What Integration Is And How It Can Support Your Growth

Welcome to the Clarity Corner, where you'll discover how to unlock and express the most authentic version of you and realize that this is exactly what you were looking for the entire time. I'm your host and your coach, Megan Siemens. Now let's make some magic happen. Hello, my friend. Welcome to the Clarity Corner. We're doing a mini sweet solo EP today, and I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite topics, which is integration. Integration is such a magical part of, quote, the work. So the work you're doing on yourself, the work you're doing professionally, the work you're doing for your energy, integration is one of the most important parts of the process. And this is something I do in all of my client series inside of my membership. Back to you. There's always an integration period. I was talking to a friend, actually I was talking to a friend recently and also a new client, and both of them were like, wait, what's integration? So I wanted to do a mini episode on it because it is one of the most important parts of the work and it might be one. One of the reasons that you are blocked right now. So some signs that you need integration. And then I'll tell you what integration is. Some signs you might need integration are if you are feeling so overloaded and overwhelmed, your overwhelm has a sense of, like, scatteredness to it, where it's like, so many things. I'm so full and I just, like, don't even know where to land. Maybe you're like, kind of like pulling at a bunch of different threads, like trying all the things and then feeling, like, frustrated because it's not working. If you have been going, going, going, going, going, and. And you're noticing, like, wow, I'm tired, like, do I have to keep going at this rate? Or if you have been in a phase of learning. I think we all go through phases of learning. We all probably experience those a little bit differently. I even just think from a human design standpoint, our projectors probably learn differently than our generators do when we're in our aligned energies. Projectors are designed to dive deep master systems, lean into the learning when they're feeling that call for spaciousness. Whereas generators, when aligned with their design, sure, they could feel that same flavor. But when they're more designed to lean into the work when it feels like a really satisfying way to use up their energy. Whereas our manifestors, I feel like I get going on the human design types and then I feel like I need to balance them all out. Our manifestors are designed to lean into the learning when it feels like they have a freedom to do so, it's not something that feels like it's restricting their movement. And our reflectors, whenever they feel like that's what they currently want to sample, so they have that present knowing of like I'm having a call towards learning. Of course, there's other factors that can come into that. I would say your profile is probably a big piece that can determine this as well. And I won't go into that, maybe another episode. But all that to say we all learn differently and we all can over consume no matter how we experience our learning. And so if you feel like you've been over consuming information, it might be time for integration. So I want to get into some definitions of integration, but I think there's a quote out there that goes, inspiration won't create motion without integration. I feel like I just completely ruined that quote. We'll see if it comes through later. But that's its essence. It's essentially looking at where am I spending a lot of time, like getting inspired and like living in my external world more often than my own internal world. So I'm looking for the quotes, I'm looking for the courses, I'm looking for the lessons, I'm looking for the teachers, I'm looking for the mentors, I'm looking for the coaches. I'm out, out, out, out, out. But if we're not pausing for integration for the work place, then we're just going to keep spinning our wheels and likely end up in one of those first areas or zones that I was talking about where you might need integration. So what is integration? Well, I always like to go to Webster's Dictionary first when I'm defining a word. If you don't know, I think defining the words we're leaning into is one of the most powerful things we can do. Because often we're like, I want more of this, but how deeply can we explain what this is? So integration, according to Merriam Webster's dictionary, is summing the parts to make a whole. Some synonyms are blended, fusing, harmonizing, mix, compound. So in all of those, all of the essence of those words, you're thinking, I have multiple parts and I'm bringing them together to make a whole. And that kind of even points towards the psychology definition of integration, which comes from Jungian psychology. It says integration refers to the process of bringing together the different aspects of yourself and learning how to negotiate between their different wants and needs to operate as a whole single self. And so when we bring all of that together and we consider what is integration? In the work that I'm doing on myself, the work that I'm doing on my leadership, the work that I'm doing in my professional life, what is it? Well, it's when all of the different pieces and parts of what you're learning, what you're consuming, what you're taking in, what you're leaning into, have space to breathe, it's the pause in between that lets it all settle. It's almost like the dust settles. And I find that it is one of the most powerful tools that we can give ourselves when we're on a self growth path. So I do this in a coaching series. There's always going to be an integration piece in between. While I'm always available for my clients on in between messaging apps, there's always a space between one coaching session and the next. And that is very intentional. That is for the integration to pull through. It's for them to be in their own space, to let the dust settle of all of the lessons we've been leaning into, all of their system that's been illuminated so that they then create even more potent and powerful action. Space creates some of the most powerful results. And that is what integration is. You can also do this if you're not working with a coach. If you're just reading the self development books