Finding Courage on My Spiritual Awakening Journey

What step are you contemplating on your spiritual path? Let's inspire each other with stories of courage and discovery.

My spiritual journey has never felt like a straight line or a final destination. It has been more like a long unfolding — one experience leading to another, one question opening into the next.

It didn’t begin with courage. It began with curiosity, sensitivity, and experiences I only much later understood were not ordinary for everyone.

Looking back, I can see how each part of the path mattered. The strange moments. The fear. The religious conditioning. The curiosity. The healing. The willingness to keep asking, what is really happening here?

Early Experiences

One of my earliest spiritual memories happened when I was a young child visiting my grandmother’s house.

I remember having a conversation with an elderly woman I had never seen before. She felt gentle and warm. She had a kind smile, glasses, and her hair pulled back into a tight bun. At the time, it did not feel strange to me. It felt as normal as talking to anyone else in the house.

It was only later, after finding her picture in my mother’s genealogy records, that I realized she was my great-grandmother, Sarah Elizabeth, who passed away in 1953.

Sarah Elizabeth, my great grandmother. Thank you for our conversation and for leaving a lasting impression that sparked a lifelong relationship with the spirit realm.

That was my earliest memory of interacting with the spiritual realm, but it was not the only one. I had other experiences in my youth, including speaking in tongues and a near-death experience where I literally saw the light and was sent back.

These experiences were part of my reality before I had language for them. They shaped my relationship with the Divine long before I understood what that meant.

I was also often described as “too sensitive.”

School was overwhelming for me. I didn’t understand it at the time, but I was absorbing everyone’s emotions and energy without knowing what belonged to me and what didn’t. It made me want to be alone as much as possible.

My bedroom became my sanctuary. I played high-vibrational music constantly and created a peaceful space where I could breathe. I didn’t know I was managing empathic sensitivity or tending the energy of my personal space. I was just doing what helped me feel safe and steady.

Looking back, I can see that I was learning energy work before I knew it had a name.

Paranormal Challenges

In my 20s, I lived in a house with active paranormal activity.

There were noises. Objects moved. My name was called. And at the time, it terrified me.

Because of my religious upbringing, I was taught to view anything paranormal as dangerous or malevolent. So even though part of me had always been spiritually sensitive, I didn’t have a framework that allowed me to feel safe with those experiences. Fear was the lens I had been given.

That began to shift when I was 44, during a ghost tour at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.

I captured an orb in a photo. Maybe it was a true spiritual manifestation. Maybe it was lens flare. I still leave room for both possibilities. But something about that moment cracked open my curiosity.

Instead of only seeing paranormal experiences as threats, I began to wonder if some of them might be attempts at communication.

That shift mattered. It didn’t mean I threw discernment out the window. It meant fear was no longer the only door available to me.

The photo that started it all. This image was captured in the basement of the the Stanley Hotel on December 19, 2015.

Reiki and Spiritual Growth

The experience in Estes Park set something in motion.

Two years later, I found Reiki. Reiki became one of the biggest turning points in my life. It helped me begin healing religious trauma and gave me a grounded way to reconnect with my spiritual abilities.

Reiki gave me a different relationship with energy. It helped me move from fear into curiosity. It gave me a practice, a structure, and a language for things I had experienced for most of my life but had never fully understood.

Through Reiki, I began to trust my sensitivity instead of seeing it as a problem. I began to understand that spiritual connection does not have to be dramatic or frightening. It can be quiet, steady, loving, and deeply practical.

Exploring New Avenues

Since the beginning of this spiritual awakening journey, I’ve explored and studied many areas of spiritual and energetic work — psychic development, mediumship, channeling, Akashic Records, past lives, and shamanic energy medicine, to name a few.

More recently, I’ve been exploring tarot and astrology.

These tools have not become central to my spiritual practice, but they have been meaningful as mirrors. The symbolism in astrology and tarot can reveal subconscious patterns, echo inner truths, and offer a different way to sit with timing, energy, and personal growth.

My approach to new spiritual tools is simple: I test them.

I don’t automatically reject something because it’s unfamiliar, and I don’t automatically accept it because it sounds mystical. I spend time with it. I pay attention to how it feels in my body, my energy, and my life.

If it resonates and proves useful, I may incorporate it into my practice. If it doesn’t, I still value what it taught me and move on.

What Courage Has Looked Like

For me, courage has not meant being fearless.

It has meant being willing to question the fear.

It has meant asking:

• Is this fear coming from my own inner guidance?

• Is it coming from religious conditioning?

• Is it coming from someone else’s opinion?

• Is it coming from an old story I inherited but no longer believe?

  
  

That kind of questioning changed everything.

Some fear deserves respect. It can be a signal that something is not aligned or not safe. But some fear is simply the echo of conditioning, shame, or misunderstanding.

Learning to tell the difference has been one of the most important parts of my spiritual path.

Advice for Others

When you begin exploring your own spiritual path, let curiosity walk beside you.

You do not have to accept everything. You do not have to reject everything. You do not have to rush into every practice, every tool, every teaching, or every experience that comes your way.

Pay attention to what brings peace, clarity, love, and a sense of grounded connection. Pay attention to what creates contraction, confusion, or fear.

And when fear shows up, pause long enough to ask where it came from.

Is it your own inner wisdom speaking?

Or is it something you were taught to fear?

Only you can answer that for yourself.

Your path does not need to look like anyone else’s. It does not need to make sense to everyone. It just needs to be honest, grounded, and true in your own energy.

Closing Reflection

My spiritual journey has moved from fear and misunderstanding toward curiosity, connection, and a deeper trust in my own experience.

I am still learning. Still questioning. Still exploring. Still letting the path unfold.

Thank you for walking with me through this reflection. I hope my story gives you permission to explore your own path with curiosity, discernment, and courage.

Many Blessings,

Sheryl