Pivotal Integration

Fall is unequivocally here. The late-September light offers us a distinct yet subtle shift in how we perceive the world around us. The cooler temperatures and hints of yellows and reds in the trees hint to us that things are shifting. The crickets won’t be singing for much longer.

These pivotal moments, where we shift from one thing to the next, create a turning point that beckons us to look back as we look forward. Especially this season, this descent into cold and darkness, asks us to asses what we’re harvesting from the bright warmth behind us.

Pivots create contrast that help us to integrate by highlighting what was as different from what now is. They also highlight what’s consistent between past and future. They show us what hasn’t changed which can help us better see the essence of a thing, process, person, or place.

While the Gregorian New Year is still months away, plenty of cultures celebrate a Fall new year and our school year re-start gives the sense of a new year. What’s the same about who I am now in contrast to a year ago? What’s different? What stays consistent season to season, what shifts? (Do I feel just as extroverted in the Fall and Winter as I do in the Spring and summer?).

If we don’t pause for a moment, to reflect, recap, and consider the journey we’ve been on, we risk missing the biggest gems of our lives and of our personal (and family’s) evolution and growth.

Pausing is hard in a culture always on the go. Do you even have time to finish reading this email? Most of us need a container, a space of accountability and connection; a commitment to a time and place to do our integration and honor the pivots.

A friend of mine who does tea ceremonies shared with me that tea has integration medicine. Not the cup that we rush through to caffeinate in the morning, but the cup that we sip on a savor in open contemplation and receptivity.

Some people integrate through walking or running or yoga or dance.

Journaling is high up on the list.

Or through a men’s group or women’s group.

Acupuncture? Don’t mind if I do.

And yes, of course therapy or coaching are excellent spaces for integration too.

Maybe you paint, or knit, or cook.

I’m honored to hold space and conduct integration for so many folks, and would be honored to welcome you into that as well if it’s something you’re realizing you need.

However we choose to integrate, let’s not miss the cues our planet offers us as reminders that it’s one of those times. While our culture revs up with school and after school activities and big work projects that have to be done by the winter holidays, let’s heed to the call to pause and reflect.

Breath by breath.

Sip by sip.

Conversation by conversation.

I would love to hear your one sentence reply to know what you’re integrating right now. If you have the moment.

With Love and Blessings of that magical felt sense of new wholeness that comes from integration,

Noah