Written by Lumi (Changyi Li), Visionary Artist & Healer
Lumi (Changyi Li) is an art healer and intuitive known by her visionary art and embodied spiritual practices on the journey of self-healing and personal growth. She created Illumina Free Soul Art, an online platform to heal and empower the world through authentic and heartfelt expression.
We, as human beings, are constantly growing and evolving. We are all on different paths and timelines, but we are always elevating to the next level of ourselves. During certain phases in life, we more or less will experience periods of darkness, chaos, and deepening, leading to a shift in our values and way of living. These waves of inner transformations can be overwhelming and hard to navigate when we first encounter them, but they are the fertile soil that births a strong and resilient new self. They are the invaluable gifts from life that take you through the dark and eventually bloom into spiritual abundance, deep compassion, harmony, and joy.
A collective transformation: Now is our time
In the recent decade, more and more people started to find themselves in confusion and chaos, which led them to mental dis-ease and depression, then onto the journey in search of the meaning of life and life purposes. We, as a collective, from a spiritual point of view, have been entering a pivotal time on Earth where an unprecedented change and expansion in consciousness is taking place. This first leads to a phase of collective cleansing and releasing of the past: confronting shadows, surfacing of historic trauma, intense chaos, and conflict we see happening globally. As individuals, we are never separated from this turbulence of changes. Life creates events to nudge us to face the inner challenges and past trauma that are yet to be confronted and resolved, for eventually, these are to be transcended and reconciled for the new self to birth. On a collective level, this deep cleansing is for the new human race to walk in higher consciousness with compassion and love on this planet.
What counts as an inner transformation?
This is not merely the experience of life crises and mental and emotional breakdowns. It often would manifest as a series of life events that lead to changes on a psychic level that touch the meaning of life. It changes and shapes our belief and value systems from the root. Inner transformation can be an “initiation” experience that leads one consciously onto his journey of personal development and spiritual growth and often will last several years instead of a few weeks or months. It is a phase where the inner gets “destructed” and then “reconstructed” as if going through cycles of inner death and rebirth. Very often, it leads to a spiritual awakening or conscious expansion, which prompts the individual to leave the old ways of living, and consciously take on the responsibility for his personal growth and life journey.
Common phenomena of inner transformation
The feeling of “things in life being wrong” alongside an urge to leave the life you used to live.
Things in life happen in waves, pushing you to slow down and to turn inwards.
No matter how it will affect your relationships, jobs, and other aspects of your life, you feel deeply that you need to take action and change.
Experiencing doubt, confusion, and disorientation. You find it difficult to explain what happens and don’t know where life will lead.
Expression of strong emotions, such as anger, fear, frustration, feelings of meaninglessness, loneliness, worthlessness, etc.
Experiencing emotional breakdowns for no clear reason.
Shifting from repression to expression, with an urge to express your true voice and can no longer stand other people trespassing your boundaries or controlling your life.
Physically experiencing fatigue, the need for frequent rest and sleep, disruption of sleeping pattern, and change in dietary needs e.g. switching to a vegetable-based diet.
Conflict with original family and close relationships, and break-away from old social circles and old relationships, often in a dramatic and fiery way.
Being led into new groups of people, new interests, and new hobbies, very often relating to health, well-being, personal development, and holistic healing.
You feel the need to rest from work and start spending time on inner works e.g. self-exploration, self-reflection, therapy & healing sessions.
Becoming more intuitive – having more vivid and symbolic dreams and visions or receiving intuitive downloads or messages.
Inner transformation is a deep experience. It cannot be assessed just by the common “symptoms” in many on a surface level. Each individual is different, and each phase of inner transformation is different. The list above offers guidance but is never to be taken as an absolute. It is more about the feeling, the experience, and the in-depth change of each individual going through these transforming waves.
How come the pain, the dark, and the chaos?
Inner transformation is never only to be explained on a psychological or emotional level, as the driving force is the soul, so it is spiritual. The journey of each life of each human being has a greater plan beyond our mind’s prediction and control, and it is set according to what our soul wishes to experience at each phase of each lifetime.
If the soul reaches a time when its human experience of one way comes to an end while an elevation of one’s consciousness awaits, a phase of “death-rebirth” will happen for the old to fall apart and transform and transcend into the new. Inner transformation is psychic alchemy. It requires a lot of fire and strong energy to break down the “psychic impurities” – the unresolved trauma, the false beliefs and limiting beliefs, and the mental programs that hinder the individual from reaching his highest potential. This inner fire – those strong and inexplicable emotions, is the life energy repressed deep in our unconscious self, where tension and pressure are held. When the time has come for a release, they finally surface, but in an explosive way. Hence the intense inner chaos and disorientation. This is why when one experiences inner transformation for the first time in life, it can feel rough, disorientating, and overwhelming.
