Healing Isn’t Pretty — But It’s Worth It - gloves on

Somewhere between Instagram-perfect enlightenment and the grim reality of self-improvement trenches, there exists a space where real spiritual work happens. That’s precisely where this episode of Spiritual Conversations, hosted by Philipp Kobald, takes us. Produced by HolisticCircle, the podcast pairs Kobald with guest Rose Covenant — a self-described somatic architect, globetrotter, and one of those rare people who can call out spiritual nonsense with a warm smile.

This conversation is what happens when two minds meet in a cosmic café, laugh about the absurdity of healing, and still manage to excavate some deep truths. You don’t have to be an ascended master to enjoy it. In fact, it’s better if you’re not.

Doing the Work: Because Hashtags Won’t Save You

There are those who meditate under waterfalls and somehow still end up as deeply miserable people. And then there are those who actually do the work — who sit in the muck of their own unresolved baggage and figure out how to move forward. That’s what Rose Covenant is all about. From Peru’s Sacred Valley, she helps people reconnect their bodies and minds, untangling the mess of old trauma, societal conditioning, and general human weirdness.

If there was a theme song for this episode, it would be Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, but make it existential. Rose talks candidly about how “living the dream” isn’t always dreamy. She spent years traveling the world, curating a life that should have been pure bliss, only to realize she wasn’t enjoying it. The culprit? A deep-seated survival mechanism telling her she didn’t deserve happiness. This, friends, is the kind of honesty we need more of in the self-help world.

The Great Instagram Deception: Spiritual Posing vs. Real Work

Philipp, who has been in the spiritual space longer than most influencers have been alive, doesn’t hold back. He brings up a topic that’s been gnawing at him: spiritual posing. You know the type. The ones who take 57 carefully staged shots of themselves meditating in linen before finally choosing the one that looks most ethereal. Meanwhile, the actual work — the part that isn’t photogenic — is often skipped entirely.

Rose doesn’t flinch. “There’s a difference between living spirituality and performing it,” she says. The real work is messy. It’s not always Instagram-friendly. It’s crying before breakfast. It’s confronting the patterns that keep us stuck. And it’s the kind of thing that doesn’t fit neatly into a caption.

Ayahuasca Won’t Save You, Sorry

At this point, if you listen closely, you can hear Philipp sigh as the conversation drifts toward ayahuasca. “Don’t start with ayahuasca,” Rose pleads, sounding like someone who has had to sit through one too many stories about life-changing hallucinations that, strangely, haven’t resulted in actual life changes.

The Western obsession with quick fixes has found a new love affair with plant medicine. But here’s the thing: you can’t skip the work. “People take ayahuasca and expect it to do everything for them,” Rose says. “But healing is about integration. If you don’t do the work after, it’s just a wild trip with great visuals.”

The Unsexy Reality of Spiritual Growth

For a conversation that pulls no punches, there’s an underlying warmth between Philipp and Rose that makes it all go down easy. The chemistry between them is effortless — like two people who know that the best way to discuss deep things is with a healthy dose of irreverence.

They talk about how trauma gets stored in the body, why Westerners compartmentalize spirituality (news flash: you don’t need a retreat to be connected), and why people so often seek external validation rather than internal alignment. Rose’s method, the Recalibration Effect, is designed to address this, peeling away the survival patterns we mistake for personality traits and bringing people back into alignment with who they truly are.

Philipp, ever the skeptic, doesn’t let anything slide into easy platitudes. And Rose? She welcomes it. This isn’t a conversation filled with vague affirmations and borrowed wisdom — it’s alive, it’s funny, and it leaves you questioning your own spiritual journey in the best way possible.

The Takeaway (If You’re Ready For It)

This isn’t just a conversation. It’s an invitation to go deeper, to challenge the narratives we’ve been sold about healing, and to remember that spiritual growth isn’t a photoshoot — it’s a process. Philipp and Rose cover a lot of ground, from the pitfalls of the self-help industry to the power of truly knowing yourself. If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re really doing the work or just performing it for the world, this episode might just be the wake-up call you need.

The full conversation is available on the @HolisticCircle YouTube channel. Watch it, argue with it, let it sit with you. Just don’t think a hashtag will do the work for you.

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#Podcast #SpiritualConversations #Kobald #HolisticCircle #spiritualgrowth #healingjourney #dothework #innerwork #selfawareness #traumarecovery

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by Philipp Kobald, 2024