Awakening Stories Project

It is a potent time to be alive. As you witness the structures of society begin to unravel, you are being called to your own unraveling, your own awakening. You are invited to look at the internalized patterns you developed in response to these structures so you can decide for yourself what is true. Your conscious awareness, your ability to know yourself is your power. Your inner knowing is your guide.

Spiritual awakening and its concepts are helpful tools on the awakening journey, but the real lived experience of them is messy and often not what your mind expected it to be. Courage, humility, freedom, unity consciousness all sound nice, but they require moving through the dense energies of fear, grief and rage. The best maps for awakening are often stories of humiliation, loss, destruction, vulnerability and resistance. These are the stories you are living on your journey.

I want to create a collection of your stories. They are not stories about being enlightened. They are stories about being human inside of awakening. You don’t need to sound wise or teach anything. The most powerful stories are not the most impressive ones—they are the most real…messy, unclear, humbling, and quietly true.

How to begin your story

Start before you understand it. Don’t begin with the lesson. Don’t begin with what it meant. Begin with a moment. Find one real moment. Not your whole journey. Just something that felt true. Write what happened. Stay close to the ground of the experience. Describe, don’t explain. Let it be unpolished. You don’t need a clean arc or a resolution. Notice if you start performing. Gently come back to what was actually true. Stay with the feeling, not the conclusion. Let the story end where it ends. It can remain open. You are not writing to explain awakening. You are writing from inside of it.

Submission guidelines

Please keep your story between 800-2,000 words. Focus on one experience, moment, or period of your life rather than your entire journey. Write in your natural voice. Please avoid teaching or giving advice. Your story does not need to be resolved. It can end in uncertainty, openness or not knowing. You can decide to keep your story anonymous or not. Selected stories will be included in a published book project. This is a collaborative project and contributors will not be financially compensated. Contributors will be fully credited, if desired, and will receive a copy of the book upon publication. By submitting, you are granting permission for your story to be considered for publication. Not all submissions will be included and stories may be lightly edited for clarity and consistency, while honoring your voice. Please submit original, unpublished writing by June 1, 2026 to ashleyhendersonmsw@gmail.com.

If you’re wondering if this invitation is for you, then it probably is.