Is Spirituality Becoming a Performance for Social Media?

Lately, it feels like spirituality is everywhere, perfectly curated morning rituals, sage burning in time-lapsed videos, and captions that read like flawless recycled affirmations. It looks good, it sounds good, but here’s the question: Does it feel good? Does it feel real?

What was once personal, sacred, and deeply rooted in tradition is now at risk of becoming just another aesthetic.  Don’t get me wrong, I want us to share these traditions, share these moments, share our journeys, but authentically.  We are in such a rush to appear “aligned” so we can attract the “right people” that we might be moving further away from the very alignment we’re seeking.

Spirituality or Performance?

Let’s be honest, we blame social media, but social media isn’t the problem. Social media is just a tool. We are the problem. What we do is the problem because what we do matters. Somewhere along the way spirituality turned into content.  Rituals became photo ops, and healing became hashtags.  And before we knew it, being spiritual turned into looking spiritual.

You don’t need to wear all white, own every crystal on the market, and never get mad to be spiritual. You don’t have to post every moment of your spiritual journey to prove that you are spiritual or that you’re doing the work.  The real work, the real part of the journey is often in the moments you are so caught up in that you forget to take pictures, you forget to hit record, or you had an experience you can’t explain. Still, so many are falling into the trap of performing instead of just living it.  Trust me, when you truly embody what you do, you will connect with he right people.

It's not just about posting a vibe, it’s about actually being that vibe, becoming that person on and off camera.

When Sacred Becomes Strategy

We live in a time where the world is at our fingertips, authenticity is a brand and healing is a niche.  That’s not inherently bad, spiritual visibility, wellness, and healing have created room for so many people to find practices that resonate with them and lead them down paths of healing they wouldn’t have gone down otherwise. But when sacred practices are stripped of context, rituals are copied without understanding their roots, and ancestral wisdom is watered down to trending audio, we have to ask: What are we actually practicing?

Sacred practices deserve more than just aesthetics and popular trends. They deserve reverence, care, and integrity. Without that, we’re just mimicking rituals without the transformation they’re meant to bring. 

The Pressure to Appear “Healed”

There’s another side to this. The silent pressure to always seem “in alignment”. We’re told to “just vibe higher” “manifest more” and “protect your peace” without ever being given space to be messy, honest, or human.  Well here’s a little secret, being spiritual, being in alignment is messy. 

Healing isn’t always beautiful, actually, healing is rarely beautiful. The process to healing gets gritty. Sometimes it means isolation, grief, a lot of confusion, and growth that doesn’t happen on a pretty path paved with butterflies and rainbows. But these are the moments that most people won’t see, but you know what, that’s still spiritual, and it’s still your journey.  You don’t need to look healed to be on a healing journey. You don’t have to prove your peace to anyone. 

Real Spirituality Doesn’t Need an Audience

Spirituality isn’t a trend, it’s a way of existing. It’s how you show up when no one is watching and how you should show up when all eyes are on you.  It’s what you return to when life starts to fall apart. It’s the quiet practices that keep you grounded, the ancestral whispers you follow, the intuition you trust, even when it doesn’t make sense. 

Your spirit doesn’t need to be shared to be sacred. Some of the deepest work can’t be captured in a post, and maybe it shouldn’t be.

Let’s Get Real With Each Ourselves

This isn’t about shaming anyone. It’s about asking ourselves the deeper questions. Are we sharing our journey, our rituals, and our practices because we truly want to help people on their spiritual and healing journey, or are we doing it for the likes? This is about choosing intention over image, and understanding that your image is how you show up.  It’s about remembering that our practices don’t have to be performative to be powerful.

The next time you see a spiritual trend blowing up on social media, ask yourself:

Is this calling me back to myself or pulling me away? Am I doing this to make connections, or for validation? Is this my practice or just a performance?

Spirituality doesn’t require perfection. It requires presence. And presence can’t be filtered.