Integration

What does integration mean to you? Dictionary definitions of integrate include: to put or bring parts together into a whole; unify / to join with something else; unite / to make whole or complete by adding or bringing together parts.  

In the realm of self-discovery and healing, for me, successful integration is about making time to feel, experience, ponder and express the 'something' that I've just uncovered or learned or experienced before it becomes a part of 'me'. It is about making time to honour the new discovery and try it on for size in my life and see where and how it fits.

When we are 'doing the work*' all sorts of things can pop up. I've revisited times when I was a young debutante, a 3-year old girl, I've even met my higher self - gee whizz she is divine! I've walked away from these experiences feeling better than I've ever felt. 

But after the reveal, we are met with the reality of integrating what we learned into our current persona and our day-to-day life. Often we might learn something about ourselves that involves someone that we are currently in relation with, or we may learn something about ourselves that leads us to acknowledge that we aren't in alignment in areas of our lives such as our job, a significant relationship, our living arrangements etc. How do we go forward from this place? We have this new piece, but how do we fit it in to the puzzle of us without breaking the whole puzzle apart and starting again. As someone, who has done their fair share of scrapping the whole puzzle and starting again, or simply ignoring the puzzle piece only to have it pop up for me again at a later time, the last few years have had me curious about ways to integrate a little more smoothly and efficiently!

One real takeaway for me recently has been the need to allocate time after an activity that is likely to bring things up for me - a breathwork session, biofield tuning, any other 'healing' session. You'll know the feeling, after a session of deep work, you feel amazing, you are forever transformed, you walk taller, everything seems a little brighter, you are slow, purposeful, everything has such a beautiful and rich meaning, your senses are heightened. But as you walk away from the session, you plug straight back in - phone, partners, children, bosses, pets, shops, traffic, etc., etc., whatever it is. It can take but a moment before you feel your nervous system rearing back up. You lose yourself again in the hustle. You slip back into roles and responsibilities that take you away from being you, the one you so bravely revealed in the session.

So now, when I make the time to prioritise my healing and 'work' in this way, I also allocate time for reflection after the session, so that I can ease back in. I will take notes in my journal, I will draw what I experienced and I will communicate to those that I am returning to my needs for space as I reenter the hustle. This is not indulgent, it is simply a commitment to ensure that the work that I am doing has it's desired effect and is not lost. It can protect those that we are in relation with by reentering our lives whole, integrated, not simply with this new piece, that is bumping around us not sure how to fit back in.

We've thought a lot about this in the design of The Art and Science of Transformation. We are deliberately slow in the progression of the course and each week is designed for you to have time for reflection, discussion and ultimately integration. No doubt, some of you will make discoveries that see you feeling the need to make major shifts in your life, and these will take time. But the integration activities are there to allow you to see these and map out how you will move forward with these in your life. 

Big love,
Hayley
x

*What does 'doing the work' mean? For me, it's taking responsibility for where you are at in your life, daring to be curious about how you came to be in that place, addressing areas of your life where you perhaps haven't performed as well as you might like, and ultimately choosing to continue to grow.