One of the biggest struggles we face when amidst the awakening process is fatigue and exhaustion. In worst-case scenarios, this can become burnout.
Many people write to me in different kinds of distress, fear, and agony about this ongoing depletion that can sometimes arise while awakening.
I remember my own experience this very well.
I was living in my mountain hermitage when my Kundalini process was in its most intense phase and interacting with what then was acute PTSD (yep, a pretty hardcore combination — and not uncommon).
The pressure my precious body, nervous system and psyche were under was enough to keep me on the couch and at many times bring me to tears.
Still, I needed to work to survive. I had no choice.
As a high achiever and someone who loved being amongst it in life, this fatigue was tough — sometimes heartbreaking — until my perspective of the situation adapted. It required developing a new mindset that balanced my everyday life with awakening, taking supportive supplements, reducing demands on my system during this phase, and finding solutions and new skills to ease the fatigue.
I had to learn how to surrender to greater forces while always keeping the goal of inner peace in focus, keeping up the best I could. Ultimately, I had to prioritize being gentle with myself no matter what — well, as much as possible!
So, why do we get so immensely fatigued in awakening? What is going on?
To be honest, the change that awakening brings forth is profound, intricate and affecting many levels all at once.
Here are just a few suggestions for you to contemplate that may be contributing to your exhaustion.
This is not a complete list. Instead, it’s a starter menu.
By identifying what may be contributing to fatigue, we can then begin to find solutions and antidotes, calling on our intuition, Kundalini, and our supporters for the next steps to take.
We can also appreciate the enormity of what we are accomplishing on many levels.
1. Adjust your everyday life to accommodate your clearing processes.
Quite simply, even in a well-balanced Kundalini process, so much powerful, exquisite transformation is happening at every level, energetic to cellular, as well as multidimensionally. This requires adjustment and balance in your everyday life.
You are processing and transforming all of your history and its residues that you carry in your body and energy bodies: personal, ancestral, past life, cultural, and collective. This takes fuel to accomplish. You are in a profound and ongoing, though modulating, release process.
In the early phases, your body and psyche are learning to adjust to the awakening process and to refine their abilities to accomplish the tasks at hand with more ease. This adjustment can continue as the awakening tasks continue to evolve and change.
2. Make time for rest, even if it’s only a few minutes at a time.
You are rapidly learning, deepening awareness, and receiving new information, high-level energies, and insights constantly. And then you are required to integrate this into your mind and body.
You are radically evolving. Your brain is changing, your glandular system is upgrading and learning the secret, subtle spiritual fluids that nurture and facilitate awakening, new channels are opening in your subtle energy system, chakras are speeding up and opening, and so much more.
3. Don’t rush the trauma-release process.
Often, awakening requires us to process trauma from our personal history and past lives.
As a trauma therapist, I know well that even if you are not in a Kundalini process, that releasing, digesting, and processing trauma is a fatiguing business. That is why we seek to titrate the release of trauma.
It’s important that the awakening process does not go too fast so you have time to keep up with the trauma content being relieved from your body.
3. Practice calming, de-stress techniques to relieve an overactive sympathetic nervous system
(Word of caution: yoga and meditation might make things worse because they naturally stoke the awakening process. You might want to try other techniques.)
Sometimes the Kundalini energy can trigger the sympathetic nervous system to become over-active, stuck in threat mode and constantly filling us with anxiety, states of hypervigilance, constant stress and stimulation.
This can happen also if you have a lot of trauma in your body when it activates, if Kundalini frightens you or if your system feels very unprepared for the awakening process.
Certain obstructions in the system can also trigger this. Over the long term, this hyper-activated state fatigues our body, brain, immune system, nervous system, and if unmitigated can lead to burnout.
It’s also tough on the kidneys and adrenals in particular. There is so much published scientific research about long-term stress and the complex impacts on the body.
When working with clients, I always explore a range of options and tactics to bring the body out of threat mode as soon as possible to reduce the impact, allow recovery, protect the system, and support the return of energy. I see this as paramount.
Sometimes your original ignition of Kundalini can stay in a surge mode after initiation, rather than naturally slowing down, self-regulating and soothing to a more stable, gentle flow. Being stuck in the intensity of the initial phase can be exhausting.
