Is Your Spirituality Making You Unbalanced?
Posted in Positive Thinking And Healing on 09. Jan, 2010
Could you be using your spirituality to escape from life, just like people use alcohol and drugs? It’s definitely possible to abuse spirituality and this article will help you to diagnose it, if this is the case for you, as it was once for me. You can begin by looking at the questions below.
Can you relate to any of the following?
- You don’t like paying attention to real-world matters (like finances) – you’d rather be working on your personal or spiritual development.
- You sometimes use your spirituality as a form of escapism. For example, you learn about the law of attraction and feel great about all the possibilities and the potential. But you fail to create anything tangible from it (so you exist perpetually in the realm of ideas rather than action.)
- You are not comfortable here on Earth and the world seems very harsh to you.
- You prefer to hang around with people who are very spiritual, like you and you avoid having friends who don’t share your world view.
- If you could, you’d happily erase from your existence some aspects of physical life – like having to eat, wash and support yourself.
- You spend a lot of time thinking about how to create your utopian vision for life here on Earth and you find it difficult accept the state of things here on Earth.
- You have a strong tendency to be reclusive and you spend a lot of time in introspection.
- You like meditating for hours on end.
- You get frustrated at how slow everything moves in the physical plane and the effort it takes to make things happen.
- Your sense of purpose and spiritual mission is at the forefront of your life and you think you’re a lightworker.
- You are very empathic/intuitive and pick up negative ‘stuff’ from other people all the time (one more good reason for being reclusive!)
How did you do? If you could relate to more than six or seven statements (most importantly – the first five), I’d venture to say that you’re out of balance with your spirituality.
If you didn’t relate to any of the first seven statements, then you probably don’t need to read this article.
What does it mean when you’re out of balance with your spirituality?
It means that you live for (and enjoy) spiritual experiences more than you enjoy human experiences. In terms of your auric field/energy body, your upper chakras will be very open, with a lot of energy running through them while your lower chakras are neglected and small.
In case you don’t know what I mean by over-developed upper chakras and under-developed lower chakras, here’s a quick guide to the chakra system:
Chakras are energy centres in the human energy body. (The energy body is a reflection of the physical body and our life here on Earth.) Much of the information in your energy body is organized and centred at these chakras, which are located in certain places in your body. Here is some information on each chakra:
Root chakra (red) – governs survival, safety, home, money, family, connection to reality. (Located at the perineum.)
Sacral chakra (orange) – governs sexuality, emotions, sensuality, vitality, creativity. (Located just below the belly button.)
Solar plexus chakra (yellow) – governs personal power, self-control, getting things done. (Located just above the belly button.)
Heart chakra (green) – governs self-love, self-care, self-acceptance, self-worth. (Located over the breastbone.)
Throat chakra (blue) – governs self-expression and communication; speaking and listening. (Located at the throat.)
Third eye chakra (lilac) – Intuition and truth. (Located between the eyebrows.)
Crown chakra (white) – Connection to Spirit and your Higher Self. (Located just above the head.)
(Note: for more information on the energy body, you might like to check out this article: What is the Energy Body? & How to Read it)
Back to the chakras….
Note that those aspects of life which are down-to-earth, human, basic, and grounded are all governed by the lower chakras (the root, sacral, and solar plexus chakras):
- Money (root/sacral chakra)
- Connection to (sometimes) cold and harsh reality (root chakra)
- Sensuality/sexuality (sacral chakra)
- Sense of belonging, family and community (root chakra)
- Enjoyment, laughter and fun (sacral chakra)
- Making things happen in the real world (solar plexus)
- Nutrition and physical nourishment (root chakra)
- Routines and habits (root chakra)
On the other hand, the upper chakras (crown, third-eye and throat chakras) govern aspects of life such as:
- Daydreaming (third eye chakra)
- Mental activity and intellectualizing
- Visualizing to attract what you want
- Connecting with God, Spirit, the Angels, spirit guides (crown chakra/third eye)
- Psychic experiences such as seeing things or hearing things
- Giving to, caring for and serving others (heart chakra)
- Spiritual teaching (throat chakra)
- Writing and speaking (throat chakra)
- Introspection, solitude and alone time for processing life lessons
- Healing
When you focus a great deal (for a prolonged period) on the activities which are governed by the upper chakras (like psychic development and introspection), it will shift your focus and energy away from the lower chakras (which govern your connection to reality and the real world). This can result in the symptoms mentioned at the beginning of this article.