From darkness to light, the birth of a new
This inner fire and all the psychic impurities are the key to the change. For us to experience higher consciousness – happiness, joy, freedom, abundance, and love, the low consciousness – fear-based emotions and beliefs must be seen, confronted, allowed, and transcended. Inner transformation involves lots of shedding and deep cleansing, and often centers on the growth themes of reclaiming sovereignty, regaining self-worth and self-love. Gradually and naturally, it will then lead you to the phase of reconstructing the new. New life will find you, and in fact, it already finds you during the initial destruction stage. But to feel the future calling, we need to fully allow the dark to surface and come through. The intense chaos and darkness incubate and prepare for a rebirth. They are forging the ego into gold and creating a new from the old.
The Swiss psychoanalyst C. G. Jung was renowned for his in-depth work on the human psyche. He went through intense years of inner transformation, termed by himself the "confrontation with the unconscious" before his work entered a new level and flourished. This growth in his work after this confrontation is the manifestation of the expansion of his internal. In his memoir, he exclaimed that most of his work found its roots in those years of chaos and disorientation. His inner transformation paved the way.
What helps if you are in this furnace of inner alchemy?
Seek support from those who make you feel held, cared for, and understood
Sometimes, it can be hard to seek the support you need from those close by, as what you are going through is not commonly experienced by everyone. So, it is important to turn to help from those who have been through similar phases and work on the psyche, especially spiritual healers and depth psychoanalysts e.g. Jungian psychoanalysts. Empathy, compassion, and a deeper knowledge and understanding of where one is at on one's journey are the strongest support.
Acceptance to the current stage and surrender to the greater plan of life
It is common to fight against the dark and to wrestle with negative emotions and feelings. But we will find it difficult to fight back when the unconscious currents come in strong waves. This is the essential teaching of inner transformation: to take down our armour of defense, to accept what is truly there inside, and to surrender to whatever happens and the arrangement of our soul. This self-acceptance, surrender, and trust is the fast track to get through the dark, as it comes as a natural flow, and will flow away at its highest speed if the process is not disturbed or intervened.
Be the change rather than being passively taken by it
Inner transformation asks us to consciously learn our lessons, that we are the fundamental force to create and shape what we experience. We can choose to remain the same or evolve into the new. In this strong wave of transformation, we will likely step into it and follow the calling. But a part of us – the past, what the ego is attached to, will be unwilling to evolve. This part of ourselves is also to be allowed. Very often you tend to feel two opposite forces within. Know that eventually, it is the new you are stepping into, the future, not the past. You are the one who decides to leave the heaviness and pain from the past. Constantly remind yourself gently of this, or say some affirmations to consciously call the future in, such us:
“With love and compassion, I allow those parts of me which no longer serve my highest good to gently fall apart. I call upon forces of light to transcend the dark. I call upon seen and unseen guidance and support to lead me into the future, and to protect me along my way. And so it is. ”
Some self-care tips during times of change
Rest and leave time to regenerate. Avoid frequent social activities.
Spend time in nature, for she is a great healer who helps you rebalance and recharge.
Keep yourself hydrated. Water has powerful cleansing and detox qualities; it washes through your system and could help balance some inner fire, especially if you experience anger.
Turn to the ones who empower, inspire, and hold you, and consciously draw away from social occasions that make you feel exhausted and uncomfortable.
Express your feelings – see what your heart wants to say, whether in art, writing, or other forms of expression.
Keep a record of what you experience e.g. a diary, so you can see how your journey grows over time.
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Lumi (Changyi Li), Visionary Artist & Healer
Lumi is a visionary and intuitive with the mission to serve as a healer through art. Her expression springs from her growth and self-healing journey and centers around themes on personal development, self-empowerment, re-connection to ancient wisdom and nature. Lumi shares her heartfelt expression on social media and website. Her art has been showcased in various UK-based exhibitions and magazines. Being passionate about inspiring and connecting to those who walk on similar journeys, Lumi is open to commission and collaboration which aligns to her mission. Her core value: to heal others one needs to commit to ones own growth journey; in the end it is love that heals it all.
