What exactly is a spiritual awakening and why is it so painful? Have you ever found yourself wanting to take a break and crawl into a hole all by yourself but not knowing the reason why? Could it be that almost everything feels forced lately? Forced interactions, forced relationships and even forced conversations? I tend to believe that our mental breakdowns are truly spiritual breakthroughs. Someone once told me that if you're not speaking it, you're storing it and that can get pretty heavy. In today's episode, I sit down with Hanan Abdel-Khalek, the founder of Young Nevertiti, and somehow even though we live thousands of miles apart, we are always on the same wavelength. In our discussion we both exhibited the same painful experiences, the same desire for solitude and the unfortunate feeling like we are being consumed by things that are distancing us away from our Creator. We came to the conclusion that we were each going through a spiritual awakening. Hanan discusses what triggered her to embark on this journey and how social media at times can be used as an escape route from real life and how it's a tool that allows us to peer into the lives of our family, friends and even strangers. We converse about the internal struggles we have faced and how one can never be truly ready for the lessons written for us, but these hardships are required in order for us to grow into a new version of ourselves. It may be a terrifying feeling for you to finally give yourself permission to be yourself, but in this conversation you'll see that you are not alone on this journey and as painful as spiritual awakenings can be, they are such a gift to experience in this world. Enjoy and follow the pod on Instagram: @unsweetenedandunfiltered Follow Hanan Abdel-Khalek on Instagram: @hananithink Check out Young Nevertiti: www.youngnevertiti.com