Radical Integrity Is The Truest Way To Empower Yourself
I used to think I knew what integrity meant but it was only the tip of the iceberg.
As we collectively go through this profound time of unprecedented disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, the integrity of scientists and researchers whose warnings went unheeded are finally being recognized, while the lack of integrity of those whose ego-serving agendas led to poor decision making are being laid bare for all to see. However, that is not the point.
Far from being the time to assign blame (which is a cop-out anyway), this global pause is revelatory — an extraordinary opportunity to slow down and examine our lives, and if we so choose, re-prioritize what matters and empower ourselves through a greater understanding of every aspect of our being. Which facets have we become disconnected from? What part of ourselves have we put aside in order to ascribe to a value system that serves only a few while the rest are resigned to accept a dystopian and unfulfilling life?
The integration of all of our aspects as human beings is the empowerment I speak of. It is a deeper dive beyond the concept of integrity that we most commonly embrace intellectually and morally — the way we cheer on individuals who do the right thing in the face of threats when subterfuge would have guaranteed personal gain. Integrity is not defined solely by our intellect or morality, it’s so much more.
First things first. We are born with integrity.
Integrity is the state of being whole and undivided. We are inherently whole and worthy. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. It doesn’t matter what religion or creed you subscribe to, or how much self-improvement you feel you need to do, or not. That doesn’t mean there aren’t areas in which you can evolve or grow, but it does mean you are completely and utterly deserving, no matter what. You don’t have to search for it or earn it, you have it, you are it.
This is by far the most difficult hurdle for people to overcome since most of us have been inundated and programmed with guilt from the get-go no matter which culture, country, and religion we were brought up in.
It is part of our human inheritance from our ancestral lineages, reinforced by societal norms, and institutionalized by the self-selected few who seek to marginalize and exploit the majority. Our imperfections and flaws are glaringly pointed out to us from the start and we get compared (and compare ourselves) in a reductive manner to another. We are taught something is wrong with us if we are not like ABC, that we only deserve love, wealth and happiness if we do XYZ, and so we never feel good enough. Step back and realize you’re in Plato’s cave, or wake up from the matrix that is preventing you from seeing the whole truth. When you realize you’ve been misled to disbelieve or forget that you are sound and in integrity from day zero, you begin to acknowledge your real nature, and why you matter.
Knowing your innate value and deservingness as an integral human being is the first step to empowerment.
Disempowerment through control and alienation
So who’s been programming us and why? The patriarchy has held sway in 99% of our world for approximately the last 12,000 years, and by its nature necessitates domination of one group over another. By patriarchy I do not mean men individually. I refer to the system of constructs and beliefs of control passed on for thousands of years which women and men have both been subjugated to, where the dominant group is deemed superior and right and the subservient group inferior and wrong, thereby needing to be conquered, converted or annihilated. Sociologist and author Philip Slater calls this ego-based binary existence control culture in his powerfully eloquent book The Chrysalis Effect .
What control culture effectively does is indoctrinate self-alienation into the psyches of individuals from infancy.
It starts by dividing the innate wholeness of a human being by overvaluing or completely denying one aspect of ourselves vs.another, for example — logic over intuition, thoughts over feelings, mind over heart, control over collaboration, power over love. This favoring one aspect over another can be understood as stemming from overemphasizing the masculine principle while diminishing the necessary balancing force of the feminine principle within us.
In Taoist tradition this is the balance of receptive yin and active yang, in Tantric cosmology they are shiva and shakti, the fundamental forces of consciousness and energy. These two principles exist within each of us no matter which sex, gender you are or however you identify. It’s interesting to note that we existed far longer without patriarchy than with it, and at least the first 30,000 years of homo sapien’s existence was dominated by a celebration of female processes and God was worshipped as female. The human species has survived thus far because of our ability to work together to solve problems and not through sheer war and aggression.
Integrity means valuing each part of ourselves and each other
I am certainly not advocating matriarchy the way some would define it — as the opposite of patriarchy, where the same control structures exist just with women “ruling”. Rather, it is valuable to understand that a society that is inclusive of maternal values would exhibit characteristics of non-violence, cooperation, sharing, and consensual decision making, individual autonomy and complementary equality of women and men. We have evolved into a complex species where the many valuable achievements of analytical intellect, modern science, and technology in our society are to be acknowledged. However, for us to continue to evolve we must understand the limitations of control culture and embrace the possibilities of integrative culture. We cannot destroy the planet and each other for the sake of personal profit because we are a part of the planet and we need each other to survive and thrive.
If we want to empower ourselves through integrity, then we must see how a culture based on separation and domination has shaped our subconscious beliefs and which parts of ourselves we have inadvertently disassociated from.