Your body may have already been stressed, unwell or unhealthy prior to awakening. You may have had existing health challenges or old symptoms return as the body cleanses throughout the awakening. Kundalini can then place more stress on an already depleted system. This was part of my experience.
4. Get support to help you process the unnerving, fearful or overwhelmed emotions.
Sometimes, people can be overwhelmed and frightened by the awakening process — especially if it’s unsought, unwelcome and spontaneous. This can lead to being in a constant struggle and fight with Kundalini. And quite frankly, long-term fighting of anything is depleting.
And honestly, my dear fellow awakener, you now have two precious tasks you are fulfilling in your life: your ordinary, everyday life and its demands, and your sacred awakening journey.
There are so many nuances to awakening and exhaustion; this little list is just an opening to offer some insights and possibilities to contemplate as you find your way through your Kundalini journey.
There is a lot of hope and means of soothing these processes.
I struggled with many of these and emerged on the other side resilient.
I have seen hundreds of people go through the initial difficulties of adjusting or tinkering with the roots of the fatigue and finding long-term relief. Sometimes that recovery can be up and down as it progresses. But any progress is welcome.
Please trust and know that there are solutions to all of these challenges and ways to ease and relieve the circumstances that contribute to fatigue and to relieve the fatigue itself.
And in those moments when you are led by intense fatigue to the sofa to heal, release and recover, please take a moment to contemplate the profundity and miracle your body and systems are seeking to accomplish.
To them, I bow.
If you would like to learn more and get guidance from me and support from a community of fellow awakeners, check out my online course, Kickass Kundalini.
Please share your thoughts and any tips YOU have for navigating awakening and fatigue below. Let’s continue to learn and grow together!
With passion for your awakening,
36 Comments
Thanks so much for that article Myree, it couldn’t have come at a better time. I have certainly been feeling very run down and depleted lately by the whole process and it helps to know that it is common and that there are others experiencing the same things as me. Xxxxxx
Oh I am so glad it was supportive timing, be gentle and give your self soooo much nurturing and nourishment. The awakening process can be very greedy of resources. Big love to you Krystal!
Thanks Myree. Always love your help and support and this is very timely.
Peace and love,
Graham.
Thank you Graham, big love to you!
I have experienced fatigue for many years now but most recently I experienced a very high energy state! It was wonderful! I could exercise, hike, and felt so happy! I thought I was finally through the exhaustion phase. Life was wonderful! This lasted about 3 months and now I am exhausted again! Maybe I am doing something wrong here? Should I feel exhausted for this long – nearly 6 years! It feels like I have no control over it at all. I take supplements, rest, and spend a lot of time by myself. I am tired of this lifestyle and the past 3 months were like a taste of my old life and I just want energy to live a full life.
Hi! Thank for sharing your experience. I understand how frustrating, stressful and debilitating long term fatigue can be. Without knowing you and having a sense of some of the more complex factors that may be affecting you it is not possible for me to say. 6 years is a longer amount of time which makes me wonder if other elements are going on, how is the kundalini flow and does your body carry significant trauma, are there environmental factors, toxins, or other health issues also going on as part of this. Modern fatigue in our polluted environment can be a puzzle. Also, if your breakthrough for those three months was primarily energetic then there are some good places to explore – what happened, did it hit another blockage, is something deeper coming up and processing that takes so much energy. Did I hit a personal growth edge, did I expand to fast…Just some thoughts. Without knowing you I cannot add more but there are lots of doorways to map and explore. I wish you well with your awakening. Blessings.
Since last October 2019, going through lot of similar issues due to highly active kundalini. Daily notice tons of energy surges and sensations in spine and head, including few other minor spiritual experiences.
• Oct 2019 to Jan 2019
o Extreme mental stress, drug withdrawal kind of symptoms, restlessness, fear and confusion.
o Suspecting vitamin deficiency, tried eating lots of bone broths, didn’t help much. At best gave one day relief.
• Jan 2020 to May 2020
o Pain in whole body/bones/joins, Teeth demineralization, most joints making popping sounds, Low vitamin-D (9 level).
o Started Garden of Eden Code Raw vitamin-D 5000 IU daily for almost a month
o Started sitting in Sun for hours daily, Going to nature daily, Praying. All that helped.
