Spiritual bypassing is the habit of using religious concepts or practices to avoid feeling or processing emotions. It’s based on the idea of always being positive and avoiding anything that threatens that identity.

How Feelings Work

When your body gets a sensation, it’s filtered through your thoughts and memories. Your mind interprets the data as feelings and assigns it a priority level. Contrasting beliefs and identity can cause resistance.

Emotional Bypassing

How you process your feelings depends on your role models and the emotional skills you’ve developed. Emotional bypassing is a cognitive bias of ignoring anything that doesn’t fit with your model of reality.

• Impairs Identity
• Hinders Healing
• Activates Anxiety

Set Spiritual Boundaries

Bypassing is often unconscious, but avoiding emotions can cause both physical and mental health problems. Set boundaries around spiritual practices and ideologies to ensure you’re meeting your needs.

Set the stage:

“Nothing I feel is wrong, it’s just data.”

Take your time:

“I don’t need to get rid of this right away.”

Don’t give it a story:

“This is just a sensation I need to observe.”

Conclusion

Emotions are vital signals from your body that need attention. Self-care is central to spirituality since it’s the foundation for being present with your inner truth. Face your feelings with courage and self-compassion.