What kind of person gets out of balance with their spirituality?
Some people who are very drawn to spirituality can find it difficult to embrace the human experience fully. In fact, some spiritual people don’t like being human and the human condition is frustrating to them.
Being human can feel pretty bad at first to a huge, expansive spirit who is used to whizzing around in the ether. (Maybe that is why babies scream so much when they are born! 
) It feels very confining to suddenly find yourself in a physical body. Unlike being in the ether (where things manifest as quickly as you think of them), things don’t happen as quickly as you want – manifesting is slow. You are encumbered by a body which is your vessel for experiencing human life. And your body needs fuel otherwise you can’t function, so you are slowed down by the demands and disabilities of your body from birth. In addition, you are slowed down by that pesky issue of money and physical resources later on.
How We Escape the Feeling of Limitation
Sometimes we escape that feeling of confinement (of being in a physical body) through spiritual experiences, such as connecting with our spirit guides, higher self and the angels. Some people escape that confinement through drugs and alcohol. You can escape the confinement periodically through your sleeping hours, because your spirit visits the astral planes. So if you find yourself enjoying your sleep more than you enjoy your waking life, it could be another sign that your spirituality is out of balance. Basically, if you find yourself constantly seeking the high that personal and spiritual development brings, to the exclusion of everything else (i.e. while the rest of your life crumbles around you), then you definitely have an imbalance.
Modern-Day Renunciates
If you were incarnated five hundred years ago and mostly concerned with the activities listed above which stimulate the upper chakras (like connecting with spirit, healing and spiritual service) you would probably have chosen a religious or spiritual path of service in that lifetime. You’d be a monk or a nun of some description. You’d be able to deliberately forget about the physical aspects of your life – like money and feeding yourself – because your religious order would take care of them for you. In fact, there would be no negative, real-world consequences to neglecting your physical life because the support system would be in place to pick up the slack from you neglecting it.
But the thing is, being out of balance with spirituality is like living as a nun or a monk BUT without the support system of your religious order. It is a path of suffering and imbalance.
I believe that if you identify as a lightworker and feel a strong sense of spiritual mission in this lifetime, you are among those souls who HAVE incarnated countless times in a lifetime of spiritual service – such as a nun, monk, oracle, druid or spiritual teacher (to give a few examples). But times have changed since your last incarnation as a religious servant of God. This time around there are other options.
HOWEVER, old habits can die hard and you may still be living like a servant of God, focused on the upper chakras – and ignoring that which is earthy and physical (making money, sex, enjoyment, roots, family and community).
In the end, what we are all working towards is a balance between the spiritual and the physical. We came here to be incarnated and to enjoy the physical plane as fully as we can, while keeping a connection to spirit.
Conclusions
Spirituality should not consume your life to the detriment of the human aspects. The keyword is BALANCE. You can have a strong calling for spiritual service and live a full, rich life which honours all of the facets of being human. That means accepting and enjoying all the human, physical functions too.
How I realized that I was out of balance
The first time I had my palm read a few years ago, the reader told me I was ‘barely here’. I didn’t know what he meant straight away. To clarify, he told me that I didn’t like earthly life very much. I was here reluctantly, and wasn’t willing to engage with all aspects of life – only with the aspects I liked, and they were the spiritual and psychic aspects.
He was right. I had began a pattern of retreating from normal life from a very early age. To be fair, there were times when I engaged with life a little and times when I have retreated and felt unable and unwilling to engage with anything except spirituality.
I would have made a really great nun because I started going to church around the age of ten/eleven on my own – (I felt called to go.) Since the age of 13, I was having (and seeking) spiritual and psychic experiences. (You can read more about my early experiences here.)
In my late teens, I was able to tap into my spirit (or higher self) to such an extent that I’d feel amazingly expansive, high and able to take on the world. Connecting to spirit brought feelings of bliss, ecstasy and connection with everything. I had the ability to see the beauty and spirit in everything. When I wasn’t happy in my life, I’d escape into this world. It was like putting on a pair of tinted, rose-coloured spectacles.
