Spiritual Roadblocks - When We Feel Like We Aren’t Moving Forward

Every so often, we have the feeling that we are not moving forward in our spiritual journey. It may feel like obstacles in our spiritual development, like we have hit a metaphysical wall. Or it may feel like our path just dissolves into nebulous mist and we can’t see a way forward. We tend to think of these uncomfortable pauses as blocks.

Sometimes these blocks are distractions. We may have too many things we are giving energy to and so we lose our focus. I’m not just talking about things like Facebook and Netflix. I also mean things that are spiritual commitments that we think are helping us grow. Do we really need to take one more online class even from a teacher we love and resonate with? One time last year I realized that I was signed up for three different online classes running concurrently because one on chakras was free and I might want a refresher, one was with an herbalist that I really admired and the other was a shamanic topic I was really interested in. I didn’t get much done on any of them at that time. I still have access to two of them  but it feels like they are just hanging out there like items on a to-do list. I realize some of that perspective is my mind-set. I need to decide if I still need to give my energy to them, and if I am going to approach them like a task or a resource. 

In some cases we may have outgrown something in our lives and by keeping it, we keep ourselves in the same mind-set and energy we have had for a long time. We cannot move forward until we let go of what we have outgrown. This can be items cluttering the closets or garages that we haven’t used or worn in years, but also relationships that have a co-dependent element to them. And that includes community groups and organizations as well as individual relationships. If we have the idea that we are the one holding a group together and that if we left, it would fall apart, then that is a sign that maybe we need to drop our attachment and let it.  It could give someone else the opportunity they have been waiting for to take a leadership role and even re-imagine it into something different and beautiful. And it gives us the space in our schedule to go on to create something else.

We also may have outgrown inner relationships to our mind-sets and belief systems. These can be much more difficult to drop than external relationships. These can take the form of habits, addictions, and limiting self-talk.  Feeling dependent on anything, even if it is benign or beneficial, like needing to have a cup of coffee or tea every morning, can take us out of our power.  That unempowered feeling can ripple out into other areas in our lives that have a big impact, like finances or relationships. And ripple even farther out leading us to believe that what we do cannot change the world. And as I have talked about in other articles, quantum physics proves that we can (and we must)!

To choose to have that cup of coffee or not, and feel good and enjoy either choice takes us out of dependency and into our power. We may be thinking, it’s just a cup of coffee, what is the big deal? Realizing that we have those dependencies and addictions is key. It is part of our humanness. And we have to ask ourselves the questions, where would I be freeing up my personal power if I did not direct it to those dependencies and addictions? What would that look like? What would that feel like? I can tell you from personal experience that our energy feels much lighter and that Spirit can work with us much easier. We have more clarity. This is especially true if any of our habits include things like cannabis, alcohol, sugar or other substances that overused can scatter or dull our energy body. And this also applies to any attachment we have, it could be shopping, collecting things, involvement in personal drama or collective drama or anything else that causes us to spend our energy with little helpful return.

Worthiness can be a big roadblock if we have trouble believing we are worthy of progressing on our path. I’ve touched a bit on this in past articles. The energy we spend doubting our worth and capabilities can be a drain and can be used in so many better ways. Doubt can also crystallize into fear that keeps us from taking that leap of faith that will lead to living more authentically and aligning to our soul’s purpose.

Sometimes our spiritual team just hits the pause button because we need time to integrate. Especially if we have experienced any big epiphanies, shifts in awareness, or even significant astrological transits. 

In every case I mentioned, what we perceive as roadblocks are really places where we built in ways to step up to the next level in our journey of conscious evolution. These are gifts we give ourselves to look deeper, re-evaluate our goals and whether we are even still on the right path. We just forget that we are the ones giving ourselves these opportunities because we are used to externalizing so many things.

Maybe the next time we feel like we hit a roadblock, instead of feeling frustrated or confused, we can see it as an Ah-hah moment instead.