To keep myself focused on being fully engaged in my Integral Life Practice (ILP), I’ve decided to start afresh and write out the exercises I’m doing to map out my Practice. I’m very excited about this program and will be sharing my progress frequently here. I would encourage everyone to explore ILP, a truly exciting system for overall wellbeing. If you’d like to join in, you can order the ILP Starter Kit directly.
Following is my assessement of my current situation, including some gaps in my Practice.
Current Assessment:
Body – I maintain a healthy vegetarian diet, though I certainly want to increase my mindfulness and breadth of experimentation. I intend to introduce more fresh and raw foods to my diet. I can be rather lax when it comes to getting as much exercise as I would like. I infrequently do resistance training and yoga, though I do a fair amount of walking. This is an area I feel is an obvious place for improvement, because I do notice my procrastination and avoidance of the work that requires more commitment. The 3-Body Workout (not nearly as kinky as it sounds) and Focus Intensity Training both seem to be valuable additions to my routine of physical fitness.
Mind – I do a lot of reading on a wide range of topics and study when I am able to. I keep up with offerings from I-I projects such as Integral Naked and Integral Spiritual Center and am making my way through Ken Wilber’s books. Integral Framework or AQAL is a tool I use increasingly to remain mentally focused. I also try to keep my mind sharp through activities such as Brain Age and board games when I can. I hope to continue this aspect of my Practice and deepen my involvement as much as I can.
Spirit – I meditate several times each week in a rather unorganized fashion and practice a number of mindfulness exercises in every aspect of my life, from work to relationships. I would most like to have more consistancy in my meditation and to focus on one or two core techniques. I hope to incorporate Big Mind as a central part of this aspect of Practice.
Shadow: If there’s one aspect we could all use some work on, it’s our shadows or disowned psychological parts. I am becoming increasingly aware of my own shadow stuff and have begun some serious shadow work when I do notice shadow. Those dark, ugly, annoying things I notice need to be tidied up and embraced properly, and it’ll take a good deal of work, so I’d best keep on this. I need this to be a focus of my Practice, and the 3-2-1 Process is certainly going to be a part of this.
The four modules above are the essential parts of an ILP, but it also has auxilary modules that are optional but very valuable. I’ll run through some of my interests in these.
Ethics – I’ve been intuitively moving toward integral ethics for some time now, but with some guidance from IN dialogues I feel I’m able to start living with increasing ethical awareness. I would love to become more active in helping others in various ways and hope to find some avenues that will gel with the rest of my work.
Sex – I don’t have a regular romantic or sexual partner at the moment, so it’s a bit hard to judge where I am in this area. It figures that the one auxilary module I have the deepest interest in and take the most joy from would be the most difficult to practice. I do feel very compelled to explore more of practices such as Integral Sexual Yoga. How could I not want to know how to give great Godhead?
Work – I do my best to be mindful and engaged at work, though I am always challenged to do so. I’m also working on a project that I’m keeping quiet for now that would allow me to deeply integrate my work and Practice and that excites me a great deal.
Emotions – I tend to be fairly buoyant emotionally, but I would like to deepen my awareness of them. I wish to be more conscious of others’ emotions as well, and look forward to adding Tonglen to my meditation techniques once I become rooted in Practice. Some creative and expressive writing projects I’m working on will also be part of engaging my emotions and those of others.
Relationships – I do see a need to work more diligently on my relationships. Some neglect and unskillful communications have left me a bit disconnected with some people very dear to me, and that is a concern I’m always wanting to work with. I often allow my humour to go unchecked and let shadow slip in when I joke with some friends and I’ve recognized it bothers them. I intend to be more mindful of this specific bit of friction.
Please leave comments here.
10 comments on “ILP: Beginnings”
*peek*
I just setup an account with PeopleAggregator and thought I’d *cough* spruce up my public image a bit. At http://bentrem.sycks.net I ran some analytics on my log and *blink* someone from Sydney Mines?!
huh huh … the referals page was your Friends Page.
8=)
ever well, yaa?
is what was intended.
__{*}__
Re: *peek*
Sydney Mines? I have family there, but I certainly wasn’t aware any of them were reading my LJ friends page or knew of my presence online at all. May be a coincidence, but it’s a small town. Thanks for setting my brain spinning.
