Integrated Living – A Practical Introduction
#zeroGravity.Life #IntegratedLiving #LivingOctave
We humans, and specifically our brains, are the most complex “things” in the known universe…!
Much of “how we are capable of doing what we do” on a daily basis (mostly without a second thought), remains beyond our capacity as a species to grasp…!
We generally take our biological “machinery” and the truly amazing capabilities of our brain (when we choose engage it) for granted, unless, or until, they are taken away or degraded through illness, injury, neglect or catastrophe. This is the story for so many of us.
But, what happens if we don’t take our organic functions/abilities for granted…?
What happens if we give these (miraculous) capabilities a new kind of fuller attention each and every day, not only when “our health breaks”, or when we want to recover lost function, but with an eye on exploring through everyday living, “what is my optimal living function/life state”?
Take our physiology – our body is built out of around thirty seven trillion + cells *(1,2), (this many 37,000,000,000,000+ !!) all of which must operate in harmony, (which we call health) to provide the physical experience we know as living.
The baseline harmony (circadian homeostasis) of this incredible biological system, established over billions of years, “lives” in the rhythm of our sun/earth/moon’s gravitational interaction, and is incredibly resilient, up to a point…
However, over the course of our (increasingly longer) lifetimes, our activities, diet and psychological states, can (and do) create a “dis-eased”, or unsustainable operating conditions within and without! This “out of balance” or dis-integrated state degrades our vitality, immunity, physical energy, neurological function and mental acuity, (including how reliably our DNA is expressed through our genes), leading to an overall lower quality of life, chronic health issues and even early death!
We might think of this as the “normal” process of aging, which is inevitable, but it is the rate at which we age, the access to our mental capabilities and quality of our life over those decades, that is not inevitable but remains firmly in our hands, simply by the way we live our lives.
In fact, taking our personal health, life and environment for granted comes with a profound impact, not just in ourselves, but also on our families, society in general and the planet at large.
* With these types of consequences, it may be worth giving some attention to the ways we typically live our lives that may, in fact, be unsustainable…(?)
There is much we can learn, and do, about how we live – in the way we pay attention to maintaining ourselves (both physically and psychologically) to create the conditions for robust well-being in all aspects of life – integrated living.
Interactive Reflection:
Is this me?
Am I currently living in a way that is unsustainable when seen in the context of my whole life?
The fundamental conditions for integrated living:
“Living integration” begins by addressing the most basic aspects of life: sleeping, eating and physical action. If these fundamental elements life are sub-optimal, long-term health (mental and physical) is impossible!
It starts with “simply” paying attention to the bio-information/feedback our body always provides us through our 5/(6) senses – whether it be in response to our (physical) actions, nutritional intake or state of mind. By paying close attention to this internal feedback, we give ourselves the capacity to take direct action to maintain our health and life performance over the course of our entire life!
By refining our ability to listen to this direct feedback from our brain and body, we eliminate the need to speculate about how to maintain our elemental functions. In fact, giving attention (inquiring of) ourselves in this particular way, allows us to gain essential insight into our core responses to life and what works, or not, for maintaining our equilibrium.
Through a simple inquiry: “what is my body telling me at this moment”, “what effect are my actions, diet, psychological state, having on my overall well-being(?)” because they are…, you become receptive to your body’s actual feedback, and in doing so, you are able to respond with the actions bring about harmony (integration) within.
How?
The key is to: observe oneself “in action” throughout the day – BUT – without coming to any conclusions about what you observe!!
By being in “observation mode”, rather than in “searching for THE ANSWER” or “I KNOW” mode, you remain in active real-time (mind with body) contact, enabling you to any time your choose, to “learn” what works best for maintaining your optimal state throughout each day.
In this blog series we will explore the actions that integrated living is – giving rise to an intrinsically healthy, robust, and resilient daily life…