Spiritual awakening is real.

And it changes everything.

But it also comes with some weird detours.

At first, it feels expansive—like you’re finally seeing clearly.

And then you start chasing that clarity. Or avoiding discomfort. Or mistaking insight for purpose.

And without realizing it, you start to get stuck again.

Just in new ways.

With better language.

I’ve fallen into almost all of these.

I’ve seen them in clients, in healing communities, in medicine circles, in Peru, in tech folks who pivot into coaching, in myself.

They don’t make you wrong.

But if you don’t name them, you can waste years in the illusion of progress, without actually changing anything.

Let’s walk through them.

1. Giving Away Your Power

Over-reliance on psychics, tarot, and external validation

This one is sneaky.

You say you’re tuning into your intuition… but really, you’re outsourcing it.

You ask your healer what to do.

You wait for the next reading.

You don’t trust your decision until someone else confirms it “energetically.”

I’ve been there.

For a while, I couldn’t decide where to live without pulling cards, calling a friend, asking for signs, or waiting for a dream to tell me.

It felt spiritual. But underneath, it was just fear.

Here’s the truth:

Intuition doesn’t always come with certainty.

Sometimes it’s quiet.

Sometimes it’s uncomfortable.

And you have to learn to trust it anyway.

Tarot, astrology, energy readings—they’re tools. Not answers.

You’re allowed to make your own choices. Even if they don’t feel magical.

2. Overuse of Plant Medicine

Using Ayahuasca, mushrooms, or DMT as a shortcut to enlightenment

This one is close to home.

Pisac is full of people who are on their fifth or tenth, or twentieth ceremony… still looking for answers they haven’t integrated from the first one.

Plant medicine is powerful.

But it’s not a replacement for doing the work.

It’s a doorway, not the path.

I’ve sat with people who’ve had massive awakenings in ceremony, but when the insights don’t turn into action, they just keep chasing the next high.

They become addicted to the intensity of it.

And they confuse vision with transformation.

The body needs time to catch up.

The nervous system needs integration.

The soul needs space to live the insight, not just receive it.

You don’t need another ceremony. You need to live what you have already seen.

3. Chasing Spiritual Highs

Retreats, bliss states, and mystical experiences instead of real growth.

This one shows up a lot in the early stages of awakening.

Everything feels new. Alive. Magical.

You feel connected to the universe, your guides, and synchronicities.

And then… You come back home.

And your nervous system crashes.

You start looking for the next workshop, the next full moon, the next trip.

But the point of awakening isn’t to live in peak states.

It’s to move through everyday life with more presence.

Growth isn’t always blissful.

It’s often boring. Humbling. Uncomfortable.

Real integration looks like brushing your teeth with intention.

Not just channeling during a cacao ceremony.

Spiritual highs are gifts. But they’re not home.

Home is your body. Your relationships. Your choices.

4. Spiritual Ego & Superiority

Feeling “more evolved” than others

This one’s uncomfortable to admit.

You start learning language around energy, trauma, astrology, and nervous system regulation.

And you start to think: I get it. They don’t.

You pull away from friends who don’t “understand your path.”

You roll your eyes at people working 9-to-5s or caring about status.

You think you’ve outgrown them.

But this isn’t growth. It’s just a new mask.

A more conscious-sounding version of the same ego.

I did this when I left tech.

I told myself I was living more intentionally, more spiritually, more “aligned.”

But really, I was avoiding how hurt I felt.

How lost I was without a title.

How uncertain I felt without a map.

Spiritual growth doesn’t make you better than anyone.

It just asks you to be more real.

With yourself first.

5. Spiritual Bypassing

Using spirituality to avoid feeling what’s real

This one can sound like wisdom.

But it’s often just avoidance in a better outfit.

You tell yourself, “I’m staying in love and light.”

Or “I don’t want to lower my vibration.”

Or “This is just a mirror, I don’t need to be upset.”

But meanwhile, your body is holding rage. Or grief. Or shame.

And instead of facing it—you float above it.

I’ve had clients say things like, “I’ve already forgiven them energetically.”

But when I ask, “Have you actually felt the anger?”—they can’t answer.

I’ve done it too. After burnout, I tried to go straight to gratitude.

But my body hadn’t caught up yet. I needed to feel the exhaustion.

The resentment. The parts of me that wanted to scream.

Bypassing doesn’t make you lighter.

It just keeps the pain stuck under spiritual wallpaper.

6. Toxic Positivity

“High vibes only” leads to emotional suppression.

This one shows up everywhere.

Instagram captions. Group retreats. Corporate wellness spaces. Even spiritual circles in places like Ubud or Sedona.

You’re told to stay positive.

To manifest through gratitude.

To avoid complaining or focusing on what’s “low vibration.”

But the truth is:

Real healing includes darkness.

It includes confusion. Contraction. Stillness. Sadness.

It includes moments where you want to give up.

I once had someone tell me to “focus on the lesson” after I shared a hard breakup.