This was an enchanting but also very isolating path for a teenage girl to take. I didn’t know anyone besides my Grandmother who knew about connecting to spirit and getting high on that (and we’re not talking the liquor kind either!) It felt like no-one really could relate to me.
In addition, at the time, life got a little bit harsher. Some traumatic things happened in my family that I wanted to escape from, and I escaped them by sleeping for up to 16 hours at a time when I could. When I turned 17, I escaped them by running away and travelling and that is a pattern that I am still in, eight/nine years later. When I was 19, my family moved to New Zealand (without me) and as weird as it may sound, I was glad. There was no more drama in my family, plus I had my spirit guides and my connection to spirit and whatever bad stuff happened to me, I felt I would be OK because of that.
But on the negative side, I was SO spiritually focused and needed the spiritual support so much, that I became dizzy, impractical, absent. I was away with the fairies and in another realm, with my upper chakras wide open and my lower chakras (my emotional and human life) completely neglected. I did the bare minimum to keep my human, physical life ticking along.
Losing my Roots
To make matters worse, when my parents moved away, it removed a solid foundation from my life because I lost my family overnight and I didn’t see them for a long time. That further weakened my connection to the Earth plane, and sense of belonging somewhere. A couple of years later, I became involved in healing and psychic work, worked from home and bam – some time last year I realized I had become a nun, but without the support of a religious order. I must have seemed reclusive, fragile and a bit otherworldly because I was so ungrounded.
Since then I have been working on opening up my lower chakras and agreeing to fully engage with life – all aspects of it. But I had to suffer a lot emotionally before I realized that was necessary. The suffering I went through was perhaps necessary for me to be sufficiently motivated to finally break an old vow of spiritual service to the exclusion of everything else.
Can you relate to this? (I know that most people won’t, but then I know that most normal people don’t read my blog 
)
At some point in the next couple of weeks, I will publish an article about how to become more grounded and engaging fully with aspects of life even when you like to exist mainly in the spiritual realm – something I have been learning a lot about in the second half of last year (and continue to learn about.)
Edit 11/07/2010: The second article in this series is here: How to Avoid Spiritual Addiction & Stay Grounded on Your Spiritual Path
I can identify with a lot of this Anna. I’ve always been quite ‘sensitive’ to others emotions and can sometimes feel quite overwhelmed when this gets too much. I have also gone through phases of feeling very reclusive and wanting to run away from it all. I still do sometimes, but I’ve begun to get more of a balance in the last few years, my OH is very pragmatic and helps to bring out the grounded side of me too. I have never been one for too much routine, but i have found developing more order and calmness in my life has helped me to keep that balance too.
Very insightful post!
Jen´s last blog ..Who will you BE in 2010?
ooh I’m one of them! looking forward to your next post! =)
Bingz´s last blog ..a Moving Meditation
Thank you for posting this, it really makes me smile because (yes) I need to work on balance all the time. This is valuable to me and I love this site!
Elaine Clayton
Elaine Clayton´s last blog ..Endecott Pears and Rainbow Warriors
Wow Anna, Im mostly this way too. Thank god Im an earth sign cause I am down to earth too. Ive made the decision to start looking after the *physical* more. Man its hard though, as you say its frustrating as energy doesn’t move as fast. Looking forward to your next article.
Thanks for this message! While I’m not completely out of balance, I have been neglecting earthly issues (taxes, bookkeeping) to pursue spiritual growth. All things in balance.
Interesting – that’s the second time today that “balance” has been brought to my attention. Definitely a message in that.
Thanks for sharing what has obviously been a difficult lesson.
Yep, been there, done that, wish I’d known what was going on. And while it all seems to be “good”, it certainly doesn’t help one live a well-integrated life.
Finally figured out that I was using spirituality etc as as escape much like a drug addict, or an alcoholic. It’s all the same really. Running away from pain – especially emotional stuff, and reality.
But much harder to pin point. After all – we already get told how “bad” drugs & alcohol are, so when one is absorbed in that world, obviously something is going on.
But spirituality and all that… it’s all good right?
I figure like you say, it’s just a stage we need to go through. swinging this way too much until we realise and start to work on the grounding real life stuff, while still retaining our openness and connection to all things spirit.
