Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session, we're going

to talk about integration.

Now, this is a word you may have heard

a lot of in the personal development

space, in the psychology space,

and even here on Mindfulness.com.

I tend to use it a lot, especially

when discussing moving toward

the experience of, of wholeness

and contentment and well-being.

But what does integration actually mean?

Well, for me, the way I define

integration, it's learning to see that

all parts of you play an important

role in fulfilling the complex and

multifaceted needs of being human.

That can feel like a mouthful.

So I'll say it again a little more slowly.

Integration is learning to see that all

parts of you, all parts of you, play an

important role in fulfilling the complex

and multifaceted needs of being human.

So if we look at that through the lens

of, of disintegration, recognizing

that we do have a lot of different

parts of us, parts of us that want to

protect a certain experience or version

of ourselves, parts of us that might

be fearful, parts of us that might be

sad, parts that might have joy, parts

that might want to aspire for growth.

Parts that want to, to feel safe.

And we look at that all as, as

part of the whole of who we are.

Well, disintegration is when those parts

stop communicating with each other.

They stop appreciating each other's

participation in the journey of wholeness.

A certain part might go, I don't like you.

You're uncomfortable.

Why are you here?

When you come out, people

don't seem to like you.

And so we cast that part of us

into the shadows of our awareness.

And this is how humans fracture,

parts of them splinter.

And we actually get disconnected from

ourselves, disintegrated in a way

that we can still get through life,

but there's not this deep sense of

embodiment and grounded-ness within us.

And maybe you've experienced

this for yourself.

And so integration is the recognition

that yeah, there might be some

parts that are uncomfortable.

There might be some parts of us

that we don't fully understand,

but we recognize that each part

has some positive intention, even

if we don't yet know what it is.

The part that we might be frustrated

by, that experiences fear a lot that

says, don't do this, don't do this.

That we just tend to go, why

are you, why are you so fearful?

What's wrong with you?

Like go sit down.

Right?

That is taking a relationship to that

part that doesn't really recognize,

or perhaps isn't creating a space

to understand why that part might

be there, what it might be saying.

When we can open ourselves up to

that part with some curiosity,

and instead of pushing it away,

say something like, Oh, okay.

So there's some fear right now.

What are you trying to tell me?

Well, then that part has

the opportunity to share.

It's like, well, last time we were

in this situation, we said this

and that person didn't like us.

Okay, cool.

So now we can at least have

a conversation with it.

And when that arises, then another part

can come in and say, yeah, I see you fear.

I, I recognize where you're coming from.

And you're right.

10 years ago that did happen, but

who we are now is different and this

is a different context and we can

hold the experience if it doesn't go

well,.We, we we're all in this together.

And so that conversation with the

different parts, all the different

facets of who you are, is how we move

toward the experience of wholeness.

It's my definition of, of integration and

many people's definition of integration.

So as you consider your journey

of growth, of mindfulness, look

at your own internal experience.

And sense for yourself is there a

disintegration or is there integration?

And it might be true that parts

of you feel more integrated and

other parts feel disintegrated.

And a mindfulness practice is

creating space for some of those

parts that we might tend to want to

push away, to actually be invited

into our awareness, for us to become

curious about them and to see that

they to have a positive intention.

And even though they might not be

necessary for this moment, they may

be necessary for a future moment.

And if we're constantly at battle

with them, we don't give ourselves

the chance to see the positive

role that that part might play.

So hope this gives you something to

think about in your mindfulness journey.

Thank you for your practice and let's

settle in for today's meditation.