Many years ago, a friend called in the evening to ask for healing. She was washing dishes when a pyrex dish slipped through her hands and landed on her big toe. She believed it broke her toe and it turned  black and blue.
I went to her house and worked on her foot for about 30 minutes. While I did so, her two cats perched themselves across from us each on a chair and watched. I noticed how they sniffed the air as they looked past me and I thought it was interesting. They definitely saw the energies but I wasn't sure if the energies were giving off a chemical reaction in the air or not. Perhaps they just couldn't smell anything but where baffled by what they saw?
I know animals have heightened senses that we lack, so perhaps the healing helpers with me emit a scent we humans can not detect?
I never got an answer and still wonder which hypothesis is true.

Fast forward to now.
I have a very aware amazing cat that does the same thing when the high frequency Beings come in my field to speak. My other two cats don't do this. I just watched her now, as the Galactic Council of Light was here speaking to me.  She sniffs the air, trying to identify what she is seeing. As soon as the Beings leave, Babygirl returns to her normal cattitude and stops sniffing the air.
One of my other two cats goes into a light trance when they are here, so I know the energy is affecting her. Besides, she loves and begs for healing when I go to bed.

I've had quite a few remarkable cats and dogs that sense and see energies our eyes cannot detect.
One of them once jumped in the air trying to catch a spirit Raven in the middle of a healing circle I was doing in my living room. Another once sat in the middle of the living room yeowlling loudly at 3 a.m. I got up and couldn't see anything out the windows until morning, when I left for work and saw the commotion outside. The neighbor next to me was broken in and raped at exactly 3 a.m. the night before. I treasured that cat.  She sensed people's energies and let me know what they were really like.

How is awakening defined?

Typing awakening on Google, these definitions popped up:
a. an act of waking from sleep.
In a way, yes, many people are now waking up from the slumber of denial that racism is not rampant, that hatred isn't a christian thing, and that everything is light and love. Unfortunately, everything isn't light and love, and for some it will never be. Tell that to the children in war zones, to women raped and abused every day on this planet.

b. an act or moment of becoming suddenly aware of something.
Yes, as in becoming suddenly aware that all the coping mechanisms that brought you to where you are in life are not really who you are, and that you have covered the authentic  Self with so many layers of false beliefs you really don't know who you are.

c. coming into existence or awareness.
Yes, when life stops working for you, when all the relationships feel empty, and you have a realization that there is a bigger picture you have not looked at for your life, and you immerse yourself into merging with your Luminous Self, when you have an experience of Oneness with the field of consciousness, when you find stillness in the breath, when you become aware of the field of life you are a fragment of, that's the process I call "awakening".

It is not a glamorous process, but an inevitable one in the evolution of life.

It starts with everything known to you coming undone, pushing you out of the comfort zone created by the walls you were forced to erect between you and the world in order to feel safe.
It starts with resistance to the new you being uncovered and coming into light.
It starts with resistance from family and friends that do not know you anymore, and the struggle to belong in the same environment you felt so comfortable fitting in.
It starts with finding new ways to express the repressed pain and feelings of not being accepted.
It starts with questioning your sanity, religious dogma, science, history and philosophy.

It develops into learning to be present, to listen to your heart, to becoming aware of your body, emotions, thoughts, energy field and the wisdom of who you are.
It develops into an awareness of the field of consciousness we are a part of, an awareness of connection and communication through other means with other life forms on this planet and beyond.
It develops into a higher frequency, as the old lower vibrational pain dissolves. and it's replaced with the higher frequency of love and peace.
It develops into the awareness that you are never alone, because one is never alone in the field of consciousness.
It develops into acceptance of what is, that some will never achieve a higher frequency in their lifetime, that everyone is unique, yet not separate, that because we look different from one another, one is not superior or inferior to one another.

Raising our physical frequency to match our Luminous Being's frequency is a process that has no manual or instructions. It's a process that is unique to each individual and will progress based on commitment, willingness, determination and the amount of false beliefs one has layered upon the Self.

My determination to live, despite many instances when I sank deeply into suicidal thoughts, and a strong desire to free myself from the prison I saw myself in took me on a long journey to "awakening".
It took precisely 67 years to finally feel free from the illusions I had about myself, the world and the unmet needs I desperately wanted to fulfill.
Freedom to be the real ME was my purpose and what drove my life.
So when I had that realization, that I was finally free, that I know who I am, I had no idea where to proceed from that point.
To me, that's the awakening and ascension goal. To let go of everything you are not and become nothing.
No labels, no boxes, no purposes.
Just be and allow.
That's awakening.