Don’s skip integration

As spiritual seekers, we are often looking for ways to change, ways to up-level, ways to shift and transform. That’s why we are on this path; the status quo is not working for us and we want more.

So we engage with experiences to expand what we know to be true. We know there is more to this life.

Maybe this looks like a yoga class to open our body and mind, to shift energy, or to evoke mindfulness. Or maybe it is listening to Dharma talks from a wise teacher to push us to new truths and open the mind. Maybe we experiment with psychedelics because we want to push beyond the boundaries of what we know. Maybe we travel to spiritual places to open our world and experience something new.

All of those experiences are part of the expansion phase. This is the phase that opens us, helps us to transcend what we know. These practices elevate our state. We rise ABOVE, we move beyond.

These things feel so good because it gives us a sense that we are doing something to change and improve. The mind loves this. The mind loves to feel as if it is helping us and the best way is when we are making positive change.

If you watch closely though, this phase can be sneakily addictive. It feels good to be changing and growing; to be doing anything in order to be “better” or “more”.

But for true change to occur and land in our being, we must allow ourselves to meet the new version of ourselves and life that has come forward, and this part is called Integration.

Integration requires profound surrender, as it is a time when forward momentum is not possible or would not bring about fruitful outcomes.

Integration asks us to stop and allow. This is something the human mind has a very hard time with, as so many of us were conditioned to believe we are safe only when we are doing, making, creating, engineering outcomes.

Instead, we must allow the expansion that had just taken place, to land and to work its magic on all the layers of our being; to change our lives.

Often, true Integration takes longer than we thought or would prefer. That’s why this is a time for surrender. It is a time to cultivate trust in the process because the mind will want to return to what it knows and this may evoke fear when we cannot.

If we skip this phase, we run the risk of becoming addicted to the loop of growth; to chasing the highs of expansion and forgetting that all of this growth is so that we can EMBODY the new person we are becoming.

If we skip this phase, then the transformation will be incomplete. It will be like constantly trying to fill a bucket that has a hole in it. We will never be able to do it because the water will always leak out.

We must stop and allow Integration after states of expansion. This is WHY there is Savasana, the pose of complete stillness and surrender where we lay down like a corpse, at the end of a yoga class. It’s so we can integrate all of the energy movement we just engineered.

If we skip integration, then embodiment will not be possible. We must let our entire being receive the fullness of the process that has just opened us and changes us.

Yes it is hard to do this. Oftentimes, it is profoundly uncomfortable. After my recent journey to India, I have not been able to eat very much and I have been needing to sleep much more than before. Any time I try to move forward, schedule something, push through like I did before, my physical body stops me in my tracks.

Integration phase comes in all forms. It can come after becoming a parent, during or after a large illness or injury, after starting a new job or quitting a destructive habit.

The more profoundly we can LEAN IN to this phase and allow it to work its magic, the more profound the embodiment on the other side.

If you don’t know how to, just listen to the body. This is not a time for the mind to be in charge. The body, in its infinite wisdom, is always seeking a return to homeostasis. I remember learning that in 7th grade science. So the body will guide you, it will show you what it needs to properly Integrate the changes that just took place. So if it is asking for rest and water, give yourself those things. If it feels wrong to produce right now, listen.

All things will pass, including this phase. The day will come when you are producing again, or embarking on a new way to expand.

But for now, allow the Integration so that you can walk in the world as this new you, fully.