In our efforts to heal and integrate all that we are, it is essential that we learn to love our varied parts. To see how hard they have worked to adapt us, to protect us, to direct us, to keep us afloat. But it’s not enough to merely love them. We also have to hear them. We have to give them voice, to hear precisely what they have to say about what they know. We have to hear what intrinsic wisdom they contain. They were often birthed by wounding and circumstance, and they want to share their story with us. They want us to understand why they vigilantly developed in an effort to save us. They want us to remember what we have been through together. Because the remembrance is what integrates us. Because the going back in time is what brings us into the moment. This is the nature of true inclusivity. Every aspect gets a seat at the table of presence, every voice gets heard, every part is woven into the wholly weave of selfhood. You want to live an inclusive life? Become one with all of your parts. They’ve all been essential to your survival. The best friends you will ever have.
Last week, I encouraged you to name and reflect on your various parts. And I provided a number of categories that you can work from: adaptations (ways you have had to contort yourself to survive this world); defences and disguises (ways you have had to armor/distort/protect yourself to survive this world); archetypes (ways of being that reflect your essential nature in this incarnation); hidden parts (the parts of you that have had to deny, repress, hide from view); soul-selves (the parts of you that reflect your sacred purpose in this lifetime. That is, the parts that reflect your essential why in this lifetime); core-self (that which lives—unchangeably—at the center of your being).
Let’s take our work with our various parts to the next level this week...