Soul Stories: Sharon’s Journey From Religious Fear to Spiritual Freedom

Maybe you grew up being told that questioning God was dangerous. That fear was the price of devotion. That you had to earn your place in heaven, in community, in your own soul.

If any part of that still lives in your body, this story is for you.

In this Soul Story, we sit with Sharon, who is walking her own personal spiritual path. Sharon shares her from religion to spirituality journey, moving from a fear-driven Christian upbringing to a quieter, more grounded spirituality rooted in nature and intuition. She opens up about the fears that were planted in her as a child and what it took to unlearn the religious doctrines she had carried for years. We talk about how she found her way back to her inner voice, the rituals she has built along the way, and what spiritual alignment actually looks and feels like in everyday life. At the heart of it all is a story about spiritual freedom and what it actually takes to claim it.

Sharon didn’t have one dramatic moment of liberation. She had questions. And she followed them anyway. That turned out to be enough.

“just like the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears”

Background

My Spiritual Lifestyle : If I asked you to describe your spiritual life today in just a few words or images, what would come up for you?

Sharon : I see green leaves.

I see the ocean, then I feel the air around me.

But of course, previously as a Christian, I had this  image of Jesus, the way they always draw him, a bearded white man sitting up in heaven. but not anymore.
Now I see more of nature, I feel more of nature. When I think about my spiritual life.

My Spiritual Lifestyle : So growing up, what was your experience of faith, religion, spirituality, and how did it feel in your body, for example?

Sharon : I remember one time I got a notebook to track my sins, not exactly writing them out, but marking whether I had done more good than bad that day. Like, if I lied, I would mark it down, keeping count, just to know if God could still forgive me. I was so scared. I didn’t want to go to hell.

It was like they just put this fear in me. I was doing things not because I understood it was the right thing to do, but because I was scared of hellfire. That was it. It was traumatic and scary.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: Will you say that you were practicing religion because of fear

Sharon : That was what I was conditioned to believe. You don’t ask questions, you just believe.

Looking back, what Sharon carried as a child had a name: religious trauma. Healing from it rarely happens overnight, for her, it was a slow unraveling, one honest question at a time. What she has built in its place is a nature-based spirituality that she didn’t find in any church, but pieced together intuitively, one element at a time.

My Spiritual Lifestyle : Was there a moment or season when you began to question or shift away from what you were taught?

Sharon : Yes, but that was much, much later in my adult years. Though even as a child, there were so many stories in the Bible that confused me. The one that made me question the most was the story of Job. Like, how can God say He loves someone, and then give the devil permission to torture that same person? This person lost everything, and he’s still supposed to just take it and trust God. That story never sat right with me, it just wasn’t clear.

Even so, as a child, I still followed the trend of not questioning God, not questioning the Bible at all. You just didn’t do that.

Yet, It was in my adult years, around 2018, that I really started asking myself the deep questions. Like, am I just supposed to believe? Am I not allowed to question any of this?

My Spiritual Lifestyle : And how old were you around that period?

Sharon : Around 27 year old, that was when i started making research

And funny enough, just like the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears

So the moment I started doing research, I began seeing people who shared the same thoughts as me, making posts about it on social media. I would Google my questions and find that a lot of people felt the same way. Like, I wasn’t crazy for asking those questions.
And I saw people answering those questions in ways that really resonated with me. That was how I started leaving Christianity.

There was no event actually, it was just me asking questions. You get questioning a whole lot of things you get okay more like My life hasn’t been rosy, not like anybody’s life has is rosy yet.
And I remember as a Christian, I went to church a lot, morning mass as a Catholic, I never missed. In fact, for six years, I did not break.
There was no day that passed without me attending morning mass or adoration, Thursday adoration.
If I’m not able to meet up with benediction in the morning, that means I have to go in the evening.

I was practicing, I was trying to do everything right in quotes like the Christian way of doing things, but things were not working out. So that was when I started asking myself questions.
I know people, Chinese, other Asians, Europeans, who aren’t religious at all, yet their lives are thriving. And then you look at places like Africa, Nigeria, where people are deeply devoted, constantly praying. But somehow, people who aren’t practicing anything seem to be doing just as well, if not better.
That made me start thinking. Maybe it’s not about prayers. Maybe it’s your mindset, your effort. You understand?
And when you look at all these new Christians and Muslims in Africa… at the end of the day, God created everybody, right?

And if you think about it, Christians say if you don’t accept God and Jesus as your Lord and personal Savior, you will not make heaven. So where does that leave the Muslims? The same God created them too, so where will they go?

So it means Christians will go to Muslim hellfire and Muslims will go to Christian hellfire. You know, those kinds of things.
I’ve seen a whole lot, and I just decided to let religion be. Like, let me just be, let me start thinking for myself, following my intuition and my instincts. It’s not like something dramatic happened to me, you get. There was no one key thing. It was just me, a series of events playing out in my head.

Spiritual Burnout & Reconnection

My Spiritual Lifestyle: And when you started, or even after you started, did you, have you experienced any form of spiritual burnout?

Sharon: Yeah, a lot of times I still question. Like, it seems whatever rituals I’m doing, they’re not working. Or sometimes I still ask myself, am I doing the right thing? Not like I’m thinking of going back to religion, but I’m still asking, is there something I’m not getting correctly? There are times I feel, how do I put it, I like to call it spiritual dryness.
But then at some point, you’ll just see me breaking free, and things start flowing according to how I, should I say, how I command it? Or what?

My Spiritual Lifestyle: What helps you to reconnect with yourself or with your calling?

