Keeping this value at the back of my mind simplifies things, for the most part, I found. How I should act in a particular scenario becomes clear because I don’t have the leeway to act out of alignment with my own boundaries and rules. Now, I’m not saying that extenuating circumstances shouldn’t be taken into account. In most cases, though, there are no extenuating circumstances and we are just indulging in self-betrayal.
If at any point I found that different parts of me weren’t in agreement, I would listen to each part and then make a decision based on what being a person with integrity would dictate. For example, if I really felt like checking Instagram while working, I’d acknowledge the part of me that wanted the dopamine hit but come to an agreement with myself to not go through with the action because integrity would say that work time is for work.
On another occasion, I was particularly tired after a night of getting less than restful sleep. A part of me wanted to push through and go to the gym but after checking in with myself, I realised that I needed to honour my need for rest and decided to do yoga at home instead. My promise to myself was that I’d exercise for 45 minutes that day so while I ensured that that happened, I also ensured that I was in sync with what my body was telling me.
Seeing integrity as different parts of me being in harmony is an interesting as well as a useful lens. It’s a keeper!
Week #41 – Strength
Much like integrity, I’m seeing strength in the usual sense of the word as well as from a different lens. Over the past week, I noticed that some old thought patterns that no longer serve me were beginning to creep back in again. I want to use this week to show myself that I’m stronger than these old patterns and won’t succumb to them. I’ll do that by strengthening the neural patterns that tell a more empowering story. So while I will be practising strength in the usual sense of ‘the emotional or mental qualities necessary in dealing with difficult or distressing situations’, I will also be using this as an opportunity to lend strength to the thoughts that will serve me that aren’t yet strong. In a way, this is a mental workout I’ll be doing daily, to retrain my brain.
When I catch myself thinking old, disempowering thoughts, I’ll redirect them to the new, more empowering thoughts. I’ll also spend the first few minutes of the day deliberately going through the beliefs and thought patterns I want to be reinforcing (I have them in a specific journal entry I created a couple of months ago). While there are many of them, I’m going to be focusing on one particular belief, which is that I’m the protagonist of my own story and am creating the hero’s journey that most makes sense for my character.