A cold has snuck up on me, but I’m otherwise well. I hope the same is true for you, minus the cold bit, of course.
Re: *peek*
heh … wheels withing wheels. Is why I left Gampo Abbey, actually; if I really wanna explore mandala principle “out here” is the place to do it!
😉
Me? Far broker in the land of oil-money than I was, that’s for sure. Gawwwwd the number of folk on the street … appalling/impressive. It’s everything I every thought and knew about my home province. NS is *cough* medieval and Alberta is wannabe Texas. heh
Summer sniffles hunh. Good food rocks steady; this aulde dawg still drinks too much / smokes / stays up late regularly but is dead solid. *hack caff gack ptui!*
stay well
Hey, whatch up to? Check my deli.cio.us, I just posted a coupla things about digital rights … gadd, a fellow I chatted with regularly in the 90s is now Pres of FFII (check out his article) and TimBL, well, TimBL is TimBL. Me? heh … I can’t fix the front tooth a yahoo knocked out last fall. (No, I don’t busk anymore.)
Re: *peek*
NS is trying its best to be Alberta-like, with talk of privatization of health care mounting. This week front page stories have been running each day about how more and more Nova Scotians are leaving for the promised land of Alberta. Wonderful stuff, really.
I’m beating the cold. Lotsa tea is a help.
Thanks for sharing your deli.cio.us; I’ve added it to my daily read feeds. Mine’s here, mostly filled with design and tech links.
Thanks for the article as well. It’s been a good read.
Be well too.
Re: *peek*
*sigh*
Did you follow the World Cup at all? What came to mind as I watched the festivities in Rome was how the riot squad had to be called out here in Edmonton everytime we won a game, even /before/ the actual finals. Fires in the streets, windows smashed, telephone booths tumbled … and nobody wants a dialectical analysis?! Geeeeeesch.
(Oh hey, sidebar: did you catch “The World According to Bush” last night? As I commented earlier this afternoon to: “Given my memories of Phil Agee spilling the beans about the overthrow of Allende in Chile I’m not tooooo shocked by CIA operatives talking out, but to hear them (more than one, yes, and more than once) saying how the Administration was behaving like a bunch of mafiosi … chilling.“)
You’re on delic?! Great! But dig this: I just joined yours into my network so now your posts appear with mine at http://del.icio.us/network/bentremblay … like LJ’s friends page function.
Something I’ve overlooked for a long time … right under my nose … want to see most recent posts from your favorite blogs all in one place? Dead simple with technorati … can’t believe I missed it. Peek http://www.technorati.com/faves/ oh, that requires login. Meh. I can’t publish my faves.
Oh wait, they appear in the sidebar of my (very messed up) homepage: http://bentrem.sycks.net … expert to webpage is a real sweet function (deli.cio.us has the same, as you’ll see) but even viewing it on your technorati page is sweet.
cheers
If you want to help your body (diet wise) you should try and and cut out energy drinks. They really aren’t good for you.
If you want to help your mind you should read Darwin. I have several copies of On the Origin of Species and I would be more than happy to lend you one.
I’ve been cutting back on energy drinks already and will likely cut them out entirely soon.
I think I’ll take you up on the offer to borrow On the Origin of Species.
I would suggest cutting any carbonated drinks from your diet. I never drink sodas myself, diet or no, (energy drinks included). They often make me sick when I do. It really helps, because they are very unhealthy and the same goes for drinking less caffeine. Drink some KoolAid, juice and tea! That’s what I live on.
Goodluck with all. 🙂
Somehow Koolaid doesn’t seem especially healthy. I’ve been drinking a lot of tea and orange juice lately, especially the past couple days so I can be rid of a cold.
Thanks.
By the way, I hope we’ll have a chance to talk soon. I’ve missed you.
Get a tin of powdered GatorAde. Hey, I ain’t no junk-food fanatic! (ok ok ok, so I love pringles. *blush*)
Seriously: years ago I went through the docs on their website … the stuff really is electrolytically balanced. It ain’t ginsing tea, but it’s right economical. And zero caffeine!