and listening to the podcasts and watching the videos and all the things you can do an integration period. And I, I encourage you to do an integration period in your own self work as well. And this usually looks a little more zoomed out. And one a really tangible example of this is I found that I was only, and I think this is a really common one, especially in the self help world. I found that I was only reading like self help books, spiritual books, personal development books, all in the non fiction genre of like working on something or learning something for my clients. And it was getting a little overwhelming. I was feeling a little overloaded and I was also losing some essence of my own creativity. So these are maybe some other signs you might consider. And so I stopped, I paused and I started reading fiction again. And it had actually been such a long time since I picked up my last fiction book and it was so nourishing for the exact things I was looking for in those self help books that I was reading. My creativity was sparked again. The perspective that I could offer clients started to change and morph and hold them at a deeper level. I had these ideas that were definitely not being sparked when I was, like, deep in only reading self help. And so integration is really just a break from what I've been doing, usually what I've been doing on repeat, into something else. It doesn't mean you have to just, like, sit in silence and do nothing. It is, let me just take a breath here and come to what I need. It's space to be empowered by your own wisdom. If we look at the Jungian psychology definition of it, it's noticing what parts of myself are in operation. And when I say parts of myself, we all have various parts of ourselves call this contrast. So I know. I feel like I have a lot of contrast within myself. If we look at it from an astrology standpoint, I'm a Leo sun with a libra moon. These are very contrasting. The Leo is like fire and bold and spotlight, and the libra is a little more of the internal process, a little more about balance, a little more about harmony. These are huge contrasts. And so an integration period allows me to go, which one of these have I been leaning into? And which one of these might I need to lean into? It gives me space to look at what are the lessons that this part of me has been bringing through, and what are the lessons that this other part of me really needs? So it's bringing all of these different parts together as your whole single self. So that can look like integrating internal parts, but. But also integrating away, disconnecting, cutting the cord from external stories that have maybe been running the show. It's also a break from the go, go, go, go, go. There's so much conditioning in our society on staying busy. And I won't harp on that topic much. I think there's so much out there about that, and I do think we've, like, shifted. We've swung the pendulum the other way from the hustle culture into the flow culture. I think we're finally. I feel like whenever we go out of one extreme, we, like, go really far into the other one. And I feel like we're finally coming to a centered place where there's more messaging and things out there in the world about, like, no, you can actually have both. Like, there are seasons of hustle and there are seasons of flow. Integration is an intentional pause that allows us to break from the hustle and go into the flow. We all need both. We all need a little more of one and a little less of one. And integration allows us to break, to pause, to not have action steps assigned, to not have the exact to do list that we need, and to find the Magic that space creates. And when I say to find the magic that space creates, one of my favorite ways to think about this is, have you ever had to circle an airport because the Runway is backed up? I have done that several times. And when you circle the airport, it's because, I mean, there's probably a lot of reasons that it could happen, but for the sake of this example, it's because there's many other planes trying to land all at the same time. All of the planes can't land at once. The planes need a clear Runway to fully land. And this is what's happening in your internal world too. You're going, going, going. You have all the lessons, they're all backing up. And your space, your internal, so full that another plane can't land. And so integration gives you the space for the plane to land. It gives you permission to breathe. And I find that so much magic is created in that integration period. And you're going to hear that in next week's session with Jessica. She created so much magic in her integration week and it opened up so many doors to explore some things that are very important for her series. So look forward to that session with Jessica. But for you, for now, notice, is there something in my life that's calling me to lean into an integration period? Is there something in my life that's calling me to have a little bit of a pause, to shift maybe into something else, to move into a different contrast? Is there a part of me that is begging for a little attention, but there's an other part of me that is like overshadowing it a little bit? Just ask yourself, where might I need some integration? And if you're still having trouble with that word landing, I don't know if I love that word trouble. If it doesn't feel completely clear for that word to land in your space, the plane's not landing. Just use the word pause. Or could I use a bit of a pause? You're always welcome to flip the language that I use on its head in a way that's going to serve you. So with that, we will close our mini session today. I hope this was so supportive for you. Like I said, this is one of my favorite tools for our own self work and it always creates the most beautiful results. So whether it's one week of integration or one year of integration, gift yourself the magic of this space. I'll see you next time. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you're ready to get unstuck and on with a joyful life you're ready to be magnetically you in life, relationships, business and everything in between. I invite you to apply for coaching together. It all starts with a clarity call. If you thought this was magic, get ready to blow your mind through your own possibilities. Apply for coaching at megansemens.com forward/coaching.