05/11/2026
Spiritual growth is one of the most beautiful journeys you can take. It can bring clarity, comfort, and a deep sense of connection, to yourself, to others, and to something greater than you.
But sometimes, without realising it, spiritual beliefs and practices can quietly become a way of avoiding what actually needs to be faced.
This is called spiritual bypassing, and it’s far more common than most people realise.
It doesn’t come from a bad place. It usually starts with a genuine desire to feel better, stay positive, and keep moving forward. But instead of healing what’s underneath… it gently steps around it.
What Is Spiritual Bypassing?
It is the way we use spiritual beliefs or practices to avoid dealing with difficult emotions, unresolved experiences, or personal challenges.
The term was coined by psychologist and Buddhist teacher John Welwood in the 1980s, after noticing a pattern in his own spiritual community, people sincerely committed to growth, yet consistently using spiritual ideas to sidestep emotional wounds rather than heal them.
He called it premature transcendence, trying to rise above the raw and messy side of being human before fully facing and making peace with it.
Importantly, spiritual bypassing is a defence mechanism, and an equal-opportunity one. It doesn’t matter which tradition you follow or how long you’ve been on your path. Any spiritual practice can be used this way, because it has less to do with the practice itself and more to do with what we bring to it.
It can sound like:
“Everything happens for a reason” — said before the pain has actually been felt
“Just stay positive” — when difficult emotions are being pushed aside
“I’ve forgiven and moved on” — without fully working through what happened
You can find the the rest of the article on my website 6th Sense connection in the blog section and I'll link it later in the comments. It's a must read!
