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Rebirth: Awakening as a Spiritual Puberty of the Soul
Spiritual Awakening Can Feel Like a Kind of Puberty
In Chapter 6, verse 16 of the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna offers a profound teaching that is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago:
“Verily, this Yoga is not for him who eats too much or sleeps too much, nor for him who abstains too much from food or sleep.”
In this simple yet powerful verse, Krishna addresses a fundamental principle of the spiritual path: balance. He speaks not only to the practice of yoga, but to our mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being—what we might now call spiritual hygiene and mental health awareness. By naming two easily recognizable imbalances—overindulgence and deprivation—Krishna gently calls attention to behaviors often symptomatic of deeper disturbances, such as depression or mania, the hallmarks of bipolar disorder.
But he doesn't diagnose; he guides. Much like a symbol or logo can represent an entire organization, this verse subtly encapsulates the broad spectrum of mental and emotional dysregulation. Krishna implies that behaviors which isolate us from meaningful contribution to society or from self-mastery are not aligned with the path of true yoga, or union.
Spiritual awakening can feel like a kind of puberty—a radical and often disorienting initiation. Just as a teenager’s changing hormones alter their perceptions and behaviors, so too does the awakening of kundalini bring a surge of energy, awareness, and emotion. We begin to perceive reality in multidimensional ways, access intuitive gifts like clairvoyance or clairaudience, and experience synchronicities that defy logic. It is awe-inspiring. And yet, it can also be overwhelming.
Having gone through this stage myself, I’ve come to refer to it as spiritual puberty—an awkward, powerful, and sometimes painful transition toward spiritual maturity. During this time, we may behave in ways that seem odd to others or even to ourselves. We might speak in spiritual jargon that no one around us understands, share revelations that feel urgent and profound, or stay awake for days, unable to ground ourselves in basic human needs like food, sleep, or hygiene. These experiences mirror traits often described in psychiatric terms, and yes, many spiritual seekers are misdiagnosed—or lost—along the way.
As a medical doctor, I understand why the diagnostic systems we have today—like the DSM—label certain behaviors as mental illness. When our thoughts, emotions, or actions interfere with our ability to care for ourselves or cause distress to others, they raise concern. But from a spiritual perspective, many of these behaviors are also signs of awakening—an inner light turning on before we’ve yet learned how to dim or direct it.
During my own spiritual puberty, I was often overcome with ecstatic devotion and heightened perception. I wanted to share everything I was learning, feeling, and sensing. I thought I was contributing to collective awakening. But I’ve since realized that, just like a child learning a new language, I needed time to integrate before I could communicate with grace and discernment.
Our spiritual insights are sacred, but unless we learn how to hold them with humility and translate them for others, we risk alienating those we are meant to inspire. Not everyone is on the same stage of their journey. Some are just beginning to explore their inner world, while others may not be ready to awaken at all in this lifetime. It’s like playing a video game—you don’t explain level 9 to someone still learning how to jump in level 1. The beauty of the spiritual path is that it meets us exactly where we are.
So how do we navigate this intense, beautiful, and often confusing stage of awakening?
We must return to Krishna’s wisdom: moderation, integration, and self-mastery.
The difference between someone in the throes of spiritual psychosis and a true yogi lies not in the visions or insights—but in the ability to stay grounded, to regulate emotions, and to interact with others from a place of compassion and clarity. A yogi can move between dimensions, yes—but they return to this one with purpose. They do not abandon the world; they illuminate it.
Kundalini energy, when not anchored, can leak through the root chakra and amplify the shadow self. It can manifest as addiction, delusion, erratic behavior, or ego inflation. But when this energy is properly channeled—through daily sadhana, meditation, breathwork, seva, and self-care—it becomes the fire that forges wisdom, healing, and inner peace.
And finally, we must cultivate humility. Just because someone hasn’t experienced samadhi or a kundalini rising does not mean they are “less awakened.” Everyone is playing their role, moving through their own sacred timing. To impose our truth on others, especially when it’s uninvited or incomprehensible, is to dishonor both their journey and our own.
