I often have people tell me about how they avoid certain kinds of people, certain activities, certain situations because of how they react to them or do not like what the situation brings up in them. Whether or not a specific avoidance is healthy or unhealthy is situational. Avoiding sexual relationships or abusive people during a period of healing can be incredibly restorative. Rediscovering boundaries through development of a container might also be important and necessary when coming out of a toxic relationship. In these case, avoidance is healing.
When I write about avoidance as a spiritual bypass I am pointing out a conscious decision that is made to not test what has been healed, grounded, or rediscovered. I am questioning any conscious decision to not take an experience, metabolize it, and then be alive with our personal lessons in it. Making blanket decisions that cut us out from real life or avoid the presence of something that consistently comes to us is a spiritual bypass.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to mindfullynessa to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.