Stages of Faith: Understanding Stage 5
This is the fifth article in a six-part series exploring the stages of faith development—how they shape us and how unresolved experiences can leave us emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually stuck. Each article provides insight into healing past wounds so you can move forward with more love, joy, and purpose.
Looking Back: The Transition from Stage 4
In my last article, I explored Stage 4: Synthetic-Conventional Faith, the adolescent phase where teenagers are forming their identity–trying to figure out who they are and how they are perceived. At this stage, the desire for acceptance and belonging often leads people to adopt the belief systems of family, friends, or cultural authorities without question. This is a time of experimentation, which can be quite challenging and create difficult drama that needs to be worked through later in life.
Stage 5: Individuative-Reflective Faith
Stage 5, Individuative-Reflective Faith, typically emerges in a person’s 20s but can happen much later—or not at all. To move to Stage 5, reliance on external sources of authority must be interrupted. Some young adults will move to the opposite stance of their parents or those they previously thought were authority figures. This allows them to shift from external authority to an internal authority.
This transition is critical to becoming a mature, autonomous adult, as a new belief system begins to emerge—one that is deeply rooted in personal truth rather than group conformity.
If this stage happens in your 20s, the transition from Stage 4 to Stage 5 is relatively smooth, as young adults are already in the process of establishing independence. It is a natural progression into your own way of thinking about life and the world. However, if it doesn’t happen during this timeframe, major life events can prompt an individual into Stage 5, such as a divorce, death, or loss of something important like a valued job. If a crisis pushes someone into Stage 5, it can be a rough transition, as relationships and personal roles have already been established based on previously held viewpoints rooted in "group think." Extricating oneself from this can be painful and challenging and take time.
Moving from Stage 4 to Stage 5
If you find yourself still in Stage 4 and want to transition into Stage 5, how can you do so with greater ease, especially if you’re now in a later phase of life?
Be open to change – A willingness to question old beliefs is the foundation of this transition.
Seeking therapy can be incredibly helpful – Working with a professional can help you examine outdated viewpoints and develop new perspectives about yourself, your family, and your world.
Engage in meditation – Setting the intention for a radical perception and attitude change that aligns you with your Higher Self (HS). Your HS is your spirit that never dies and that holds solutions your mind alone cannot access.
Practicing Meditation for Personal Growth
A simple yet powerful tool for personal transformation is meditation.
Sit quietly and focus on your breath, heart, or third eye.
If your mind wanders to daily concerns (which it will), gently bring it back to your focus back to your breath, third eye, or heart.
Some days you may successfully quiet your mind; other days it may be more challenging. This is normal and both are part of the process.
The more you practice, the more connected you become to your Higher Self—allowing new insights, clarity, and direction to emerge.
It is important to become the master of your own life. We are moving into a new era of change, so there has never been a better time to do this. Not only should you be the master of your life and reality, but you should also create a totally new reality for yourself that is not based on the past.
Creating an Optimal Future
True transformation happens when you step into conscious creation of your life. Instead of being defined by the past, allow your Higher Self to release the past as you know it and create an optimal present and future—one beyond what your mind alone could conceive.
This new reality should be fulfilling, life-changing, and uniquely yours! Only your own HS can bring that forth this vision for you–and the time do so is now! to do so.
After all, you are a Divine Being having a human experience. You have all the makings of a wonderful new life!
Many blessings,
Maureen