True enlightenment is not a spectacle. It is a quiet power. A steady presence. A light that doesn't demand attention, but gently reveals a path forward.
As Krishna reminds us, the path of yoga is not found in extremes—but in balance. Not in escapism—but in integration. Not in the heights of samadhi alone—but in our ability to return from those heights and serve others with kindness, presence, and humility.
Let us walk this path not as those who seek to impress, but as those who are committed to embodying the Divine with grace—not only in our meditations, but in how we eat, sleep, speak, love, and live.
The goal is to live each day as a walking meditation
Defining "yukta"
In Chapter 6, verse 17 of the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna offers a timeless truth:
"Yoga destroys all sorrow for the one whose sleep and waking, whose food and play, whose effort and action are all in harmony—are all yukta."
The word yukta here is often translated as "moderation," but for me, its meaning runs much deeper—it points to a state of sacred integration. Yukta speaks to the quiet miracle of living life as a walking meditation, where even our most mundane moments become imbued with presence, purpose, and Divinity. It is the subtle yet powerful alignment that arises when our human will and the Divine will begin to dance together in unity.
To live in this yukta state is to have walked through fire—the fire of consistent sadhana, of ego deaths, of unraveling the layers of conditioning that once made us feel small or separate. And in that unraveling, we begin to release what no longer serves, and welcome in more of the light, truth, and love of our Higher Self.
When we surrender the small desires of the ego to the larger current of Divine will—not from force, but from trust—we begin to experience a quiet revolution within. The way we eat, move, sleep, work, and play becomes harmonized—not by discipline alone, but by the natural joy that arises when we are in communion with our highest essence. Life stops feeling like a struggle, and starts to feel like a flow.
I’ve come to realize that when I am deeply connected to my Higher Self, it’s not that I stop choosing—it’s that my free will begins to align magnetically with the will of the Divine within me. And in that alignment, creativity blossoms. Peace blooms. Fulfillment begins to nourish me from the inside out. I act not out of striving, but from overflow.
Some scholars interpret yukta simply as “a life of moderation.” And perhaps that interpretation was intended for a collective still building the inner strength to hear the deeper call. That discernment, I believe, is compassionate and wise—just like the time I called the Nintendo hotline as a child, hungry to know the secrets of levels I hadn’t yet reached in Super Mario Brothers. The expert on the other end wouldn’t tell me. Not because he didn’t know—but because he did. He understood that discovery is part of the path. That struggle refines skill. That every level builds the readiness for the next.
In the same way, our spiritual journeys are designed with exquisite precision. We are not punished by the unknown—we are prepared for it. And when the time is right, the wisdom reveals itself—not as an answer from outside, but as a recognition within. That is the gift of Yoga. That is the grace of living yukta—where every breath becomes a prayer, every bite of food becomes an offering, and every action, no matter how small, becomes a doorway to the Divine.
Integrating Samadhi with Daily Life
I deeply resonate with Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation of the word yukta in verse 6.17 of the Bhagavad Gita—to live life as a walking meditation. This interpretation feels not only plausible but profoundly true, because I have lived it. I’ve experienced that still, radiant presence within, where the external world fades and the inner light takes over. And yet, as Sri Aurobindo so eloquently cautions, this trance-like state of samadhi—though blissful—can become a kind of escape:
“No doubt the yogin for a time still remains in the body, but the cave, the forest, and the mountaintop seem now the fittest, the only possible scene of his continued living, and constant trance of Samadhi his sole joy and occupation.”
This was my reality during the early stages of my awakening. Samadhi was so consuming, so captivating, that I had little desire to return to “ordinary” life. The multidimensional insights, the inner revelations, the expanded awareness—it all felt too precious to let go. And yet, I began to see that if we can’t integrate these states into our lives, if we cannot walk with both heaven and earth under our feet, then we risk becoming ungrounded—and misunderstood.