Change must begin from within ourselves to be lasting and sustainable. This internal journey offers a wonderful opportunity to rediscover the richness, intelligence and abundance of our full selves.
What is radical integrity and what exactly are we integrating?
By radical I do not mean extreme, but rather, back to the root. Radical comes from the Latin adjective “radicalis”, which means “of or relating to a root”. If we go back to our roots as humans on this planet prior to when patriarchy took hold , we find ancient wisdom traditions around the world whose cosmologies and world views help inform what an integrative existence would look like. Perhaps not surprisingly, the latest findings in science, especially in neuroscience, epigenetics and quantum physics, point in much the same direction for living healthier and more potentiated lives. It’s as if we are moving towards a science-based spirituality.
Where do we begin? First, I invite you to suspend judgement, open your mind and ease your grip on prescribed ways of thinking and behaving for a moment.
We are all blessed with some pretty incredible resources as human beings — our body, heart, soul and mind. Let’s get to know them again so we can awaken our integral being.
And how do we do that?
1. Feel Your Body
Feel and connect with your physical and emotional body. We have been routinely trained to ignore messages from our bodies which at first are subtle, and later become louder and louder if we avoid them. We work long hours and put ourselves through enormous stress until our bodies break down and then grudgingly take a sick day. Then, we do whatever we can to eliminate the symptoms as quickly as possible, jumping back in to repeat the same cycle all over again without having gained any awareness, because control society rewards those who “push through” and aren’t “soft”. We are taught to bury unpleasant emotions like pain or anger and lock them away somewhere hoping they will go away. We numb ourselves with alcohol, binge on Netflix, addict ourselves to porn, or whatever else so we don’t have to deal with anything. These trapped and unprocessed emotions and stress eventually surface as some kind of ailment or disease. Sound familiar?
Heck, most of the time we are so disassociated with our bodies we don’t even know how we actually feel. We’re too busy.
The more we ignore instead of process these emotions the stronger they get, and our quick-fix society prompts us to use prescription drugs to cope — again so we don’t have to feel. You see where I’m going with this: more health problems, addiction, depression…
Integration means feeling your emotions and listening to your body. Be present to what it’s telling you.
Our bodies are supremely intelligent. Pay attention and take note before that nagging feeling becomes a tumor, cancer, or a nervous breakdown. You empower yourself by listening to your body and being present with those feelings. When you witness yourself these feelings and emotions naturally shift, your presence is what makes them transform. Release takes place, respite is felt, insight is gained. We’ve all experienced the relief of a good cry, laughter at our own folly, and the sublime expansiveness of eventual wisdom. Your body does not lie. It is intuitive and is always looking out for you.
2. Think With Your Heart
I find it very telling that in most of what’s written around health and wellness the heart is rarely mentioned.
There’s a lot of talk of the mind-body connection and spirituality but not as much the heart. I feel perhaps this is because heart wisdom is what we currently as a society are most deficient in, and what we are most in need of.
The heart has been largely ignored because it has been misconstrued as “soft”, and not proven itself useful or valuable in practical, productive ways. It’s had its thunder stolen by the mind.
Being our fully integrated selves requires synthesizing heart intelligence. The heart is not only a vital organ and hormone producing endocrine gland that reduces fear, increases trust and synchronizes all the cells in the body, it also has its own nervous system with approximately 40,000 neurons which sends more information to the brain than the brain to the heart. Our heart is the most powerful generator of electromagnetic energy in our body, 5,000 times more powerful than the brain, reaching those within 8 to 25 feet. It’s interesting to note that in traditional Chinese medicine the heart is the king of all organs. That means all other organs give their energy to help the heart maintain its balance. HeartMath Institute has developed reliable scientific tools based on heart intelligence that deliver measurable benefits for a more peaceful, satisfying and enjoyable life.
Thinking with your heart means being centered and grounded before letting your mind run away with itself.
It means quieting down the monkey mind to connect with how you feel by literally focusing on your heart so you are not making decisions solely on rational thinking but on something even greater — your inner knowing which resides in the heart.
It means having love and compassion towards yourself and others while letting go of judgment. Notice I say let go of judgment, not discernment. To discern is to perceive without judgment. Because when we judge, we literally create separation — when someone is right and the other has to be wrong, if I am good then you are bad. When we surrender and return to neutral we generate coherence (another expression of integrity) in our being, allowing us to integrate our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual intelligence to a higher level of awareness, which in turn leads to better performance, elevated thinking, and greater creativity and intuition.
3. Seek Your Soul
Simply put, what this means is to have the awareness that we are more than just this body and mind, that we are an energetic consciousness which is connected with every living being on the planet.
