Integrations
These exercises are actionable challenges to incorporate the content into everyday life. While the process of self-discovery is a complex and life-long experience, it can slip into self-indulgence if it is not coupled with a bias to action. The Integrations are an attempt to counter this trend by embodying Richard Rohr’s idea that “We do not think ourselves into a new way of living; but we live ourselves into a new way of thinking.” Often it is our behaviors that shape our thoughts, not the other way around; it is orthopraxy (correct actions) that leads to orthodoxy (correct thinking).
The Integrations are based on time-tested spiritual and psychological practices that correspond to the topic of each episode. Moreover, each Integration is an opportunity to celebrate something that is important, but not urgent. While many people understand that practices such as solitude, gratitude, and accompaniment are components of the good life, they often do not have the chance to exercise them in today’s 24/7, always “on” world. Our hope is that these activities can become regular habits for a good and fruitful life.
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Integration 1
Time and Phone Use Log
This week, you will track how you spend your time and how you use your phone. Use the linked time log form or a similar form track how you spend your time throughout the week.
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Integration 2
Solitude Practice
This Integration exercise is about stepping back and unplugging. On physical, emotional, and spiritual levels, each person needs periods of solitude and silence to reset, recharge, and reconnect with what is important in one’s life.
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Integration 3
Signature Strengths
Signature strengths constitute core parts of you as an individual and are expressed across all domains in your life. Your Integration is to use these signature strengths in new ways.
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Integration 4
Clearness Committee
A Clearness Committee involves honest consultation with a trusted group of advisors, friends, and family members who can help you think through important issues in your life. More specifically, you will use these discussions to go beyond basic, self-reported introspection to gain a deeper understanding of yourself.
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Integration 5
Forgiveness Exercise
While forgiveness can be an extremely difficult process for people, it is a necessary step towards healing, health, and human wholeness. Your Integration this week is to practice forgiveness.
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Integration 6
Gratitude Letter
Who is someone that made your life better, but you have never properly thanked? Your Integration this week is to write a letter of gratitude to someone you care about and has made a difference in your life.
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Integration 7
Examen & Gratitude Journaling
Cultivating gratitude can be a powerful way to live happier lives. From the perspective of Christian faith, it is a response of love to the God who first loved us. Your Integration is to practice the Examen every night this week.
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Integration 8
Life Path Conversations
What should I do with my life? Many of us freeze up when we think about this question. Others engage in a constant state of worrying about it, but don’t try anything out to get new data. We want to help you break out of these dysfunctional states. Your Integration is to engage in at least two life path conversations.
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Integration 9
StoryCorps Interview
Your Integration is to record a meaningful conversation with a loved one, preferably an elder such as a parent, mentor, or grandparent. You can interview a family member, teacher, or anyone who has been a significant influence on your life. Ask them for their story, what they’ve learned in life, and how they want to be remembered.
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Integration 10
Agere Contra
We all have fears, anxieties, and addictions in our lives, as well as things that we avoid. St. Ignatius recommended the practice of agere contra (meaning “to act against”) to free ourselves from these anxieties. Your Integration is to work through a specific fear or anxiety through direct confrontation.
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Integration 11
Social Connection
No one can lead a flourishing life alone. Good relationships and experiencing social connections are some of the most necessary and important aspects of the good life. Your Integration is to strengthen or forge or a new social connection each day this week.
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Integration 12
Acts of Service or Kindness
The process of self-discovery is a complex and life-long experience, but it can slip into self-indulgence if it is not coupled with a bias to action and a commitment to help others. This week’s Integration is to perform acts of service (if possible) or kindness.
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Integration 13
Accompaniment
The goal of this exercise is not to “serve” someone in need, per se, since this can create a divide between the “service provider” and the “service recipient." The goal is to be one with the other, to be present in mutual kinship. For this Integration, you are to accompany someone else, preferably someone struggling and/or on the margins of society.
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Integration 14
Writing Your Own Eulogy
One way to clarify our vision of life is to keep the end of our life in mind. In this exercise, write your own eulogy. Focus on one question: when the last chapter of my life is written, how do I want to be remembered?
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Integration 15
Writing A Personal Creed
As you move forward, integrate what you have learned about your core beliefs into a unifying creed. Look back and use previous exercises on clarifying your values, strengths, desires, and others. In this Integration, write (and then live out) your own personal creed.