What is spiritual bypassing and how might it get in the way of your manifesting powers?

If you have not heard of spiritual bypassing before and you have not been seeing the results you want in your law of attraction practice, this has been sent to you by the universe.

Spiritual bypassing is one of the easiest traps to fall into, and like all traps, you can’t see them because they are disguised as something else.

I want to congratulate you on stumbling across this article. It means you’re just about to uplevel with the information that I am going to share with you today. Understanding spiritual bypassing is a profound rite of passage for anybody on a spiritual/law of attraction journey.

There is a tendency to use spiritual ideas and law of attraction practices to sidestep or avoid unresolved emotional wounds and unfinished developmental tasks agreed by the soul before incarnation. It is a common occurrence where people try to use a spiritual practice to avoid healing inner wounds.

If your manifestations aren’t happening the way you would like them too, then guaranteed, there is a spiritual bypass taking place. It is particularly common for people who are on the law of attraction journey because there is a propensity to be the happy clappy Pollyanna and not be willing to look at aspects of the shadow which hold the very keys to achieving what they want with the law of attraction.

I have seen this phenomena time and time again in my coaching practice and it is not until people are alerted to their own form of bypassing, they then start to see results.

One example that can help to illustrate spiritual bypassing is, let’s say you are feeling lonely and want to bring more people into your life. You may have tried doing your affirmations and your visualisation and noticed you haven’t really got the results that you want. This is because there is something deeper going on. Perhaps a belief pattern, or a trauma that you may have experienced. This needs healing to break the current karmic cycle and create something new. Or when a person may be tempted to use a subliminal recording or hypnosis to try and override perceived malfunction of the mind. Or are perhaps drawn to certain crystals or even drugs to help them reach a state without dealing with the pain inside.

But how does this affect the law of attraction?

We all have our own unique soul plan which means that we have agreed to overcome certain challenging in this lifetime to unlock gifts that will help us toward enlightenment and raise our vibrations. If we try to skip these vital lessons and opportunities, we delay our own progress. This further fuels feelings of impatience and frustration keeping us on a repetitive loop, attracting more of the same. Like energy attracts like energy.

When we have a wound, our ego tries to protect us by finding something to fill the void. Unfortunately, these are quick fixes which leave us constantly thirsty for more. This is what drives us to continuously repeat the same patterns.

Until we break them of course. Until we do the deeper work….

It is important to remember that this is very common. I have done it, you have done it, many people have done it. It is something that we all experience at some point along our journey. This is not about judgement, but rather awareness so that you can move to new levels.

What are the common signs of spiritual bypassing?

• You don’t allow yourself to connect your feelings. Rather you try to stay positive and look on the bright side. The ability to think positively is a great character atribute but sometimes it is also a sign that we are avoiding uncomfortable emotions.

• Instead of allowing yourself to sit with and experience negative emotions, you immediately look at for the spiritual lesson behind them. This would seem innocent to most people that have been on this kind of pathway for some time. Yes, there is usually a spiritual lesson behind most emotions but allowing yourself to feel, is when you heal. It is afterwards that you will understand the lesson that the universe wants to teach you. Therefore, being present with your emotions and allowing yourself to feel and express them unlocks the key to understanding them.

• If you are familiar with archetypes, you may have heard of the victim archetype? This is when somebody does or says something that triggers us, and an old fear is activated. Taking responsibility is a big part of becoming empowered and the victim renders us powerless. If you ignore this and play the victim instead of addressing the situation, this could be a sign of spiritual bypassing.

• You project unresolved issues on to other people, by way of avoiding those character traits within yourself. Usually, our ego tries to protect us from uncomfortable painful feelings. It takes courage and bravery to acknowledge why we react the way we react. A true spiritual journey requires us to turn inwards and become curious as to why we are experiencing certain emotional states. To then heal the wound within and experience the freedom of no longer having the same button pushed time and time again.

• Denying our emotions and experiences by pretending that everything is okay when it is not. Pretending to cope, can come at a price. Denying your life experiences and your emotions can lead to other common symptoms like anxiety and depression. This also sends signals to your subconscious mind that your feelings don’t matter and you’re not important. This then has a knock-on effect to other areas of your life as you look for ways to fill this void. Sometimes people look for solace in food, drugs or even alcohol.

• Avoiding taking care of your own needs by keeping yourself busy and caring for the needs of others before your own. Been too busy to stop and listen to your own emotional needs is an avoidance technique to stop yourself from feeling. Many people are too scared to feel because they’re worried what might happen if they let themselves go there. So the feelings are brushed under the carpet creating a further imbalance and a person may experience exhaustion, feeling of lack of support and stress related illnesses can kick in because of lack of self-care.

How to stop spiritually bypassing:

• Be open-minded and willing to admit that you don’t know everything

• Learn to feel safe with connecting to, validating, and experiencing your feelings.

• Ask your honest feedback from people that you trust. Whether it be a good friend, spiritual mentor, or a coach. Quite often we have blind spots and others can see our areas for growth where we can’t.

• Take responsibility for yourself and your life.

• Take care of yourself as if you were someone you really love