• June 2020 to Aug 2020
o Felt back to normal, assumed the worst is behind.
o Started going to nature daily, especially rivers, knowing flowing water carries tons of healing prana energy.
o Did meditations, pranayama, prayers, workouts daily.
o Mind was always quiet and at peace.
• Aug 2020 to Oct 2020
o Let my guard down assuming all is fine, then pains came back and also started to feel weakness too.
o Mind was always quiet and at peace.
o Daily visits to river/forest, sitting in Sun, eating vitamins once a week, kept me afloat.
My Learnings (may not apply to others):
• It’s all due to the shortage of energy. Days when I am net positive in prana energy, I feel better and body-mind heals almost within 1 day, and days due to any reason if I become energy depleted health starts going south. Somehow a lot of the energy that should normally be available to my psychosomatic system is getting diverted to this inner spiritual unfolding. I am learning something new everyday to handle this. I am having to rethink everything, from what to eat, when to sleep, who to meet, where to go/live, what to do etc.
• What quickly drain me now are excessive talking, workout, stress, mental work, negative company
• What seems to heals me:
o Spending 2 hours daily in loving prayers/bhajan/kirtan to God
o Pranayama
o Meditation on breath
o Silence and Rest
o Exposing myself to Sunlight
o Meeting less people
o Staying positive
o Going to river especially 45 minutes before sunset and meditatively sit there. I noticed somehow I receive lot more healing energy during that window of 45 min before, to 10 minutes after sunset.
o Intention of receiving healing grace from the Divine, Sun, Rivers, Trees.
o Eating vegetarian satvik diet, WITHOUT anything tamasic like raw onions, garlic, radish, meats, seafood, eggs, stale, processed, or frozen foods.
HI Aman, thank you so much for your deep sharing of your journey and being so generous here with your experiences. I really appreciate it. I also appreciate your dedication, sensitivity to what you need and what is working and your ability to keep tracking things as you changed and your needs changed. Nature is honestly one of the best medicines and it’s energy replenishes us so much.I need it so much also. Also what each person needs is very individual in every moment. I send you blessings for your awakening.
Since october 2020 till now Jan 2021, I have tried following:
– Selfless service/seva for needy
– Practicing simple pranayam where I just take regular breath but once the inhalation/exhalation finishes then I hold the breath/Koombhak for 1-2 seconds. As I know pranayam must be done with utmost care so I have just tried this a little bit and casually, but it definitely seems to produce decent healing/energy that my system likes. I may choose to explore this further if I get to meet some Pranayam Guru to guide me.
– 9 days of daily Navratri Mantra Japa, of 25 malas daily total 25,000+ chants of same mantra, as recommended by some Guru. It gave me tons of healing/energy, but by 6th day my Pitta/Acidity increases so much, but as I committed so I kept on pushing to complete my commitment of 25K jaaps. From 6th day to 45 days after this japa, I felt amazing energy, but again slowly the energy diminished and I came back to square 1. This energy was still very restless kind so although I did not feel any bodily issues during 45 days, but still I could notice I was a bit hyper during those days. Whereas the energy I got from river was the best quality-wise and amazingly peaceful.
– After that I tried Daily Agnihotra (since December 2020) and I must say this is so far looking very promising. So much healing-energy gets produced in just this short 10 minute process, and I am feeling really blissful and at ease with this, so much that i daily look forward to this now. It will still take 3-4 more months for me to fully study its pros (and cons if any) but so far its amazingly helpful and the easiest solution in the comfort of my home. I noticed agnihotra produces energy directly proportional to how lovingly/faithfully I am performing it. In the end I pray “Lokkan Samastaa Sukhino Bhavantoo” and that is when the energy increases multifold.
Also everyday this energy vortex of agnihotra is getting larger and larger and more energy is being produced. Everything else I did before was taking so many hours daily, just to keep me going, but so far agnihotra is proving to be totally reverse; with so little it is replenishing all my vigor and vitality in loads. Thanks to divine for this gift! Sharing with all fellow brothers and sister on the path. Hope it helps.
Hi Aman,
Thanks for sharing what has been working for you in your explorations of what supports your awakening. I love your curiosity, sensitive noticing and sincere exploration and dedication.
