The Power of Integration
Personal growth is the ability to integrate all aspects of oneself, to claim previously ignored parts and accept yourself fully. We often deny some of our personal traits because we do not want to own them as they may remind us of someone or something unpleasant. We can do this if we felt certain aspects of ourselves were unimportant or we did not have the confidence in a particular area. As we begin to take responsibility for all aspects of self, our lives and our impact on our environment, it is important to focus on how we spend or time and where we devote our energy. What we focus our attention on, is what we will create more of in our lives. We must make conscious choices as to what occupies our consciousness.
Working with groups gives us an opportunity to get personal feedback about our blind spots and focus in addition to encountering those with different focuses and views. It is important to be aware that you are not omitting certain parts of groups as we omit certain elements of ourselves due to our personal perceptions, limitations or biases. It is of utmost important to transcend our personal feelings of competitiveness or exclusion and learn to be inclusive towards diverse groups, assisting them to achieve mutual success. You learn to do this by first integrating all parts of yourself.
Questions to answer that will enable complete inner integration:
• What parts of myself do I feel I have left behind?
• What parts of myself am I trying to suppress?
• How can I learn to take the positive aspects of these parts into my life and mission today?
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