If the novel coronavirus has shown us anything, it’s how interconnected and interdependent we are globally, how fragile our way of living is, and how much we need to step up as human beings , collaborate and cooperate with each other to meet the enormous challenges of the crisis. This is the physical manifestation of our energetic collective of which each of us is a part, perpetually influencing and affecting one another. Having this awareness broadens our perspective, so that we are able to let go and distinguish what truly matters from what doesn’t. I am not discounting the current hardship and pain due to the pandemic which is very real. What I am pointing out is that on the flip side of tragedy there is simultaneously hope and inspiration, as evidenced by the outpouring of compassion, generosity and ingenuity during the crisis.
When we start to see that there is a greater design at work and that we play an integral part in this design, we are able to dial down the ego while simultaneously understand our true value, not measured by how materially successful or how mighty we are, but by virtue of being our unique selves.
This level of consciousness was once fostered by the early founders of religion, but unfortunately have succumbed to forces more interested in control than liberation. Luckily, there are many non-religious spiritual modalities with minimal doctrine available these days, and you can see which resonates and inspires you the most. For example, Kundalini Yoga, Qigong, Reiki, shamanic healing circles, sound healing and other types of energy work. Simple practices like breathing exercises and meditation can be enormously beneficial in this regard. If you are more adventurous, you can explore unity consciousness through sacred plant ceremonies of ancient indigenous traditions using psychedelic plants like ayahuasca or psilocybin, but make sure you find a good shaman and trusted facilitator and do it in a safe environment.
4. Relax Your Mind
Perhaps you’ve noticed a common thread in points 1, 2 and 3. They all involve relaxing the mind’s grasp on being the sole decision maker. I saved this for last to emphasize its importance. Our mind is a powerful ally in analytical thinking and problem solving but when left unchecked could easily lead us into fight or flight reflexes and undue stress that do not serve our wellbeing as a whole. For most people, the one thing they need never worry about is having an under-active mind. Most of us on the planet were indoctrinated into being mind-centric rather than heart, body or soul-centric.
The key here is balance: mastering the mind rather than letting it run the show all of the time.
Dr. Joe Dispenza is an incredible researcher, educator and author who has done some outstanding work on the effects of meditation and how we can rewire our brains and recondition our bodies to make lasting changes in health and wellbeing. It all begins with relaxing the mind. By understanding the biochemistry in our bodies and how our neurotransmitters work, Dr. Dispenza has scientifically proven how we can use our minds to change matter, up-regulate healthy genes so that they express themselves rather than defective genes, help people enjoy a more fulfilled life and evolve their consciousness. This process leads to energetic concordance where all of the systems in our body work together in the most optimal way and is directly reflected by a more congruent heart rate. See how all the dots connect?
Integrity is not only about individual empowerment but planetary ascension
When you become more aware and integrate your heart, body, mind and soul you gain clarity to see and appreciate the truth of who you are. When you see yourself more clearly, it allows you to see others more fully. Because you are more open minded and heart-centered you begin to see others less critically and become more forgiving and accepting. By doing so you move past the “us vs. them” point of view. You embody more love and compassion which you bring forth into the world. Your new perspective may shift your beliefs and behavior. As you do so, you start to affect the people around you, your family, your partner, your colleagues, your friends, who may in turn question their existing paradigm. By empowering ourselves we demonstrate what is possible and empower others.
Here’s the twist, the result is you become integrated in your individuality, not according to an arbitrary standard of what your family, society or culture dictates.
It’s about realizing the perfection that you are according to the unique individual you are.
NOT according to what someone else’s idea of what is correct or good.
Let’s take that out another level. Imagine expanding the concept of integration from individuals into relationships, community, society, nation world, planet. It would mean respecting and honoring our differences because our individual uniqueness is our true gift to the world. It would also mean remembering that we are part of nature (not above her) and her web of life, because we would respect life in all of its expressions. If we are able to perceive the connection between body, heart, mind and spirit, we would be able to clearly see in a much more immediate and tangible way how our health is connected to what we put into our body, and if we contaminate and poison the earth, cut down the rainforests and decimate habitats, the consequences may be a global pandemic or an uninhabitable toxic planet.
At this point it should seem even more obvious why inclusion of women, gender and racial diversity, conservation of the planet, and protection of endangered indigenous communities that steward the ancient wisdom of nature are so important.
Integrity is a new paradigm of thinking that transcends each of us.
If we can truly understand and embrace this concept, then we no longer need to buy into a world that where we accept the existing imposed homogenous value system of control. Instead, we see that we can be unique, integrated, fully realized, human beings that empower each other to new heights, benefiting not just a select few, but the highest good of all — as a human community. We begin to transcend duality that characterizes a 3D world into the manifestation of a 5D existence.
What is 5D? It is the level of consciousness in which what I just described is our collective reality.
Wouldn’t you like to find out?
I’m counting on it.