Integration
When diving into doing deep spiritual work in todays day world I think there is a really important thing that gets missed— taking time to integrate.
Different people will integrate on at different times and some humans will be faster at integrating than others, but it’s important to do. What do I mean by integration? I mean by taking time to let the work you’ve been doing sink in.
It’s a very personal practice, integrating, just like this work. For example, I took 7 months off after my last relationship ended to fully integrate that experience and prepare myself for my next relationship. I didn’t set out for 7 months, it’s just what my body/soul was asking me to do. Often times, i hear and see people rushing into “doing” more and more so that they can “fix” themselves to achieve the things they are looking to achieve. My philosophy is we need to take time, when needed, to truly process the work we do so that we can experience deeper growth. We do not need to “fix” ourselves. We can out grown limiting beliefs and patterns, 100%. But, we are not broken. Also, we aren’t on a time line. Growth isn’t linear and there isn’t a rush to get to an imaginary finish line. There isn’t a finish line for one and for two nothing meant for us will miss us. So…Integrate.
How do you know you need to integrate? Here are the most common ways in my opinion:
You feel really overwhelmed by the spiritual work you’re doing.
Here’s the thing— this work can be overwhelming when you first start, but the overwhelm I’m talking about it after digging into something juicy within and suddenly you feel very overwhelmed with that you’ve uncovered. It needs to be integrated!
You just ended a relationship, a long term job, a big trip, etc.
After a big life shift, it’s very powerful to take a minute to integrate the experience fully.
You feel like you need to integrate.
If you feel like you need a moment to integrate a teaching, always trust your gut!
Okay, so now we know when we may need to integrate and now how do we integrate? Here are the ways I do it:
A LOT of journaling to get through my thoughts and feelings and work out any confusion I may be feeling
Taking time away from electronics
Pausing diving into more spiritual work for the moment
Time alone (huge for me) to fully integrate my experience without a lot of input from others
Time in nature— self explanatory— Nature is so calming and healing
Self care— again, self explanatory— for me last summer it was hiking alone or with animals, time with animals, epsom salt baths, sauna, naked sun bathing and cooking all my food so it was a nourishing as possible vs eating out