You’ve probably heard the word “ascension,” but maybe not in connection with personal and spiritual growth.

The dictionary defines Ascension as the act of rising to a higher level. For actors, it could be seen as the process of becoming well known. In the business world, we use the phrase climbing the corporate ladder.

But what does Ascension mean in terms of personal and spiritual growth?

Christians believe that Christ ascended into heaven after he was resurrected.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed the theory that humans move through levels of development, based on getting their physical and emotional needs met.

If we look at ascension in terms of spiritual growth, it can be viewed as climbing a spiritual ladder.

When you’re on the bottom rung of the Ascension Ladder, it’s likely that you’re buying into Disempowered Consciousness. This is the worldview where you believe that things are happening TO you. You may ascribe to the “Us against them” mentality and believe that the physical world you see around you is all that there is.

When you move to the next rung of the Ascension Ladder, you’re in a state of Awakened Consciousness. In this stage of your spiritual evolution, you realize that things are happening FOR you. You explore both your joyful and challenging experiences to understand how these things are helping you grow and evolve. You understand that there is much more to reality than the physical world around you.

Existence at the next rung of the Ascension Ladder is Co-creative Consciousness. When you’ve moved to this stage, you know that you have the power to create and shift your reality and what you experience in life with your thoughts, words, and actions. At this stage of awareness, you probably have begun to experience the subtle energies within and around you. You accept their existence, even though science may not yet see or understand them completely.

The next rung of the Ascension Ladder is Empowered Consciousness. When you’re at this stage of your spiritual evolution, you know you are alive at this point in time for a reason. You begin to open up to the awakening of internal abilities and faculties that have been dormant, because you know you can use them to help other people and the world. You begin to wonder how you can use your gifts to make the world a better place.

The top rung of the ladder is Unity Consciousness. At this stage of your spiritual evolution, you are able to embrace concepts such as “We are one. We are in this together. What I do affects the whole.” Not only do you embrace these concepts, you monitor your thoughts and take actions to live these words in your daily life.

One thing that can greatly support your spiritual evolution is enlivening your 12 strand DNA. You probably learned about the two physical strands of your DNA in science class. And we know that those strands are functional. But what you may not know is that science has proven the existence of 4 strands of DNA. Some people believe that the strands beyond the 2 physical ones may be composed of subtle energy. So, in order to embrace this belief, you have to step onto the Awakened Consciousness rung of the Ascension Ladder.

One thing that some of my clients who are actively working to ascend have noticed is that they are experiencing flare ups of physical and/or emotional issues that they thought were resolved. If this happens for you, it’s important to check in with your health care provider.

It's also important to consider this possibility. What if the reason these things show up during the ascension process is that the trauma or distress we experience during challenging times gets encoded in our DNA? It's like you’ve stuffed them into a backpack that you’re carrying, which makes it harder for you to climb the ladder of Ascension.

I believe that while you're still holding onto those things, they're going to impact your DNA, especially on a subconscious level.

So, on your spiritual growth journey, as you climb the Ascension Ladder, don’t worry that you’ve gone astray or that you’re doing something wrong if old physical ailments, and unwanted thoughts and emotional issues show up. Know that you’re on the right path, and take time to uncover the deeper layers of healing that the Universe is inviting you to explore.

Having flare ups of physical or emotional issues? You might be on the Ascension Ladder