Today, I want to write about something I’m very passionate about: the destination of the spiritual path.
I know that many people are in the process of awakening, and of course, spiritual awakening is a process.
But I am also a bit tired of hearing people overusing the saying, “It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey”.
Not because it is an untrue statement. In many ways, it is true, and awakening is a process.
But we are also on this journey for a reason. There is a deeper purpose.
So, it is not only about the journey but also much about the destination that the journey is leading to (or not).
And there really is one.
The destination
I know that there is a destination, and I know that because I have experienced that destination firsthand.
Over ten years ago, I went through a shift in consciousness that changed my perception of reality completely.
It happened in an instant, and it was like moving from one reality to another in a second.
The moment it happened, my old reality was also eliminated because when the new reality showed itself, the old one couldn’t exist anymore.
It was a shift from one state of consciousness to another.
Self-realization
When I talk about this shift, I call it self-realization.
I use that term because I think it comes closest to describing the shift in consciousness I am referring to.
The moment that inner shift happened, my perception of myself shifted from the ego to my true self, and I fully realized who I am.
Another way to say it is that consciousness fully realized itself in me.
But I would say it’s even closer than that because consciousness in me is me, and consciousness in you is you.
(Remember that these are all words, and they are words pointing to something that cannot be understood through words. We can only experience this state of being directly).
The moment that inner shift happened, I realized that there is a destination, that there is another reality.
And that it is available here and now.
But that reality is only available on another level of consciousness.
Before the realization
When I experienced self-realization, I had already been on my spiritual path for years, and I had done a lot of inner work and had a lot of understanding and insights about the path.
But when I experienced that inner shift, I realized that nothing I knew and had experienced so far was needed at that new destination because it was a completely different reality.
I don’t mean that what I had been doing wasn’t valuable because it was. It also led to that shift in consciousness.
But that new reality wasn’t part of the path itself and not an extension of the path.
It rather wiped out the path and my former experiences because it was something entirely different, another reality.
After the realization
I have spent the past ten years integrating the realization to be able to fully understand, live, and embody that new state of being.
I have also had to do a lot of inner work after the realization to clean out what was left of my old programming and my egoic self. I have had to go deep into my inner world and look at the foundation of that old identity. I have also opened up more and more to new dimensions of reality.
And I am still doing that, so in that way, the work continues, and we always evolve as humans.
But there is also a shift in our reality when we realize who we are and experience that new consciousness, and that changes everything.
From that moment, the work becomes about cleaning out what remains of the old state to fully embody the new, and about bringing forth the new consciousness into the world in its fullness.
We do that by being who we are and bringing our true selves into the world.
In service of the new consciousness
For me, this has also involved creating a spiritual teaching to help others go through this shift.
For others, it will be about showing up as their true selves wherever they go. Or about exposing the old consciousness in different ways to help others awaken.
For some, it will also involve creating new ways of living for humanity from this new state of being. Ways of living that are compatible with our new inner state so that we can live on the new earth.
That is our human potential.
The destination is the end of the old consciousness, the permanent end of the egoic state. At the same time, it is also the beginning of something new. The beginning of a new era for humanity.
About Hanna Stenefalk
I’m a spiritual teacher, writer, and visionary. My work helps you awaken to your true self. I have created my teachings based on the experiences, realizations, and insights from my own spiritual journey. Read my story.