I experience my body and sensations,
but I am more than my body and sensations
I experience my feelings and emotions,
but I am more than my feelings and emotions
I experience my mind and thoughts,
but I am more than my mind and thoughts
I am more than my sensations, my feelings and my thoughts
I am a centre of pure consciousness, of love and of will.
Alef Trust, Roberto Assagioli's disidentification affirmations
Integrative Practice
I was blown away by studying integrative practice, a profoundly personal transformative path that invites us to be both observers and creators of our existence through individual agency and surrendering to the creative power of change. It uses ancient philosophies and contemporary psychological methodologies that incorporate five domains of human flourishing: intellectual, physical, emotional, interpersonal and spiritual. We choose activities that facilitate introspection and deep listening for each domain and practise them separately to encourage each dimension to evolve at its own pace. Commitment to the process eventually reveals a ripple effect between modalities, a synthesis that changes our sense of self and brings positive and lasting psychological changes. There is certainly an intention, a path with a destination, but one that is fluid enough to allow space for our most hidden parts to make themselves heard and compassionate enough to recognise and allow the need for changing direction.
We identify with parts of our personality we created to conform to social norms, leaving others hidden deep in our subconscious. They are usually contradictory and at odds with each other. While one requires order and control, another wants leisure and procrastination; one is sensitive, another aggressive; one is wounded by traumatic events and acts out, bringing shame to the strong and accomplished one. We avoid our inner resources because, when we pay attention, we find a battlefield of psychological states in constant turmoil. They sometimes feel almost alive, like different people living inside us. By working on different dimensions and disidentifying from any particular part, we take the role of the observer and facilitate the expression of the various parts. We let the hidden ones talk and the accomplished ones shine. Eventually, they seem to want to help each other, synthesising a more authentic version of ourselves that looks beyond our sense of separation into a sensation of wholeness and connection.
The Five Domains
The Intellectual Domain
In the intellectual domain, we strive to disidentify from our minds and thoughts. We aim to balance the overdevelopment of cognitive and algorithmic processing with other ways of knowing. The intention is to foster creativity and intuition, not to replace intellect but to work harmoniously with it, recognising that we are more than either one or the other. Neuroscience's primary focus on studying the brain's cognitive dimension makes sense because it is linear and measurable. Still, it cannot dismiss more subjective experiences because it cannot empirically verify them. Constantly being told that intuitive and imaginative processes are an illusion or a pathology seems to remove much of the fun from being alive.
The Emotional Domain
In the emotional domain, we disidentify from our feelings and emotions while acknowledging the parts of ourselves that we want to hide or, better yet, forget they exist altogether. These usually are “too angry”, “too scared”, “too emotional”, or “too intense”. We put our stoic masks on and go into the world to be the “best version of ourselves” according to the norm. But the more we hold on to our societal masks and cultural beliefs, the less we can evaluate our physical and emotional well-being and regulate ourselves into balance. Here, we explore embodied practices and creative expression, emphasising the role of imagination as the meaning-making ability of our psyche and as a tool to connect with our unconscious
The Physical Domain
In the physical domain, we aim to disidentify from our body and sensations without dissociating from them. We acknowledge and honour the self-regulatory capabilities inherent in our biology, based on hedonic responses that move us toward pleasure and away from pain. We engage in practices that help us find embodiment and regain the somatic awareness that is the basis of our well-being. If what we request from the body always feels hostile, what is left behind is an imprint of base fear and rage at the cellular level, a constant fight-flight-freeze state. So, physical practice requires much more than good exercise regimes and healthy habits; it is about discovering what the body really needs and finding that hedonic joy somewhere between excess and shame.
The Spiritual Domain
In the spiritual domain, we want to connect with our inner alchemist, that part of ourselves that looks at the chaos and sees possibility. The noetic quality of the self beyond ego that observes and co-creates existence. This requires going beyond dogmatic belief systems to experiential manifestations of “The Divine”, “The Unmanifested”, “Pure Consciousness”, “The Mystery” - call it as you may - with its paradoxical sense of immanence and transcendence. Nowadays, there is quite an offering of psycho-spiritual practice to choose from, but engaging with it may oftentimes feel more like a burden than a gift. Discernment is vital to finding practices that open us up to a sense of unconditional love and interconnection that is not bound to the precepts of a particular doctrine or teacher but to an energetic resonance that is multi-dimensional and guided just as much from without as from within.
The Interpersonal Domain
In the interpersonal domain, we want to find or nurture our tribe; we want to start listening deeply and contributing to the group with the curiosity and enthusiasm of a child looking at the world anew. Transformation is not always easy or pleasurable. It requires a dramatic shift of perspective that can leave us feeling isolated and lost. We are more likely to comprehend what is happening if we have people to share experiences with and who can guide us through the difficult parts. Regular practice and participation in supportive communities can help us grow and stay grounded during change.
Synthesis: The Alchemical Heroine
“There was a Changeling boy who grew up in the home of the Eternal Maiden, beautiful and sweet but trapped in the inability to reach perfection under the tyrannic rule of the Dark Mother. The boy was clever but not perfect, and he was wild, incurring the Dark Mother’s wrath. He dreamed of Fairies and sought an Otherworld that always felt out of reach. So, he submitted to the Dark Mother’s rules and held on to what she valued. The Fairies were there, though, to guide him from within: Intuition allied with Wisdom to teach him the language of Man, and he finally escaped with Courage and Love, who shaped the Maiden he wanted to be, wild and clever, safe in a tribe of warriors. The Warrior Maiden travelled to Independence, where warriors fed off the “thrill of die or kill”. She was content until the thrill wore off, and the constant fight eroded the warrior's values into a dry and empty hunt for survival. The Heroine woke from the Hunter’s emptiness to reconnect with Joy and remember the boy who sought a home with the Fairies. He had slipped into a realm where the rules of Man did not apply and, looking for him, took her to the Kingdom of the Fairy Queen, the demon called the destroyer of Mind. She found no demons in the Otherworld, only a beautiful Goddess living in the chaos of creation. The Goddess held up a mirror, and the Heroine's reflection was the Eternal Maiden, trapped in the inability to reach perfection under the tyrannic rule of the Dark Mother. She travelled deeper to find the warrior's heart, and with Love and Joy, she rebuilt a tribe, a home where the Changeling could safely come back. The Fairies turn the Heroine into a witch, who fuelled the Changeling fire and grew him into the Alchemist. Together, they became the Alchemical Heroine, who sat with the Goddess at the hedges of chaos, marvelling at the shape of eternal change emerging from a Void of Infinite Choice.”