It is always wonderful to discover what supports people in their kundalini and awakening processes, knowing how unique we are and what supports one person may not for another. Such is the mystery of awakening.
I am very happy for you, I love Agnihoptra also and love that it is nourishing you, and send you so many warm wishes and blessings for your awakening.
Thanks Myree, This post your wrote is amazing and very helpful. Very impressed with your deep knowledge and giving us a platform to share. Keep up the great work! Happy New Year!
Oh, I am so glad to hear this! Thank your for sharing. Wishing you the very best with your awakening!
I need help. I’ve been going through intense energy depletion everyday for the past three years and I don’t want to live like this anymore
Hi!
I am so sorry you are experiencing it, this can be very difficult. Without knowing you personally, I cannot suggest anything direct as it is so personal for each individual, and often a result of kundalini being too fast or disregulated, or health or trauma issues. You can read more in my free ebook on my website.
There are lots of resources and help in my Kickass Kundalini Online program also. You could join us there for direct support.
Sending love!
Myree x
Do you become stronger physically after opening Kundalini. And does sleeping after fatigue from Kundslini make you stronger. Cause iz makes me sleep like a baby
Hi Maurice,
Everyone is different, our bodies are different and our capabilities before Kundalini are determined and limited by how we live our daily lives.
In the long term a steady, stable Kundalini can bring a lot of strength beyond purification processes, and during purification there can be fatigue and frailty in different phases.
Deep (stage 4 and 5) sleep is an incredibly effective healer regardless of whether or not it’s attached to Awakening so I’m sure that this is improving your health. However such deep sleep is also a natural part of the healing process and you will be healing deeply.
A lot of people can experience being extra fragile during the Kundalini process because of the purification and release of trauma, our bodies are healing on a holistic level and what emerges from the cocoon is the opportunity to connect with a more energetically sustainable way of living.
If you value becoming physically stronger and it’s something you are manifesting during your journey then it will probably come to fruition.
I have experienced extremely athletic people who, after the fire of Kundalini, live a life that is less demanding on their body’s ability to be strong, resulting in a more minimal way of living within their own skin.
One thing that will definitely keep you centered is always honouring the new equilibrium that emerges from the journey. Keep in mind that observing experiences such as ‘sickness’ and ‘weakness’ also hold their own gifts.
Blessings to your awakening!
Thank you so much for the explanation. Spiritual joruney brings lot of side effects and initially i thought its health issues and later found its a cleansing process. And sharing your experiance is authenticating the problems we are facing and thank you.
You are so welcome Ramakrishnan, sending you many blessings for your awakening journey!
Big love,
Myree x
Hi Myree, is extreme muscle weakness, inability to work out part of the kundalini? I’m having a hard time with this and feeling weak in general. Body is super achy.
Each person has an individual experience with Kundalini, and yes extreme muscle aches and fatigue can be part of this for sure and are common. However I would always go through a process of elimination first to make sure you are not exacerbating physical or psychological symptoms that may be intrinsically linked to the messages Kundalini is trying to send you through this.
Often what she wants you to do, is simply be still. And it is the hardest thing for us to do.
Please look at your diet, get blood tests, try changing your exercise regimen, ask her questions and listen to why she is sending you this somatic clue.
These symptoms are often part of the energetic and emotional clearing process.
If it is kundalini, you may just have to weather it out, go inwards and experience the growing pains. However sometimes this purification of raised awareness can trigger our bodies to rid us of a latent problem or manifest something as a psychosomatic issue.
Body symptoms like this can also be the result of an energy or shakti blockage too.
Keep going, you are doing well within the process.
Oh Myree
Thank you, you have described my spontaneous awakening perfectly. It has been overwhelming and beautiful. Profound and secret in the main. I have questioned my sanity and self, but am aware that this is part of the process.
I am in the midst of a burn out. My adrenals are shot. My TF, if such, our connection set off the energy in motion with massive trauma and PTSD making me relive abuse and deep trauma and putting me through some. My triggers became adrenal overloads and all sorts of kundalini work in trance afterwards to heal, but my body is now stuck in that fear mode, which it was out of before this connection. I’d found peace before we met and already felt on my path. That light was with me, I felt I’d done most shadow work, but was continuing. I’d never heard of kundalini before strangely until a few months before we reset.
