Integrating Notes – September 2024

My monthly newsletter seeks to connect you to sources of wisdom and inspiration in order to help you live a more integrated – joyful, purposeful, capable, and connected – life. 

Dear Boston Brain Integration Community,

As the fall season begins, and we reestablish our routines of work and school and life (wearing a jacket some mornings), I wanted to share with you–-my community of clients, colleague–and fellow humans, some of what I have learned over the past 15 years as a Brain Integrator, and my thoughts about what it means to be integrated in our world today. This newsletter will be monthly,  so I can be in conversation with more of you than I could possibly see in person each week. I  hope that these ideas and resources can help each of us live more present, joyful, and integrated lives. 

I am often asked, what does it mean to be integrated ? This is an excellent question! There are many aspects to what Brain Integration seeks to address. It is possible to recognize when we are not integrated, because we feel apathetic, flat, incapable, and disconnected. The more disintegrated we are, the more of these symptoms we notice. There are many life experiences that can cause these kinds of issues, from brain injuries to trauma. They can also appear because of learning challenges or poorly integrated reflexes that make it hard for people to tolerate living inside their own skin. 

On the other hand, to be integrated is to feel joyful, purposeful, capable, and connected. The more integrated we are, the more of these things we experience on a daily basis and the more intensely we feel them. Being integrated is about how we function and how we feel. It means having the energy of joy and purpose; the confidence that we are capable of learning, moving, growing, and doing; and the ability to feel connected to ourselves and those around us.

Let’s just notice…

• How easy is it for you to feel joy when you step outside and feel the warmth of the fall sun on your face?
• How often do your words and actions feel purposeful, deliberately chosen, and meaningfully intended? Do you ever feel you’re living someone else’s life?
• How easily do you trust in your inherent capability to execute your own desires? 
• How connected do you feel to your body and your mind? How easy is it for you to connect to others? 

From researcher, storyteller, and social worker Brene Brown: “Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they receive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

• Who are the people in your life who make you feel seen, heard, and valued?
• What allows you to give and receive with curiosity, as opposed to judgment?

From The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D:

A well integrated brain is capable of imaginative play of all kinds. 

• Where does your imagination feel free and easy?
• Where does it feel stuck?
• What are the things you recognize in the present you cannot imagine about either the future or the past? 

Thank you for being a part of this community and sharing this earth with me! I have learned so much from each and every one of you. As you move through the world on these crisp, fall days, remember to feel the sun on your face and breathe deeply, feeling your feet underneath you. If I can be of help to you in exploring these questions, or anything else, I am here. Human-ing is hard. The only way I know how to do it is together.

With Gratitude,

Elizabeth McIntire