Looking forward to your next article… I like how you just seem to hit the zeitigist in your writing.
Kara-Leah´s last blog ..Kickstart 2010 with a commitment to your yoga practice
Hi Anna…. I’m not sure how i even got on your blog roll…:) just wanted to say that i fully relate to what you wrote… thanks for expressing it so well…. i look forward to your next blog for solutions… now, ‘think i’ll go for a walk outside now….’ (brady bunch tune)
peace
Jen´s last blog ..A Mini-Guide to Healing Fibroids, Tumors and Cysts.. and How we can Heal the Earth by Healing Ourselves
Well, thanks. Now I know what’s wrong with me. Not that I know what to do with this information.
Please post the next one sometime *before* I kill myself.
Thanks for your comment Jen. It is helpful to have someone pragmatic and grounded in your life like your hubby is, for me it is my mum – She has to be the most practical woman on earth!
Hi Bingz! I will have to get that article written.
Hi Elaine, thanks for your kind comment! Glad it was helpful.
Hi Kate, You must be Capricorn? I like Capricorn energy, have some Capricorn in my chart as well (Neptune, Venus, Mercury)
Hi Sue, thanks for your comment, glad this reminded you of the balance aspect even if you are not totally out of balance.
Thanks KL – that’s funny, seems we have gone through some of the same lessons. Spirituality can be another addiction if you are using to escape reality and you are right – it is much harder to know when you’re going too far until you find yourself out of balance and unhappy, but without knowing why.
Thanks for your comment Jen, hope you had a good and grounding walk !
Hi B, eek that is motivating me to get writing.
I can DEFINITELY relate to this. Erin told me what was up with my lower chakras a year and a half or so ago and gave me some good advice, but it has been a struggle against myself to take it. Even now I’m writing this in a bit of a floaty manner, because what I should be doing to really get me going today is to do some exercise, clear out my room and set up my affirmation/goal/belief board, to get me focused on my physical plane goals. Instead I’m checking out blogs a bit aimlessly.
The physical plane pisses me off – I’m so much better now but there was a time when I wanted all of this stupid crap to just go away and leave me alone – I don’t want to be a body! It’s so… limiting. My consciousness has a tendency to do what it would do in the ether – fly about – jump into other people’s bodies or into fantasy worlds or, even better, the internet. I would like my body and physicality to be lighter and more free so I can express myself in the world like I were a spirit, without feeling limitation… well I guess that’s what the spirit’s come here to bring about…
Andrew´s last blog ..9 Life lessons from the computer game Nethack
Anna, I’m stunned by this post, and I’m so glad to see from the comments that this can be a “common” problem for the spiritually inclined. . . and so relieved to see that you didn’t write this post JUST for me!
Yep, I got the symptoms. Guess I better go have lots of earthy fun tomorrow
Jeanne´s last blog ..Yep, Still Travelin’
Hi Andrew – I hear you – the physical plane can feel very limiting. The limitations are in place as a means to grow and play. Fighting against them is a waste of energy, maybe you could focus on the positives of being in a body – like food, sleep and sex (to name a few). All fun things you can’t do when you’re not in a body! Oh, and cuddling.
Hi Jeanne – Hope you are having lots of earthy fun. Don’t worry I didn’t write this for you! If you had too much energy running through your upper chakras and it was holding you back, I’m sure your guides would have told you about that already so you could address it.
Anna…wow..I just happened to stumble onto your page to find more info on me being a Clairsentient and was intrigued by what you have written. It so explains a lot about how I’ve been choosing to live my life these last 5 years. It’s funny that you talk about past lives as spiritual leaders and nuns. During a guided regression 2 years ago, I saw myself as a nun. My husband works full time and I stay at home to work on my creativity and spirituality. For awhile it was very difficult for me to go out and meet others…I don’t know why….I used to be so social and fun. I’m getting better, but still feel so left out and alone in my beliefs. Thank you for giving me something to think about and to work on:)
Hi Anna, great article!
I’ve lived most of my life at the other end of the spectrum, focusing more on the “earthly” things like money etc. but in the last few years I’ve been really “pushing” to connect to my spiritual side and growing really fast in those areas.