I had scans yesterday and am waiting the results, but wish to be strong snd while, I have downloaded your book
Thank you again..
Sat Nam Katie
Dearest Katie,,
You are doing a wonderful job within an incredibly trying and testing process. Please remember that trauma does not need to be relived to be healed. Re-enactment can be more damaging for your system. It could be good to supplement your medical tests with some reading on soothing your system, (vagal nerve) and how trauma can be combated with a reclaiming of ease in your system rather than plunging back into work you feel you have already done. There are some fantastic somatic healers in the world that can also help you move away from the heavy and debilitating effects of traumas.
It sounds like your body has gone into hyper-vigilant mode which you can read about and talk to Kundalini about. She may take you through a long period of rest, fatigue and in some cases pain but she also wants to know that you are healing and learning these lessons she needs to move the rush of blocked Shakti energy through your system. She is there to guide you and answer your questions as well as challenge you.
Big love to you!
Myree x
Thank you for the information. I have scoliosis and also hyper kyphosis in my neck. Its about 75% recovered now. Its taken 2.5 years for Kundalini to rise and begin working within my neck and throat. Its been over a year now since and I’m having intense fatigue. I have this extreme pressure of energy and tension trying to untwist and pass through my neck. Its forcing my bones and tissues to correct so that it can pass through. I am forced to do 1.5 hours of yoga in the morning and another hour in the evening… plus several meditations in between. Otherwise, i don’t think I could bare the pain and pressure all day. Anyway, I’m getting through it day by day. Its amazing that this twisting and vibrating pressure that came out at the base of my spine almost 4 years ago is now a massive fire hydrant of energy that feels like it could blow my head off if I don’t get my structure aligned ASAP. I can feel the nerves in my neck and head, as well as the nadis. They feel like hot wires firing up when the energy pushes up into the knots. The pingala on my right side is like a thick cable of pressurized energy that feels like a kinked garden hose within my throat. Very extreme conditions here. Namaste
Hi Witmar,
I wonder if your body could use something more gentle? If perhaps you could work in some very minimal movement while actually concentrating on communicating with Kundalini? She loves to talk to us. Perhaps you could organise some gentle days in which you go inward and take yourself to a hot spring, a sauna or just have a bath with herbs. It sounds like you are demanding a lot from yourself and have the determination and strength to see it through but I wonder if you perhaps need to give permission for the messages behind the pain to surface.
Hello, I’m trying to search more about kundalini as I believe I’ve been on this path for a while ( years) and sadly didn’t know what it was. I am now past the years of sudden intense anxiety and overwhelming chaotic dark night of the soul type phase. As I was trying to make sense of the things I was realizing. I’m now very peaceful, my nervous system is regulated and relaxed. I seem almost “comfortably numb”. But recently I’ve started having orgasms every time I relax. It is ecstasy and I love it. I feel it when busy and distracted too but mostly it’s when at rest. My body feels filled with electricity and pulsations. Like I’m being rebooted up! I’m turned on. I awakened after meeting my twin flame. Every day the orgasms and other sensations are getting more and more intense and frequent. I’m very excited bc I feel only good things are coming. As that is all I allow in my mind. I would so very appreciate any information about this stage I’m in, if you happen to know about it, thanks so much.
Hi Lindsay,
How wonderful for you! My advice at this stage would be to bring in some mindfulness and care around not getting too attached to the bliss state and thinking practically about what is an exacerbation in your system of this relationship you are describing as ‘twin flame’ (please read my blog post on this issue) and disentangle from that what is truly your own awakening.
Kundalini has many phases, ebbs and flows and it is important to value each one for the lessons and progress it brings. Remember that Kundalini and all sorts of spiritual awakening stages can amplify other feelings that we are having, the coming online of clair and subtle channels and abilities can indeed be joyous and thank goodness for that because the previous stage of processing trauma and clearing energetic flow can be miserable. I would say, enjoy yourself but stay alert to seeking balance instead of chasing bliss, be aware of accidentally undervaluing your individualisation because of the heady rush that comes with the honeymoon stage of deep, connected love bonds. You are on your path, well done! Big love, Myree
Hi,
I’m wondering if you can please tell me how to rescue myself from being in a burnout stage after having a kundalini awakening
Thank you
Hi Josh,
Sure there are plenty of resources available on my website. Please read these articles —
https://myree.com.au/blog-when-awakening-burns-you-out/
https://myree.com.au/kundalini-awakening-and-exhaustion/
This was profoundly helpful. Thank you.