In today’s world, when someone begins to exhibit the signs of deep spiritual awakening—especially when it challenges societal norms or veers too far from the visible world—they are often seen as unstable or mentally ill. Diagnoses are made, interventions are enforced, and the person may be labeled a danger to themselves or others. But what if this so-called “instability” is really the soul expanding faster than the ego can integrate?
So the question arises: How do we honor the divine gift of samadhi while still showing up fully for our lives—for our health, our families, our responsibilities?
After much trial and error, I’ve discovered practices that have helped me balance my mystical experiences with grounded, responsible living. One of the greatest tools has been my emotional support animal—my dog, Krishna.
When I am in deep states of samadhi, hours and days can pass effortlessly. And yet, Krishna keeps me tethered to the world. He reminds me that Artha—material and practical responsibility—is still a sacred duty. When he needs to eat, go on a walk, or simply be loved, he pulls me out of my inner world. He paws, licks, and insists with increasing urgency until I respond. His presence is a living call to balance: he depends on me, and I must rise to the occasion.
In caring for him, I remember to care for myself—eating, hydrating, moving my body, keeping appointments, taking medication. The daily routine I maintain for him becomes a bridge back into the world of form, helping me integrate the energy of samadhi into ordinary action. This is the essence of yukta—union, balance, integration.
There are other practices that have helped me, especially during my “spiritual puberty” when kundalini energy was erupting and hard to contain. I found great wisdom in Sadhguru’s advice:
- Wear white, he says, to remain energetically neutral and avoid absorbing the emotions of others.
- Visualize your day before you leave the house—start to finish. Know what you intend. Meditate. Align. Don’t wander into the day unanchored, or anything can happen.
- Prioritize your daily Self-Care routines
- Journal about your ideas such that you can extract the pearls, and practice communicating your pearls to others in a way that has value for the person listening.
Join Spiritual Communities
Join Spiritual Communities
Community also matters deeply. Spiritual groups, classes, and ashrams have been sanctuaries for me. They create a rhythm and routine where spiritual growth is honored and integrated. Living in an ashram, even temporarily, can offer structure and shared understanding that is difficult to find elsewhere. You are surrounded by others on the path. You learn discipline. You learn how to bring Divine consciousness into each act of service, each breath of the day.
Ultimately, the goal is not to escape into samadhi—but to develop the capacity to enter and exit it at will, to carry it within you while functioning in the world. To move through daily life as a vessel of that peace, practicing discernment with your words, and placing deliberate intention behind your every thought and deed.
We often come out of samadhi brimming with insights, eager to share our revelations—but they are not always received with the reverence we expect. Sometimes, our excitement is misunderstood because of how we communicate, or how little we’ve demonstrated that we are still grounded in reality. The truth is, people only respect our message to the extent that we show respect for ourselves—through self-care, responsibility, and presence.
Tending to our earthly duties is not separate from spiritual practice—it is spiritual practice. Honoring our daily routines, respecting our bodies, and fulfilling our commitments with love and attention is how we demonstrate that we are not just having mystical experiences, but embodying true self-mastery.
Samadhi may be the door, but it is our grounded, compassionate, disciplined daily life that becomes the path.
Promoting Mental Health Awareness in the Spiritual Community
Transform Your Mind, Body, and Spirit with Spiritual Drip
When it comes to spirituality, the goal is to harness our innate gifts and intuitive abilities in a way that contributes to the emotional prosperity of the greatest number of people, and this means learning how to be in a good way with others by practicing good mental hygiene and tending to our mental health by being aware of what obstacles we may face in the near future and anticipate how we intend to overcome them. We can do this by following the moon cycles.
Throughout the year, the position of the moon in space changes in relation to us and so the moon’s gravitational effects upon us change as well, and each full moon presents an opportunity to enhance or magnify particular qualities or traits, some desirable and others not so desirable.
Tips for Practicing Good Mental Hygiene with Spirituality:
Step 1: Self-awareness: Recognize patterns in your behavior that coincide with qualities accentuated by the moon cycles. The undesirable personality traits that manifest during full moons are often aspects of our human ego structure shouting for our attention. These are facets of our personality that we have either masked or not yet acknowledged because they lurk in the cellars of our subconscious. When you recognize them, journal about the experience.
