You are Integral

You are integral.

You might very well ask what I mean by that. Let’s go to its roots, as in the origin of the word:

late 15c., "of or pertaining to a whole; intrinsic, belonging as a part to a whole," from Old French intégral (14c.), from Medieval Latin integralis "forming a whole," from Latin integer "whole".  (etymologyonline.com)

That helps, but doesn’t take us all the way home. The word “integral” is a big one, resonating in ancient traditions such as Tantra and more modern philosophers like Jean Gebser, Ken Wilber, and Marc Gafni. It is in this sense that I’m using the term.

But I’m going to take some liberties, so I’ll ask your forbearance.

Ronen’s Definition of Integral

For purposes of this post, here’s what I mean by, “you are integral”.

I’ll take the approach of stating a couple of principles of this notion:

• You are a “holon”, which means that you are both a whole and a part. In other words, first, you are comprised of component parts, inside and out. Not just your body (e.g., you have a heart, a spleen, and fingernails), but other stuff as well (you have anger, joy, fantasies, creative ideas, etc.). Second, you are a part of larger wholes, like family, community, workplace, the animal kingdom, the stuff of the cosmos, etc.

• All holons are inextricably interconnected with all other holons. There are no solid boundaries, anywhere in the cosmos. Every time humanity has believed that it found a solid boundary, it’s been proven wrong over time.

This is where you might reasonably ask, “so what?”

Well, the implications of these two simple principles are big. Very big. As in many large volumes needed to cover the territory.

However, this being a blog post, I’ll keep it short by selecting one small, but vital implication.

One Implication of Being Integral

Everything you do in one dimension of yourself impacts the rest of your self.

You can see evidence on medicine bottles. Take this medicine and you’ll alleviate condition X, but (usually in fine print) you might experience this other condition.

But this is not limited to the purely biochemical/physical realm. There are no boundaries between your thoughts, emotions, and body. The scientific literature is replete, for example, with connections between your experience of stress in your life and a host of implications for your body, everything from the speed with which cuts heal to risk of heart disease to risk of cancer. This body-mind influence goes in the other direction too: what you eat and drink will inevitably have a profound impact on how you think, how you view the world, and how you feel.

On the flip side of the coin, actions you can take that may seem limited to your mind, like mindfulness-based stress reduction (“MBSR”) exercises, can not only calm you down, but have profoundly positive impacts on countless aspects of your physical and emotional well-being. Again, research across the millennia, from the ancient wisdom traditions to the most recent scientific studies, has demonstrated again and gain that there is no boundary between our thoughts and emotions and our bodies.

Let’s take it even further. It’s not limited to the stuff that goes on within your body and mind, either. This is easy — think about how your environment impacts your inner states. Harsh noises, or difficult encounters with other people, an unsatisfying job, or a host of other things, can elevate your stress level. The condition of the family in which you live, the dynamics of culture around you, the state of all of humanity, and even the health of the entire biosphere, all can impact every aspect of who you are, mind, body, spirit.

This, too, goes the other way: What you do impacts the whole game around you. There is no way to take even the simplest of actions without impacting the whole game. Let’s take eating a corn taco. Seems simple enough. I take this small, delicious thing, and put it in my mouth, chew it up, and swallow it. In so doing, I have, in addition to whatever damage I may be doing to my own body, among a zillion other things, helped to screw up the economy of traditionally corn-based cultures thousands of miles away, accelerated the pace of climate change, and contributed to the rate of cancer in people living in agricultural parts of the world.

Don’t get me wrong. I love tacos. Absolutely love them. Grew up on the soft-shell corn tacos, filled with yummy ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, and salsa, prepared by my South Texas born-and-raised mother. But I don’t delude myself into thinking it’s a solitary act.

There is no such thing as a solitary act.

But I get ahead of myself. Before we try to help the plight of people in Latin America impacted by the soaring price of corn in the global market, let’s bring it back to you, and your deepest heart’s desire for your life.

Transforming your life, integrally

Let’s say you’ve identified your deepest heart’s desire, whether it be what you want to do in the world, how you want to feel in your body, or how you want to be in relationship. Now you’re at the point of figuring out how to head in that direction.

Where do you start, once you recognize that you are integral?

Everywhere. You start everywhere, with everything. Every dimension of who you are.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you do everything at the same time. That’s impossible, and the attempt to do so is crazy-making.

It does mean that you recognize that this endeavor will involve a lot of different, interacting processes, all of which will require your attention. It means that the more inclusive your effort to transform is, the more likely you are to realize your deepest heart’s desire, whatever that is.

Too much?

Well, if your goals are modest, like dragging your exhausted butt into the office tomorrow morning for another day of the same-old same-old, you don’t need an integral response to this challenge.

On the other hand, if you’re yearning to realize your deepest heart’s desire and live a life of joy, meaning, pleasure, or whatever that is and means, you’ll need to take an integral approach.

There are no short cuts to your deepest heart’s desire.

If you feel like this is daunting, compare it to the alternative — living merely to survive, to make it through another day.

Isn’t your deepest heart’s desire worth exploring what your unique integral path might be?