Fabulous! Profoundly is such a wonderful descriptor, this makes me very happy. Thank you for your simple kindness.
Hi Myree,
I’m so happy to have come across your site. I’ve been trying to figure out what is wrong with me. I’ve felt fatigued ,irritable, foggy, brained and crying a lot. I’m a 63 yrs old woman. So I assumed it was my age an this was just the beginnings. My mind is so foggy. I order things an forgot I did or order something I thought was some other thing. I’ve had to return things I didn’t remember ordering. I don’t even want to try ordering my usual items. I’ll make the mistake ordering more than 1 item when that’s all I want.
I have started waking with a headache every morning the past week. An incredibly weak. My toro area feels as if it’s sunken in up an down. Caving in of sort. Very strange. Another funny thing is while I’m standing for a few minutes looking at TV or looking out the window my foot feels like it’s sliding out from under me.
I’m so aggravated feeling lifeless . I like to be busy so I keep my mind occupied thinking what I’m going to do next. Helps me to not think how much I hate my life an where I’m at.
Now I have some idea of why I’m feeling so off I won’t have to try an figure out what’s going on with me.
I started meditation an listening to YouTube to get my frequency moving up.. I use ear phones to block any other distractions. Sometimes listening to things to change my negativity.
It seems from what I read maybe I shouldn’t try hurrying the process?
I’m so grateful to finding your information.
Hi Lory,
Thank you for writing and I am glad my writings have been supportive for you and help you define what is happening to you. I can sense a grounding and great capacity already to be gentle with yourself and curious about this process. They are your greatest allies!
Yes, it is alway prudent to not try to speed the process up but to honour it in its natural pace, this will prevent generating extra difficulties and symptoms.
I wonder if you have tried to just have a look through the blog entries on Kundalini Awakening, I think you will have many Aha moments if you explore further blog posts and there are lots of tips in my ebook too. After you have sat with it for a while then the greater connection to intuition will often open up pathways and desires that were submerged. Try talking to your body and seeing every feeling of discomfort as a gift of communication about change. Shifting toward alignment can be extremely challenging at any age so just continue as you are, in your own wisdom, to notice, pay attention and welcome in these mysteries.
Blessings to your awakening!
Big love,
Myree
Hello
How can we have sessions for trauma
Hi Mahi,
Thank you for reaching out.You can organise coaching sessions by going to my coaching page and downloading the coaching PDF. In that email is a link also where you can book an introductory call with me too.
You can find it here:
https://myree.com.au/private-coaching/
Big love,
Myree
Thank you for your knowledge on this subject and comment. I have been going through this since mid 2018 with an incredibly intense period for the first year and one-half. For me I had to do some of the kundalini yoga and to develop a serious meditation practice. But I have to do this meditation practice with stationary standing poses that are kind of like standing squats (horse stance and similar) that became rudimentary to my meditation practice as it provided grounding energy and allowed integration of my solar plexus chakra and a smoothing out of the energy overall. Often the meditations would be super charged but I could take it because of this stance practice and it was important to sleep after which I was almost always able to do after. I needed some way to have efficacy in being with the awakening.
Hi Bill,
How wonderful that you could really tap in and experiment to find what worked for you! Yay! I hope other people read this and realise that everything is mutable and up for grabs, Kundalini wants us to get to know ourselves better and embrace the fluidity of an ever changing self and therefore a system that has seasons and individual, sometimes highly specific needs.
You must have significant power yourself to integrate in this way. Well done.
For more sensitive or fragile Kundalini folk reading this success story though- please check with your intuition and take care if standing poses are not for you as for those in more vulnerable processes or moments in time may find that standing poses may activate more Kundalini than you can manage.
Congratulations Bill, such a wonderful sharing and I am smiling here and wishing you well on your awakening adventure!
Big love,
Myree