This post is from July’s Q&A where I answered your questions on intuition, how to know when to stay in or leave a situation that’s not working, and what I like and don’t like about popular spirituality. If you want to read the Q&A, follow this link.
Q: Can you share something you don’t like about today’s popular spirituality?
A:
There are some things :).
But before I go into them, I want to take a moment to express how happy and grateful I am for how far the collective awakening has come today.
The interest in and acceptance of spirituality we see today in many areas was something I could only dream of when I started my journey almost 18 years ago.
As someone who used to hide a lot of things about my spiritual journey, such as my intuition, multidimensionality, twin flame relationship, and even my sensitivity (I’m an empath), it’s very liberating to be able to express myself more freely and share my experiences the way I do now.
The reason I feel safe to do that now is the collective openness. And all the people who have been brave enough to share their experiences before me.
For that, I am very grateful.
I also think it’s wonderful that there is so much more information and support available for those who begin their spiritual journeys now.
And I’m also happy there is so much more understanding about sensitivity (and other differences).
My heart sings every time I hear about a sensitive child whose parents or teachers understand them because they have read or heard of high sensitivity.
What a gift to be understood and encouraged to be who you are!
(For all of us of course).
Now to the downside…
Loss of depth
As with many things in our fast-paced world, many people don’t have time to go deep – or don’t make it a priority.
And what I think is missing in many cases is depth and experience.
A lot of people know the concepts, and they know ABOUT spirituality and awakening.
But knowing about and knowing are two different things.
Knowing requires experience, and experience takes doing and practicing what we have read, learned, and realized – over and over again until we embody that knowledge.
And that takes time and commitment.
So, even though I think it’s wonderful that spirituality has become so “mainstream” as it is today, some of the depth has also become lost.
Generalizations
Another thing I see as a downside is all the generalizations about behaviors and people.
I completely understand that it’s not easy to go deep in a post on Instagram (I know that from experience!) but I think that things sometimes become way too simplified.
Two people who are acting in the same way can do it for completely different reasons. For one person, the behavior can also be healthy and for the other, it can be unhealthy – depending on the situation and who they are.
But if you read some posts or discussions on social media, it’s easy to think that every woman who likes to work hard is too much in her masculine energy, or that anyone who acts even slightly unkind is a manipulating narcissist.
Maybe I’m taking things a little too far here, but it illustrates my point.
Things are not that simple.
And sometimes, it’s a fine line between educating and informing (and protecting) ourselves and accusing and labeling others.
The latter serves the ego and fuels the separation, and it doesn’t serve human connection or understanding.
Toxic positivity
I also think it’s sad when people believe and try to convince others that the goal of the spiritual path is to be happy all the time and that everything that is not love and light is to be avoided at all costs.
The human experience includes it all, and when we deny our emotions or experiences because we think they are bad or wrong, we close off parts of ourselves and our humanness.
It’s also easy to feel shame or believe that something is wrong with us if we are not positive all the time – if we believe that’s how we should feel.
A healthier approach would be changing the focus from being positive to being real.
About Hanna Stenefalk
