Wholeness and Integration Are Foundational
In school, we learn the importance society places on being popular, where we experience the divides between the groups that are the “in crowd” and the outliers who may be seen as outcasts.
We learn from a young age that there are circles of people who are more accepted or popular than others, which means that there is an invisible bar that separates people. We also often experience further divisions within ourselves, which philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti explores: “These are not fragments, but the total movement, the wholeness of life. We shall not be able to understand this if we cut it up into living, loving and dying – it is all one movement.
To understand its total process, there must be energy, not only intellectual energy but energy of strong feeling, which involves having motiveless passion, so that it is constantly burning within one.
And as our minds are fragmented, it is necessary to go into this question of the conscious and the unconscious, for there begins all division – the ‘me’ and `not me,’ the ‘you’ and ‘me,’ the ‘we’ and ‘they.’ As long as this separation exists – nationally, in the family, between religions with their separate possessive dependencies – there will inevitably be divisions in life. There will be the living of everyday life with its boredom and routine and that thing which we call love, hedged about by jealousy, possessiveness, dependence, and domination, there will be fear, the inevitability of death.”
Divisions are inherent, built into our current systems, and accepted as the societal norm. We are constantly studying and tracking separate groups, creating more and more divides, and then calling for greater inclusion with little or no idea about how to include all the differences. And yet, our very systems are starting to crack from the overwhelming weight of their brokenness.
When it comes to work and business, we have an incredible opportunity to see our world from a holistic perspective. Imagine what would happen if we each had clarity on how we could help our organization succeed and, as a result, stop grappling with our own career path and need for a personal brand.
It is an opportunity to integrate our life and no longer view our career outside ourselves. In the world that is emerging, there will be more interdependence and an alignment around what we are creating. There will be no need for personal brands.
The Shifts Are Beginning
There is a lot of healing that needs to take place on our planet, and it starts with each of us. What I am learning is that we cannot really help each other become whole until we start with our own healing and integration.
We don’t learn at school how to take a journey inside of ourselves and bring our fragmented pieces back together. And yet, it is the most meaningful journey of our life. We can finally start to listen, and listening often means being aware of the people showing up in our life and how they can help us in our becoming whole.
We don’t have to face our internal battles completely on our own. In fact, having healthy relationship not only helps to push us further, but also helps us integrate more profoundly. There is an opportunity to integrate and build our lives and communities in healthy ways.
As more of us become whole, we can step into the greater world as integrators, conveners, and community builders, where we bring the pieces together. We no longer need to retreat from anything.
Our opportunity is to flow as we become increasingly aware of who we truly are beyond anything we imagined. Trusted relationships take time to create, and the impact we can have on each other is the most powerful currency we have in integrating our higher purpose and calling.