They meant well. But I didn’t need a lesson. I needed to be seen.

To cry. To sit in the rawness without trying to reframe it.

You can be grateful and angry.

You can hold vision and disappointment.

You can be spiritual and still fall apart.

Healing isn’t positive. It’s honest.

7. “I Need to Heal Before I Can Live” Trap

Endless inner work with no outer action

This one’s especially common in people who are actually self-aware.

You think:

“I’m not ready yet.”

“I still need to clear this wound first.”

“I’ll launch it later—once I’ve worked through more of my stuff.”

But healing is never complete.

And waiting to be fully whole before you live your life is another way of avoiding it.

I once delayed launching a project for six months because I didn’t feel “energetically aligned” yet.

But really, I was scared.

Scared to be seen. Scared to get it wrong. Scared I didn’t know enough.

Healing work is important.

But integration means taking what you’ve learned… and testing it in the real world.

You don’t have to be done to begin.

8. Chasing the Carrot of Enlightenment

Always seeking the next awakening, never arriving in the now.

This one’s especially common in spiritual communities.

You go from one modality to another—Reiki, Akashic Records, Inner Child, Gene Keys, Breathwork, Tantra, Human Design.

You collect certifications, attend trainings, and journal constantly.

You become an expert in healing… but still feel like you haven’t “arrived.”

Because enlightenment has become another goal.

Another identity to pursue.

Another thing to be good at.

In a lot of Pisac circles, I see people talk about being “in 5D consciousness” while still struggling to make decisions or pay rent.

The higher chakras are open, but the root and heart are neglected.

Awakening isn’t a goal.

It’s a remembering.

And it doesn’t mean leaving yourself.

It means coming back to yourself, again and again.

9. Becoming a Hermit in Fear

Isolating after awakening and calling it “protection”

After you wake up to how chaotic the world is… It’s tempting to pull away from everything.

You stop hanging out with friends.

You feel hypersensitive around crowds.

You believe everything is “low vibe”—the grocery store, your job, your ex, even your own family.

And yes, for a while, solitude might be necessary.

But if it becomes your whole identity… it can turn into fear.

I know someone who hasn’t left the Sacred Valley in two years.

They say the outside world is too dense.

But when I sit with them, I feel sadness. Not peace.

Sometimes isolation is healing.

And sometimes it’s avoidance.

The point of waking up isn’t to live on a mountain forever.

It’s to remember how to re-enter with clarity.

10. Seeking Purpose in Becoming a Guru or Shaman

Escaping an unfulfilling life by reinventing yourself as a healer

This is a sensitive one, because it’s so common.

People leave corporate jobs or painful relationships and suddenly feel called to “serve.”

And maybe that’s true.

But sometimes, the desire to guide others comes from a place of unprocessed identity collapse.

I’ve met many people who weren’t grounded in their own practice, yet started offering medicine work, readings, or mentorship.

Not because they had embodied wisdom.

But because they needed to feel useful again.

It’s tempting to step into a role that gives you meaning.

But holding space for others isn’t just about what you know.

It’s about your presence. Your humility. Your embodiment.

You don’t have to rush into becoming something new.

Sometimes the most honest path is to be in the in-between.

11. Discarding the Physical World

Rejecting money, career, relationships, or responsibilities as “low vibration”

This trap hits hard, especially for high achievers who enter spiritual spaces.

You wake up and realize you’ve been overworking, chasing status, and doing things that don’t align.

So you swing to the other side.

You stop caring about money.

You tell yourself structure is “too masculine.”

You say relationships are distractions from your path.

But the physical world is the path.

I’ve tried to reject this part, too.

To give up planning, money, and structure, thinking it would make me feel more free.

But I ended up more anxious. More scattered. Less rooted.

You’re not here to transcend your life.

You’re here to bring more awareness to it.

12. Over-Fixation on Past Lives & Signs

Using angel numbers, past lives, or symbols to escape the present.

This is the softest trap, because it feels like guidance.

And sometimes it is.

But when you start basing all your decisions on signs, timelines, or spiritual stories… You can forget to live in the now.

I’ve met people who are constantly decoding their dreams or looking for messages.

And I’ve done it too—hoping for permission to move forward.

But clarity doesn’t always come through signs.

Sometimes it comes from sitting with the discomfort of not knowing.

You don’t need to find your past-life wound to make a decision today.

You don’t need 222 on the clock to know if a relationship is right.

You already know. Deep down. Even if it’s not perfect.

Your life is not in the symbols.

It’s in the moments you choose to stay present.

Final Words

Awakening is powerful.

It’s life-changing.

But it doesn’t always make you lighter.

It makes you more honest.

More aware of your patterns.

More responsible for how you show up.

You don’t need to be a guru.

You don’t need to become a healer.

You don’t need to purify yourself into worthiness.

You just need to stay present.

With what’s real. With what’s uncomfortable. With what’s yours.

That’s where the real awakening begins.