There’s a thing we do as high-achieving, spiritually awakened women. Because we are so self-aware and so empathetic, we can easily talk ourselves out of our own feelings. Feelings are hard. They can hurt. Even the positive ones can truly scare the crap out of us.But when we deny ourselves the right to FEEL – we are basically denying our right to be human! Just because we have chosen to walk a path of personal growth doesn’t mean that we have given up our need to be sad or angry or cry or lose it momentarily when our kids are being jerks.Life is hard. Choosing not to admit that it is just makes it even harder. In fact, that’s one of the fundamental ways that we self-sabotage our own happiness. When we refuse to accept a situation as it is. We tell ourselves it should be different. I can tell myself that my three young boys shouldn’t be loud and crazy but the fact is that they are.But I’m digressing a little bit. Back to the spiritual bypass. Most of us have heard (and I truly believe) that everything happens for a reason. One of my favorite teachers is always challenging us to see the gift in all the painful events that occur in our lives. She says that until we see the gift, we can’t move forward.She is absolutely right but, as high-achieving, spiritually awakened women, we can sometimes see the gift or get the lesson for why something has happened to us before we even allow ourselves to process it emotionally.Just because we understand WHY something has happened doesn’t negate the feelings we have from having it happen. We can see that when our lives feel like they’re falling apart that there’s going to be a beautiful reason behind it happening. But that doesn’t mean we can jump right over allowing ourselves to feel hurt just because we already get the lesson. This is what is known as the spiritual bypass.I hope this makes sense. What I’m basically trying to say is stop trying to talk yourself out of your emotions. You have a right to be hurt, sad, scared, lonely or whatever. Don’t deny yourself the actual experience of the path just because you’ve decided to walk it. Journal Prompts1. When in your life have you taken the spiritual bypass?2. What unresolved feelings have you been denying?3. What are you really angry about?