Sharon : I actually don’t see it as a calling.
I feel like it’s something meant for myself, by myself. I’m not sure if it’s a calling in the traditional sense. Maybe I’m expecting a direct message, a voice, or a clear sign that says: “this is what you should do.” But sometimes my intuition tells me I’m supposed to counsel people, not necessarily in a formal spiritual sense but as a healer. Even as a Christian, I had that notion in me that I was supposed to counsel. when I have my own issues, I can’t even help myself, but I know how to support other people through their challenges.

My Spiritual Lifestyle : Okay.
Do you think it’s possible that you’re already getting signs or messages, but maybe just not paying attention to them?

Sharon : I do try to pay attention, but I don’t always get clear messages. Sometimes though, my intuition nudges me, and it feels like maybe I’m supposed to be doing something in a healing or consulting space, just not necessarily in the exact line I’m in right now.

Energy, Elements & Ancestors

My Spiritual Lifestyle: How do you experience alignment with the elements earth, water, fire, air in your daily life?

Sharon: With earth: I like to walk on the ground barefoot thats is howI connect with earth . I connect with water by going to the river at least once a month to offer prayers, with fire by lighting candles and sitting with the flame, and with air by burning incense and meditating outside. When I go to the river, I commune with all four elements together: the water is there, the soil for earth, the sun for fire, and of course the natural air. So the river is where I align with all of them.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: Which of the elements are you most aligned to?

Sharon: The earth.

My Spiritual LIfestyle: Do you feel any relationship with your ancestors or your lineage? How do they show up? 

Sharon: Since I was a child, I used to have recurring dreams. I would see myself in danger, running home. When I got to the compound, instead of entering my house, I would go behind the house into a bush. And once in that bush, I would reach a place with different buildings, filled with old people. Whatever problem I was running from couldn’t reach me there. Those dreams were so vivid. During my awakening, I started having them again. I asked my maternal uncle, the only one who understood my spiritual path; what was behind that area. He told me that was where our ancestors rested. I was stunned. Sometimes I still long to feel their presence more physically, but I notice that when I offer prayers to my ancestors with a specific need in mind, I tend to get my answers quicker.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: Can you describe a moment when your body clearly said yes or no before your mind understood why?

Sharon: Yes. My spirit has told me not to  do certain things, and I made excuses and did them anyway. When things went wrong, I would realize: so this is why my intuition rejected it at first. So yes, I have intuitions but I don’t always listen to them, and I end up regretting it.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: What helps you discern between fear, wishful thinking, and true inner knowing?

Sharon: I haven’t really given it much structured thought, to be honest. Maybe sometimes I act carelessly. I’m still working on that.

Tarot, Astrology & Intuitive Tools

My Spiritual Lifestyle: Do you use any physical tools like tarot? Which ones do you use and why?

Sharon: Personally, I don’t use tools myself, but I’ve had people use them on me — tarot cards most of the time.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: How did you feel the first time you had a reading done?

Sharon: I was amazed. Shocked. I thought: how can this thing know everything about me? How is it this accurate?

My Spiritual Lifestyle: Did you continue after that?

Sharon: I continued, but at some point I realized I was becoming very dependent on the cards. Something in my intuition told me: take a break. You don’t actually need to depend on this. Use your own inner eye. Don’t rely too heavily on external tools.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: Was there a reading, whether tarot, astrology, or any other type, that changed how you see your life path?

Sharon: Not yet…. Maybe not yet.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: Do you do any spiritual work for others?

Sharon: No, not yet. Maybe later.

Moon Cycles, Rhythms & Daily Practices

My Spiritual Lifestyle: How do you relate to the moon cycle, new moon, full moon, eclipse in your own journey?

Sharon: Before, when I was very serious about it, I used to follow the moon phases closely. I would do rituals and intentions at the new moon as it waxed. For the full moon, I would continue my rituals. And when I wanted to release something, I would follow the waning moon. Recently though, I haven’t been as consistent. I just do things as I feel called to.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: How do you balance doing the inner work with simply being and receiving?

Sharon: The nature of what I do is not very demanding, so I make time for it. Most times I like to do things in the morning before I start my day. It doesn’t take much of my time.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: What rhythms or rituals do you return to when you feel out of alignment?

Sharon: I like to do grounding and meditation. And cleansing, I smudge, and I use some herbs, mostly sage leaves. Sometimes I also add some pepper to the water I use for cleansing.

Transformation, Boundaries & Integration

My Spiritual Lifestyle: In what ways has your spiritual path softened you, and in what ways has it made you stronger, perhaps helped you set different kinds of boundaries?

Sharon: I think it made me understand people more. It helped me become non-judgmental. Before, I would judge people for what they do, but now I make excuses for them,  I try to see why they act the way they do. And of course, I’ve set stronger boundaries. I’m not an extrovert, even though I may appear that way. I prefer to be alone most of the time, unless it’s with people I’m truly close to. Spirituality also helped me not to care too much about how people see me, as long as what I am doing is right.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: What part of your old self or old life have you had to gently release to live more in alignment with your soul?

Sharon: I think this is just my nature. I don’t feel like much has fundamentally changed in who I am. But yes, I used to be scared. I couldn’t even stay alone in an empty room or an empty house. Spirituality changed that. I started understanding life differently and the fear dissolved.

My Spiritual Lifestyle: What feels most alive in your spiritual life right now? What are you exploring or reclaiming?

Sharon: Peace. Peace in general. Reclaiming peace and embodying peace, that is what feels most alive in my journey right now.

Closing Reflection

My Spiritual Lifestyle: If you could send a message back in time to the version of you before this awakening, what would you want them to know?

Sharon: Come faster. It’s okay.

Every spiritual freedom story has a different beginning. Sharon’s began with a notebook where she tracked her sins as a child.
Some journeys don’t begin with a sign or a calling. They begin with a question you finally stop being afraid to ask. If Sharon’s story stirred something in you, that stirring is worth paying attention to.