I connected to my spiritual side because I was out of balance, focusing way too much on earthly things.
Until I read this article I never thought about getting out of balance in the other direction, but you’re totally right. We’re spiritual beings who incarnated into these bodies for a reason. We can’t ignore “earthly” things.
This actually explains some of the dreams I’ve been having. In one dream I had a problem with my leg, like it was sick and withering away, and I was trying to heal it with Reiki healing but it wasn’t working and so I was getting really frustrated. Then at some point in the dream someone spilled some Rolaids on the floor by my foot and while I was trying to heal it with Reiki, my foot kind of absorbed the calcium in the Rolaids and healed itself.
I woke up with the thought in my head that even though spiritual healing methods like Reiki are very powerful, it doesn’t mean you can ignore your nutrition. The body needs what it needs to thrive and be healthy and we can’t ignore diet, exercise, rest etc. thinking that something like Reiki will cure everything.
Very cool article, it definitely got me thinking.
-Paul
Paul Piotrowski´s last blog ..My First Full Length Spirit Guide Reading
Anna, thank you for such a great and timely article. This explains me and my current life to a “T” and I had never thought about my struggles this way. I, too, could have been a nun…I love to read and write and pursue intellectual and spiritual paths. I am blessed with a wonderful family – two children and a great husband. They are probably the only thing that keep me grounded, but I do struggle a lot with day-to-day routines and earthly “stuff”. I can’t wait for your next article =)
Hi Anna! Paul menioned this article over at Steve Pavlina’s forums and I’m so glad he did.
It’s easy to become so accustomed to these unbalanced habits that we don’t notice them anymore. Seeing it in black and white was just the jolt of awareness I needed.
I can’t wait for the next post!
Thanks for sharing your perspective on spiritual balance. I think balanced spirituality is the best overall experience, to have everything energized and actively churning. I admit to wanting to blast off into the higher realms but I’m not dissuaded from earthly life either. The best thing would be to spirtualize life just as it is. This is what I’ve been practicing lately. Coming into the experience of the divinity that flows through everything is what I’m opening myself to by letting go of expectations and incongruent ideas by cultivating awareness. This is allowing me to a fuller life on all levels, including being happy about the world and my interactions in the world. It’s truly an awesome experience when you begin to come into the full range of your human potential. The experience of life is completely different in large part because of a self shift in perspective.
Danny´s last blog ..Love like an eagle or ego-love the ego
Hi Anna –
Oh my gosh, this is so me!!!! I’ve been realizing for awhile that I’ve become too reclusive. Your article was exactly what I needed to read. You’ve inspired me to put together a list of “social goals” for the next month. the point of the goals is to force myself to get out of my spiritual comfort zone and regain balance in my life by connecting with others on the web and in person. Thanks for an excellent article. You are an inspiration!
Victoria
Thank you Anna, I can relate so much to your article, I’m often shocked when I wake up in the morning and think “oh no, i’m down on earth again” which is a little worrying at times!
I moved to Italy over 20 years ago and connect with my family once or twice a year. My sister moved to Australia and I haven’t seen her for 3 years. I find relating to my Italian family a struggle at times. And, i have been unable to conceive children and as I’m writing this I’m wondering if that could be connected too to me being too much into my higher chakras, mmmm food for thought. Thank you. Jane
Oh boy! I definitely have been experiencing these symptoms, and reached the same conclusion regarding the chakra imbalance!
It’s funny… I used to be more earthy, and then I had some very heart opening experiences that led me to that delicious point of balance where you are both grounded and connected to the spiritual plane. It felt like channeling and was absolutely effortless!
But then I started getting too much into the higher chakras, which started freaking me out because I felt like I didn’t know how to live in the physical plane anymore. I sometimes felt like my legs couldn’t support my body anymore, and some others, I looked at my body and wondered what this “suit” I was wearing was…
I had to stop some of my spiritual practices that focused on the higher chakras (such as certain types of meditation), and go back to stuff that brings me back into my body.
These type of experiences are enough to make one wonder if we’re going insane. It’s so nice to know that I’m not alone in this, and that the steps I’m taking to correct this are in the right direction.
Thanks, Anna!!
Melody´s last blog ..There is no other
Hi Melody, glad the article was helpful!