The harmful effects of spiritual bypassing and toxic positivity

In the spiritual community, we often hear unhelpful messages like:

• “joy is your natural state of being… and if you don’t feel joy, something has gone wrong”
• “you must banish negative emotions and only feel positive ones”
• “anger, resentment, fear, sadness, etc are not spiritual and will prevent you from healing or moving forward”

I must admit, I myself have been guilty of over-simplifying these things in the past and making value judgments about “positive” versus “negative” emotions. (I’m correcting my thinking and apologizing now!)

The problem is – if we take these messages to heart, we sometimes put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to try to FORCE a state of joy, happiness, and excitement ALL of the time… 24/7.

Because these distorted messages tell us that there’s something bad, wrong, weak, or “low vibration” about us if we feel anger, fear, grief, resentment, or whatever else is labeled as negative.

Is it true that staying STUCK in unprocessed anger, fear, or resentment for months or years can be detrimental? Yes, of course!

It will weigh us down, drain our energy, and prevent us from moving forward.

But… it’s also true that ALL of these emotions are a normal, natural, REAL part of the human experience.

So it’s not helpful when the spiritual community reinforces this polarity between “good” and “bad”, or “happy” versus “sad”, or “forgiving” versus “angry” – which can make us feel like we’re wrong if we can’t sustain that state of happiness or joy or forgiveness every hour of every day.

My hypothesis here is: perhaps JOY isn’t our so-called “natural” condition, or the state we’re meant to experience ALL of the time…

… perhaps our true natural condition is DIVINE NEUTRALITY: a state where we can peacefully and non-reactively observe, be with, and allow the full range of our inner experiences, emotions, and reactions. 

Without having to judge, label, or suppress anything.

To hear more about this, you can listen to my podcast episode:

Are we really meant to be happy ALL of the time? [on Apple Podcasts]

(Inner Work: A Spiritual Growth Podcast is on most other podcast platforms too, including Spotify and YouTube).

Thank you for tuning in, and let me know how this lands!

With love,
Josephine

p.s. for me, the Akashic Records have been the #1 tool to developing a state of Divine Neutrality and being able to ALLOW all of my emotions and inner experiences. Join my free email community here and get access to my 8-day Akashic Records Mini Course, so you can learn to use this Divine tool for personal healing and guidance.