe deeply and naturally.
Sit and breathe for 3 to 5 minutes. When thoughts invade, gently bring your attention back to the body and your breath. At the end of 3 to 5 minutes, ask yourself: What is blocking my path? What is the lesson? Then, write the answers in your journal.
If that doesn’t work or dig deep enough, write down a list of your most strongly held spiritual or religious beliefs. Keep the list to the top ten or fifteen. For example, Jesus was a real person and the Son of God, Or Mohammad was a real person and the One True Prophet of God. If you don’t believe in Jesus, you are going to hell. If you don’t believe in Mohammad, you are going to hell.
If that doesn’t work, ask yourself if your religion brings up feelings of guilt or fear. Removing spiritual roadblocks is all about the belief that is causing stagnation.
We suggest the automatic writing technique if this doesn’t clarify the issue.
2) Automatic Writing
When you use the automatic writing technique, it will unlock everything subconsciously. We recommend you document your sessions in your spiritual journal so that you can spot patterns or issues. Follow this link to the automatic writing process.
Trust your subconscious to explore and bring new options and resources. An excellent place to start is asking yourself, “what is the lesson?” Again, it is crucial to document everything in your spiritual journal. It will help you identify any trends. It’s also a way of cultivating your intuitive powers.
It’s a simple but effective strategy for finding solutions to those issues blocking your path. After you have identified the roadblocks, we recommend using the Enneagram to confirm your findings. Overcoming spiritual roadblocks is essential to your mental health and spiritual growth. If you are not using the Enneagram, add it to your spiritual tool belt.
3) Enneagram Personality Profile
The Enneagram Personality Profile is a tool that will identify the default programming scripts of your personality and instinctual type. If there is an issue because of unhealthy thought patterns, this tool will show them to you.
Using the right spiritual technology will help you deal with the issue when your path is blocked. If you use all the above diagnostic tools, you already use some of these technologies.
The need to overcome spiritual roadblocks is common. When your spiritual path is blocked, it affects every area of your psyche. Those weird old myths influence a lot of people. And, even if you aren’t a follower of these old myths, they still influence many cultures. So, you likely have some weird old myths tucked away in your subconscious mind. Mythologies like heaven and hell, demons, and devils are part of the superstition programmed into the cultural narrative.
The more we progress, the more likely we are to encounter things we need to resolve. The most significant problems come up first. However, if you repress them, it may take years of practice before they surface. It’s also not uncommon for the same issues to resurface. Don’t be discouraged.
You at least recognize that there is something in the way. The dominant cultural narrative fixates on many people, and they do not see a trap. The mind trap of faith is a debilitating condition. We know that denial is an effective tactic to maintain any paradox.
The spiritual law of ebb and flow helps us understand how to push through the dominant cultural folklore’s roadblocks. The wave of negativity returns, but we learn to ride this wave and move forward.
We can solve most of the problems you encounter with meditation using our meditation troubleshooting guide.
In Conclusion
When your path is blocked, it is a sign that you have made progress. Don’t be discouraged. Overcoming spiritual roadblocks is something many warriors of light encounter. You can meet this challenge if you dare to remove the source of the negative programming.