Step 2: Weed out negative thoughts as they arise. The Huberman Lab at Stanford has shown that the average person thinks 60,000 thoughts a day, and 80% of them are negative. Research has shown that there is nothing we can do to stop negative thoughts from arising the same way we cannot keep weeds from sprouting in our gardens. But when we are conscious of our thoughts and how they make us feel by paying attention to the subtle discomfort they may cause in our bodies, we can train ourselves to shift our perspective about certain situations and thereby change the emotions we embody. When we vibrate on a higher frequency, this is reflected in the level of satisfaction we feel in our interactions and correspondences with others.
Step 3: Intention setting: Where we place our attention is where we place our energy, and setting the intention to NOT embody the undesirable traits that surface with the different full moons by visualizing a higher vibrational version of ourselves and choosing to adopt the perspective of our Higher Selves when difficult situations arise is important in the practice of good mental hygiene when it comes to spirituality. Creating an action plan should you get triggered during a full moon and fall into the traps of the human ego structure is helpful.
Step 4: Self-Compassion: Most importantly, remember to have compassion for yourself as you navigate different levels and areas of healing with each full moon. It is necessary for us to embody lower vibrational states in our individual spiritual journeys such that we can learn to recognize what patterns of behavior manifest at different vibrational states and the psychology associated with them. Also, when we experience different versions of ourselves and grow from them, we then learn to have compassion for others when we recognize the same behavior and we can understand what obstacles and blockages they are experiencing.
Moon Cycles Affect our Mood
Understanding the Science:
Our bodies are 60-80% water, and as the gravitational pull exerted by the moon in its different phases changes, the fluctuation in energy affects the polarization of water molecules in our body, which in turn affects the electromagnetic field that surrounds us, namely our chakras. And because our chakras connect to 1-2 endocrine glands, when our chakras become disbalanced, we experience fluctuations in hormone and neurotransmitter secretion in our bodies, which in turn can cause us to feel more emotional, fatigued, or excited that usual. An example of the moon’s powerful effects on water can be seen with the high tides present each full moon and the lower tides present with a new moon.
Because the moon and planets move along an orbit, their distance to us changes throughout the calendar year and so does their gravitational pull and influence upon us. As a result of the energetic changes, particular qualities or virtues tend to be magnified during certain times of the calendar year. The chart below groups the undesirable traits that have the highest likelihood to surface with their corresponding full moon. When trying to overcome any of these obstacles to abundance in our lives, journaling, self-reflection, honest accountability, and shadow work are key.
The Moon Cycles & Mental health awareness meditation blanket
Understanding the Design
This blanket was designed to promote mental health awareness within the spiritual community by calling attention to particular facets of the collective human ego structure that tend to surface with each full moon. Full moons impact our relationships and social life because they are a time of intensified energy and magnification of certain traits and qualities that tend to reside within the cellars of our subconscious. Full moons can make everything feel a bit more intense and emotional than usual and this blanket helps people to be self-aware of what obstacles they may encounter each month and where shadow work is needed.
The front of the blanket helps people to recognize negative patterns in their behavior that coincide with qualities accentuated by the different moon cycles because certain undesirable traits may become magnified during a full moon. Embedded on the front of the blanket are also Green Tara’s simple solutions for the 8 greatest obstacles we face as a collective when it comes to experiencing prosperity, abundance, and harmony in our lives courtesy of The Sophia Code.
The Back
The back of the blanket includes 4 simple steps to work through our shadows should they arise and puts into context why it’s important to practice good mental hygiene when we choose to be spiritual.
Promoting Mental Health Awareness in the spiritual community
Mental Health Matters in the Context of Spirituality
When it comes to spirituality, the goal is to harness our innate gifts and intuitive abilities in a way that contributes to the emotional prosperity of the greatest number of people, and this means learning how to be in a good way with others by practicing good mental hygiene and tending to our mental health by being aware of what obstacles we may face in the near future and anticipate how we intend to overcome them. We can do this by following the moon cycles.
