Even our spiritual practices and beliefs can be used to add to our sense of denial and defense.

A spiritual bypass is a “tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks”.
~J. Welwood

“Spiritual bypass shields us from the truth, it disconnects us from our feelings, and helps us avoid the big picture. It is more about checking out than checking in—and the difference is so subtle that we usually don’t even know we are doing it.

The shorthand for spiritual bypass is grasping rather than gratitude, arriving rather than being, avoiding rather than accepting. It is spiritual practice in the service of repression, usually because we can not tolerate what we are feeling, or think that we shouldn’t be experiencing what we are feeling.”*

*From: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/emotional-sobriety/201110/beware-spiritual-bypass

What ways can we develop our capacity to be with the truth of what is, to be with the fear, joy, guilt, discomfort and softness that comes with the human experience? Each work of art in this series will be about exploring our options for unraveling the layers of our minds and connecting with our true selves, one moment at a time.