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Abstract

e that we are living because we are still breathing.But think for a moment about disintegration. What happens when something disintegrates? It literally falls apart, often as a result of decay.So what does it mean if we are disintegrating? How then do we integrate in order to avoid decay?One of my new favorite authors, the aforementioned Mark Nepo, talks about it in another of his books The Exquisite Risk (don't you just love that title??).He says that integration is simply - though not simple at all - meeting the outer world with our inner world. He says that if we don't assume our space as living beings, the rest of life will fill us completely the way water fills a hole.I let the water fill the hole of the space I was meant to occupy for many years, not realizing it was even happening. I suspect that many people do the same, until they wake up to the realization they want the space back. If they wake up to it at all.Nepo shares a quote about integrity (the same root word as integration) by Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man:<blockquote id="385d">"Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn't change, even though the life that carries it may change."</blockquote>I call this place inside the voice of the higher self.Perhaps we all listen

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ed to that voice at one time, but didn't act on it. Over time, we allowed the voices of others, parents, teachers, siblings, peers, priests and pastors, and even government officials, to fill our hole.Perhaps integrity is more than Omer-Man’s listening, but acting on the promptings of that voice inside us. And perhaps in his listening, action is implied.When we’re not listening to that voice, it's like being in a room with the TV on (a show we should be interested in, in this case) while preoccupied with something else. We hear the noise, but we don't relate to the story. Soon, it's quite easy to just tune out the noise.We do this to ourselves constantly - we tune out the voice of our inner being, the one that is meant to occupy the space within us, that water is slowly, slowly filling.I encourage you to find a way to hear the voice of your inner being again, listen to what it has to say to you, and bring that voice with you into the outer world.Walk in the woods, get quiet, paint, draw, hammer nails, wash dishes even if that's what takes you away from the rest of life for a while so you can tune in again to your integral self.Runa Heilung teaches a practice of “Imagination as Meditation: for Relaxation, Illumination, and Transformation.” Thank you for reading and following.</article></body>

Meeting The Outer World With The Inner World

Listening to the inner voice

You may have heard it said that if we are not moving forward then we are receding, and that if we are not living then we are dying.

Nothing is stagnant.

I heard it put a new way the other day. I was reading Mark Nepo's book Finding Inner Courage, (AHHHHMAZING WRITING by the way) and he talks about integration and disintegration.

“If we are not integrating, we are disintegrating.”

What struck me about this particular terminology was that it was so much more inner-focused than the other two references — moving forward vs receding, and living vs dying.

When we think of moving forward we think of progress along the lines of our goals and pursuits. And for most of us death is so far off in our minds that we just assume that we are living because we are still breathing.

But think for a moment about disintegration. What happens when something disintegrates? It literally falls apart, often as a result of decay.

So what does it mean if we are disintegrating? How then do we integrate in order to avoid decay?

One of my new favorite authors, the aforementioned Mark Nepo, talks about it in another of his books The Exquisite Risk (don't you just love that title??).

He says that integration is simply - though not simple at all - meeting the outer world with our inner world. He says that if we don't assume our space as living beings, the rest of life will fill us completely the way water fills a hole.

I let the water fill the hole of the space I was meant to occupy for many years, not realizing it was even happening. I suspect that many people do the same, until they wake up to the realization they want the space back. If they wake up to it at all.

Nepo shares a quote about integrity (the same root word as integration) by Rabbi Jonathan Omer-Man:

"Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn't change, even though the life that carries it may change."

I call this place inside the voice of the higher self.

Perhaps we all listened to that voice at one time, but didn't act on it. Over time, we allowed the voices of others, parents, teachers, siblings, peers, priests and pastors, and even government officials, to fill our hole.

Perhaps integrity is more than Omer-Man’s listening, but acting on the promptings of that voice inside us. And perhaps in his listening, action is implied.

When we’re not listening to that voice, it's like being in a room with the TV on (a show we should be interested in, in this case) while preoccupied with something else. We hear the noise, but we don't relate to the story. Soon, it's quite easy to just tune out the noise.

We do this to ourselves constantly - we tune out the voice of our inner being, the one that is meant to occupy the space within us, that water is slowly, slowly filling.

I encourage you to find a way to hear the voice of your inner being again, listen to what it has to say to you, and bring that voice with you into the outer world.

Walk in the woods, get quiet, paint, draw, hammer nails, wash dishes even if that's what takes you away from the rest of life for a while so you can tune in again to your integral self.

Runa Heilung teaches a practice of “Imagination as Meditation: for Relaxation, Illumination, and Transformation.” Thank you for reading and following.