Full Moons Can Magnify Undesirable Qualities
Throughout the year, the position of the moon in space changes in relation to us and so the moon’s gravitational effects upon us change as well, and each full moon presents an opportunity to enhance or magnify particular qualities or traits, some desirable and others not so desirable.
The Power of Meditation
Meditation is a spiritual practice that has been used for centuries in different faiths. It involves quieting the mind and focusing on a particular thought or object. Meditation can help reduce stress, improve concentration, and enhance overall well-being.
Tips for Practicing Good Mental Hygiene with Spirituality
Self-awareness is key. This blanket helps you to recognize patterns in your behavior that coincide with qualities accentuated by the moon cycles. The undesirable personality traits that manifest during full moons are often aspects of our human ego structure shouting for our attention. These are facets of our personality that we have either masked or not yet acknowledged because they lurk in the cellars of our subconscious. When you recognize them, journal about the experience.
Practice Mindfulness
Practice being conscious of what you are thinking and how your thoughts make you feel. Weed out negative thoughts as they arise. The Huberman Lab at Stanford has shown that the average person thinks 60,000 thoughts a day, and 80% of them are negative. Research has shown that there is nothing we can do to stop negative thoughts from arising the same way we cannot keep weeds from sprouting in our gardens. But when we are conscious of our thoughts and how they make us feel by paying attention to the subtle discomfort they may cause in our bodies, we can train ourselves to shift our perspective about certain situations and thereby change the emotions we embody. When we vibrate on a higher frequency, this is reflected in the level of satisfaction we feel in our interactions and correspondences with others.
Intention Setting, Visualization, and Affirmations
Where we place our attention is where we place our energy, and setting the intention to NOT embody the undesirable traits that surface with the different full moons by visualizing a higher vibrational version of ourselves and choosing to adopt the perspective of our Higher Selves when difficult situations arise is important in the practice of good mental hygiene when it comes to spirituality. Creating an action plan should you get triggered during a full moon and fall into the traps of the human ego structure is helpful.
Explore Karuna Compassion
Most importantly, remember to have compassion for yourself as you navigate different levels and areas of healing with each full moon. It is necessary for us to embody lower vibrational states in our individual spiritual journeys such that we can learn to recognize what patterns of behavior manifest at different vibrational states and the psychology associated with them. Also, when we experience different versions of ourselves and grow from them, we then learn to have compassion for others when we recognize the same behavior and we can understand what obstacles and blockages they are experiencing.
Defining Abundance and Prosperity
Abundance is not just the size of our bank accounts! Abundance is anything and everything that brings balance, brightness, and joy into our lives. Abundance is a frequency that attracts the right people and resources to us such that we can experience the freedom of options, love, companionship, health, family, and friends in our lives. Abundance is also being able to co-create and collaborate with others. Prosperity is the frequency at which we manifest abundance repeatedly and consistently into our life experience.
The Importance of Compassion and Service
Compassion and service are at the heart of many spiritual traditions. By helping others and practicing empathy, we can deepen our own spiritual practice and make a positive impact in the world.
Understanding the Science
Moon Cycles Affect our Chakras, Hormone Levels, and Mental Health
Our bodies are 60-80% water, and as the gravitational pull exerted by the moon in its different phases changes, the fluctuation in energy affects the polarization of water molecules in our body, which in turn affects the electromagnetic field that surrounds us, namely our chakras. And because our chakras connect to 1-2 endocrine glands, when our chakras become disbalanced, we experience fluctuations in hormone and neurotransmitter secretion in our bodies, which in turn can cause us to feel more emotional, fatigued, or excited than usual. An example of the moon’s powerful effects on water can be seen with the high tides present each full moon and the lower tides present with a new moon. When trying to overcome any of these obstacles to abundance in our lives, journaling, self-reflection, honest accountability, and shadow work are key.
Click to learn about research at Cleveland Clinic about lunar cycles and mental health.