As you question everything, remember to include religious teachings, social standards, political stances, societal norms, life choices, your lifestyle, your work, future plans, nutrition, exercise, sexuality and literally everything else… let nothing be immune from your exploration.
Question if it is true, or right for you, or what you really want, or what parts align with you or not. To fuel your thinking, read and explore what others have found the answers to be, but focus on what the answer is for YOU.
As you explore and question things more directly, and form your own interpretations, you will have some challenges…
You and your spouse, family or friends may end up in very different places. You may come to conclusions that are different from the people around you. As a result, your family and friends may change dramatically. But if you can, let it be. This is an opportunity to practice being connected to others who have different ideas. Can you let their beliefs be theirs and let yours be yours? If you are so different, that it causes conflict or if they are in stage five and feel the need to attack you for feeling differently, you may need some time away. If you discover that certain relationships are abusive or certain people in your life are dangerous, remove yourself quickly. For more subtle toxicity, fade away slowly and quietly. Time changes us all and one day you may want to reconnect, when you have both evolved. Avoid drama in either case.
Equally challenging, you may find that other areas of your life need reshaping based on your evolving beliefs. Because this stage involves rapid and continual evolution, try to keep changes to a minimum until you are through it. If you make changes too early, you may evolve yet again and find yourself in a chaotic race to keep up with your own changing beliefs. In general, if safety is not a concern, wait until stage eight to make any drastic changes in relationships, careers and the like.
Next, do not try to make others join you in this questioning if they are not ready. This is YOUR journey, not theirs. They might see your questioning as a threat. They might fear losing you from their lives as you evolve. They may feel lesser because they are not questioning. None of these possibilities leads to anything good. So keep your thoughts to yourself for now. Remember that in this stage, you will cycle though many ideological changes. Try not to settle on any one belief set too adamantly before you have explored all of its cracks and inconsistencies. For a while, you will be jumping between new beliefs like stepping stones. Do not cling to any one of them too tightly. Just think, “This will do for now.”
So how will you know when you have landed on the right, magical, combination of religious, social, moral, political and other beliefs that fit you ideally and you can finally move on to stage eight? You will have completed stage seven’s questioning when your ideology is a simple set of overarching principles (rather than specific rules and issues), and these principles are the same as those at the heart of all religions, all societies, and all humanity.
Now get out there and explore everything. Ask yourself what is common to all religions? What is common to all societies? What is common to all humanity? What principles can you find there that work for you?
