"The Truth About Spiritual Bypassing: What Real Healing Actually Looks Like"

Think spirituality means staying calm and positive no matter what? Think again. This blog dives deep into the truth about spiritual bypassing, emotional suppression, and what real healing actually looks like. Discover why feeling your pain is sacred and how it leads to true spiritual transformation.

Jasmine Spink

7/31/20256 min read

photo of spiral white stairs
photo of spiral white stairs

We live in a world that praises polished positivity, where smiling through pain is mistaken for strength and numbing is often easier than naming what hurts.

But real healing? Real spirituality?
It’s not about being palatable. It’s not about shrinking your pain to be easier for others to hold. It’s about surrendering to the truth of what is while resisting the urge to minimize, rationalize or shy away from it. To acknowledge the feeling and to give yourself the permission to fully feel it.

Because the truth is, your difficult emotions aren’t a problem, they’re a doorway and when you silence them to make others more comfortable, you don’t become stronger, you just become more disconnected from yourself.


True Spirituality Isn’t Always Peaceful, It's Real, Raw and Sometimes Chaotic

There’s a myth floating around that healing is all love and light. That spirituality means staying calm no matter what’s falling apart. That being “high vibe” means never being angry, never feeling overwhelmed, never questioning the path. That peace is something you pretend until it becomes real.

But that’s not healing. That’s spiritual bypassing.

We’ve been taught that spiritual maturity looks like serenity at all costs. But if peace comes at the price of your truth, it’s not peace, it’s suppression. If light is only allowed when it’s pretty and convenient, it’s not divine, it’s performative.

True spirituality is messy, embodied, and deeply honest.

It doesn’t ask you to float above your emotions.
It asks you to feel them, witness them, and stay with them long enough to understand what they’re trying to teach you.

It looks like crying on the bathroom floor after a meditation.
It sounds like yelling into a pillow when old trauma resurfaces.
It feels like shaking with fear and still choosing to keep your heart open.

Real healing doesn’t always look beautiful, but it is profoundly holy.

Spirituality isn’t about transcending your humanity, it’s about fully inhabiting it. It’s not about fixing yourself, it’s about remembering that you were never broken in the first place.

When you allow your whole self: your grief, your rage, your joy, your doubt, to exist in the same breath, you become something unshakable.

Not because you’re untouched by the storm…
But because you learned how to stand inside it without abandoning yourself.

It asks you to:

  • Feel your feelings all the way through

  • Name your wounds instead of glossing over them

  • Be okay with not being okay

  • Make space for your shadows, not just ascend into light

It’s not about escaping your pain, it’s about alchemizing it into wisdom and that transformation doesn’t come from bypassing the hard stuff. It comes from sitting with it. Listening to it. Loving yourself through it.

You Were Never Meant to Be “Easy” to Handle

Many of us learned somewhere along the way that expressing hard emotions: grief, anger, shame, fear made us “too much.”

So we internalized a subtle shame around being human.
We learned to smile when we wanted to scream. To say “I’m fine” when we were breaking.

To hide our tears, temper our rage, and dress our pain in something prettier.

Your muchness is your greatest asset, one that you should never be ashamed of. It's the unique blueprint of your soul and what it's here to learn. The task is to not find ways to become more palatable for the masses. The task is unbecoming everything you thought you had to be and to embody your truth. To live in alignment with the blueprint of your soul.

But suppressing your emotions to keep the peace is not the same as inner peace.

You are not here to be emotionally convenient for others.
You are not here to dilute your truth for someone else's comfort.
You are here to feel, to grow, to become and that process is wild, raw, and worthy.


The Sacred Work of Learning Through Being Not The Performance of Doing

If you feel guilt for crying in front of others…
If you feel shame for breaking down again…
If you’re scared that your darkness will make people pull away…

Let me remind you: Your vulnerability is not a burden, it’s a bridge.
It’s the bridge that connects the parts of you that are hidden to the world that is hungry for something real. It’s the place where masks fall away and truth steps forward. And while it may feel raw, messy, or even terrifying, it’s also where the most meaningful connections are born.

We live in a world that often rewards perfection and punishes emotion. A world where composure is praised, and pain is politely ignored. So it’s no surprise that many of us learned to hide our tears, mute our anger, and tuck our grief behind tight smiles.

But here’s what’s also true:
- No one can truly love you if they don’t truly see you.
- And no one can truly see you if you’re always hiding behind who you think you need to be.

Vulnerability is what invites real connection.
It’s what says, “Here I am. This is what’s real for me right now and I trust that it’s safe to be seen.”
It’s not weakness, it’s sacred courage.
When you choose it, you give others silent permission to do the same and that’s how healing happens. Not in the moments when everything is polished and perfect, but in the moments when we say, This is hard. I’m still here. And I’m not hiding anymore.”

So no, your vulnerability is not too much. It’s beautifully messy, yes but not inconvenient. It’s a medicine that’s desperately needed in the world.
It’s the heartbeat of truth, the language of intimacy, and the first step toward liberation.

You don’t have to tidy up your emotions to be spiritual. You don’t have to “get over it” to be worthy of love and you definitely don’t have to pretend you’re okay just so others can stay comfortable in your presence. This is your permission slip to stop performing the act of healing and to truly start embodying it. All of it.

Your Pain Has Something to Teach You

There is wisdom in your grief. There is truth in your rage. There is clarity in your confusion.

The goal isn’t to “fix” or “get rid of” these emotions,

it’s to meet them,

witness them,

and to learn from them.

To be still, present and hold space for them to speak. That is what alchemy looks like.

Not bypassing or numbing, but to hold both the shadow and the light in your two hands, and learn how to walk with the duality of both.

To have tears stream down your face and still be powerful,
to
still be learning while teaching others,

feel lost and yet still be on your path,
be broken and
still be sacred.

feel terrified inside and still live courageously.

Darkness and Light are opposites, continuously mirroring eachother and by doing so, reinforcing the sacred purpose of the other.

You can never really speak the name of one without knowing the name of the other. If darkness is the absence of light, but you never experience that absence how do you truly even know when light is present or honour it?

Final Words: You Are Not Broken You Are Becoming

Healing isn’t linear. It’s not pretty. It’s not always comfortable. But it’s real and the more honest you are with yourself, the more magnetic your life becomes.
Not because you’re trying to be perfect, but because you’re rooted in truth.

So let your emotions rise. Let your voice shake. Let your heart be seen.

Not everyone will be able to hold your fullness. But the right people will and more importantly you will. Because you’ve remembered: Healing isn’t about being easier to love. It’s about finally loving yourself as you are.


person wearing black and white stripe shirt across blue clouds
person wearing black and white stripe shirt across blue clouds
a woman leaning against a brick wall
a woman leaning against a brick wall
man standing on top of rock mountain during golden hour
man standing on top of rock mountain during golden hour
maze garden
maze garden
silhouette of man standing in front of painting hanged on wall
silhouette of man standing in front of painting hanged on wall