Grieving the Loss of Identity

As we expand in consciousness and know ourselves more as our essence, or who we are beyond this body, this mind and this life, on the one hand it can be amazing, liberating, joyous and expansive.  At the same time, sadness and grief can emerge.  As we are expanding we are simultaneously losing various identities we've held over time.  As you expand you can feel like you are losing yourself.  What is really happening is that what your Self has been identified with or by is changing.  So, as you're more liberated and free, and also feeling this grief, sadness and sense of loss, know that this is what it's about.  You will no longer be as identified with the job you have, or the house, or the people in your life.  Temporarily these things can even cease to have meaning, which can be extremely disorienting.  What you once cared about you no longer care about.  What was once so important to you is no longer important to you.  What once motivated you no longer does.  In this process of dis-identification, it can be valuable because it allows you to identify with your Essence, or Higher Self, or Consciousness, who you are at a wider level.  As this new identity is stabilized, you can then gain appreciation for the body, the mind, the life your living, the people you have in your life, the activities you are participating in etc.

So again, if grief and sadness starts emerging in your life and it's either confusing because nothing is "wrong", or disorienting because you can't assign it to anything in particular, know that it is a natural complement to awakening, or shifting your identification from person, places and things to knowing the Self and appreciating the people, places and things in your life.  Be aware of what you have been most identified with.  Is it your body?  Your mind? Your partner?  Your children?  Your job?  Your possessions?  It's not right or wrong to be identified with things, it's just a choice.  It's just the more you are identified with something, the harder it is to allow for change, growth, expansion and transition.  If you are strongly identified with something or someone and it changes it can be very painful.  Whereas if you are identified as you, you can more easily welcome the change, invite the change and even celebrate the change, even if other people might name it as "negative" or a loss or something going wrong.  

So naturally, as you awaken to knowing and being yourself at a deeper level, your identifications will change.  It's natural to feel a mix of joy, peace and elation and sadness, grief and even depression. None of this is bad.  It's not an indicator that something is wrong or has gone wrong, it's just what we often go through as we awaken in consciousness.