About my post from last week on how Love & Light are used as New Age gaslighting....
Being uncomfortable about other people having human feelings is generally a sign that we are not allowing OURSELVES to have our feelings.
And it's not a crime. It doesn't make you a bad person.
But it does make it harder for you to heal, grow, and create more of what you want in your life.
If does make it harder for you to be the change you want to see in the world.
Because everything you avoid has power over you. Everything you face strengthens you.
We are powerful! We are healers and artists and world-changers.
We can look hard things in the eye BECAUSE we believe in our power to do better.
BUT the New Age/Wellness/Live Your Best Life culture is RIFE with spiritual by-pass.
PLUS it's human nature to want to avoid discomfort.
If you think of a spectrum between:
[full on facing everything like a boss, healing and growing through very little obstacle in your way]
and
[#goodvibesonly I won't acknowledge anything negative and will even shame others for "being negative"]
recognize that we move around on this spectrum all the time.
Self awareness helps!
Reflecting on your own tendencies to bypass helps you be more aware of when and how and why you do this, so you can make more empowered choices.
So here we go...
The journal prompts. How do you know if you are really healing the thing or attempting to spiritual bypass the thing?
What happens when a life event knocks you down and you're right up against the thing again (the thing you thought you'd healed)?
Has it changed at all? Or are you up against the exact same thing?
We talk a lot about the healing path being a spiral. But is it?
Are you really seeing your issue in a new light?
Or are you just coming back up against this thing because you haven't actually dealt with it?
Are you sure?
What makes you sure?
If something has changed about how you are engaging with this thing: what is it, specifically?
Are you reacting in the same way that you used to? Don't focus on how you feel, it's easy to "feel like" you're seeing this from a more evolved place. Look at your behaviour. How has it changed?
Spiritual bypass keeps things VERY vague and a LOT can hide in vagueness. So get specific.
You are drawing from your true power to heal and create when you can be specific and clear and un-flinching. Especially when you're dealing with the things you really struggle with.
If you've been using spiritual by-pass as a tool, it will be VERY uncomfortable to lean into your true power instead. You will try to stay vague to get out of the discomfort of facing the thing you don't want to face.
Take the discomfort as a good sign.
And stay with it.
Remember that there is a POWER in being able to face the hard stuff head on, including BEING WITH the feelings that it brings up.
This is the inner work.
It's in processing your feelings about the obstacles where you find the fuel that will help you get beyond the obstacle.
You find your power.
You find whole new ways of seeing the thing, which give you a plethora of new options for how to handle it. You tap into your INFINITE source of creativity which can generate INFINITE solutions.
Because everything you avoid has power over you. Everything you face strengthens you.
I think it's just obvious that your healing and growth tools should STRENGTHEN you.
Which means they won't necessarily make you feel better right in the moment.
Which is why the New Age/Wellness/Live Your Best Life Industry is so FULL of tools that rely on spiritual by-pass.
Which gets confusing.
This is how I handle it:
Inner Work is uncomfortable.
Working with your dream feels good. It's creative and hopeful and casts a bright light.
So the trick is to COMBINE this Inner Work with the Dream Work. And then combine both with the Outer Work of pursuing your creative projects and making changes in your life.
That way it's not just you and your discomfort - you're bringing in light and healing and magic and creativity and possibility to the process.
You are seeing - AND USING - the benefits of the Inner Work right away. This makes it easier to KEEP GOING.
This is the work that will grow your dreams, but it's also what will save us all.
(And yes - this is what I teach, and what we do together side-by-side, in Dream Book)
