How The Trap of Spiritual Avoidance/Bypassing Can Get You Stuck In Passivity & Inertia.

As highly sensitive, empaths and intuitives we know how important it is to give ourselves some more time to reflect. Give ourselves some time to recharge and just be with ourselves. Go for a long walk in nature, read, journal, exercise, and meditate.

All these wonderful self-care practices are absolutely a must for us and it’s no longer a luxury. However, there is a risk that we can lose ourselves in these habits as a way to escape from reality. We can build a spiritual ego around a so-called spiritual lifestyle and do no longer want to participate in making a difference.

Or we can have our spiritual self-care practice only as a way to give ourselves a break from other self-sabotaging/energy-draining activities. Think about running away from a toxic relationship, a highly stressful job or career, or even addictions and distractions.

Now of course there are times that we need to allow ourselves to heal from trauma. But when is the time you have purified your glass of water with pure light consciousness so you can let others drink from this glass?

Watch the video to learn more about spiritual avoidance/bypassing.

What Is Spiritual Avoidance or Bypassing?

To keep it simple and straightforward it’s the avoidance of reality and your own emotions. It’s like an escape from not wanting to face your own emotions and finding a way to numb yourself down. It’s like playing video games for hours and hours because you do not want to be part of reality.

In many spiritual religions and even the new age movement, you get a sense of being against the material world. That going after your material needs can create a huge amount of suffering. Sure things can go out of balance which we can see a lot in the current state of the world. But spiritual bypassing is the complete opposite. Not wanting to engage and participate at all.

You get the idea that we must ‘raise above’, transcend, and ascend to a different realm. Sure you can feel a tingling feeling but we are here on Earth for a reason. All these phrases can give you the impression that we must create a split. A split between our lower self and higher self. The polarity between the material and spiritual world. It can give you even a guilt trip that manifesting and attracting material (financial) abundance is bad.

Don’t like the idea of modern enslavement by working from 08:00 – 20:00 and just getting by? Find or create a business that can solve that problem.

How Spiritual Avoidance or Bypassing Began For Me?

I only create content based on my own personal experiences. At one point in my life, I started to feel very stuck. Obsessed with proving my worth through accomplishment which led to a burn-out. Anyway, you can read the full story on my about page.

From 2013 I came to London and I did indeed experience that working nonstop as an achiever burned me out as I was not really looking after myself. Coming to a city like London gave me a whole set of other challenges. Or perhaps a purpose…

As I grew up on an island in the South West of The Netherlands in a province called Zeeland. A Highly Sensitive country boy like me struggled with adapting to the city lifestyle. The noise, and overly crowded place constancy hammered against my nervous system. It drained my energy levels endurably and was constantly on the edge of feeling emotionally depleted, fatigued, burned-out, and depressed.

I am sure you can imagine that it became almost impossible to work and keep a job in this city. Eventually, I just got to a point where I did no longer want to participate in a normal job in the city. Tried way too many times and was constantly burned out. As I became financially dependent on my partner my self-esteem became worse. Eventually, I just escaped into video games as a way out. And of course with some breaks in nature.

Instead of making self-care my purpose and helping others to manage their highly sensitive and intuitive nature, I looked for the easy way out. Playing the victim role.

How To Avoid Spiritual Bypassing?

Avoiding your own feelings and emotions is like trying to hold a balloon of air under the water’s surface. You put all your energy and strength into resisting what wants to reveal itself. Feeling “negative” emotions and expressing them is what makes you human. This process is indeed to evolve and to free your spirit from trauma.

We will probably just try to find a pill for the ill with all the additional symptoms that come along with it. Emotional awareness and development still seem to be taboo in our modern culture as we prefer to distract ourselves. These distractions might give us an instant dopamine hit but will only give us more issues in the long term.

Facing your own demons by getting in touch with your emotional pain body is what eventually will set you free. Without having to ascend or astral project to anywhere. Simply become mindful of “what is” and do the spiritual healing work.