By:
Carol Lynn Roselle
Embracing Change:
Holistic Health Education and the Importance of the Emergent Spiritual Line of Development
“I do not ask how the wounded one feels,
I, myself, become the wounded,” Walt Whitman 1855
The psychospiritual journey of an individual involves many transitions and changes. Ones ability to move and flow with change has an impact on ones health and wellbeing. Scientific studies show us over and over again that disease can manifest and is often accompanied by various symptoms due to stress and the inability to adapt to change in healthy ways. As a Holistic Health Educator, this has great implications. Our day-to-day participation in the outer world extends far from just our interpersonal relationships with ourselves, but also with our families, local communities, nation, planet, universe and cosmos etc. As agents of change, we need to be mindful of transitions in our lives and the ability to embrace change. That is the very purpose of our human existence. According to Dacher (2006) our human life must involve the ability to develop our capacity to change and evolve toward a progressively greater knowledge, complexity and capacity.
When speaking of change, the field metaphor resonates with many people. It is symbolic of our lives, which go through infinite turnings, transitions and changes. One might imagine turning the soil up as farmers do in preparation of the seed, ripping through old roots and rocks, revealing rich dark earth, fertile with possibilities. Seed, water, and nutrients go into the deepest crevices of the fallow field healing those areas that hold the trauma and that are in most needed of nutrients. It is difficult to perceive, when standing looking at an empty field, that in just a few months it can change into a rich and vast field of harvestable food. Change is the only constant for us on this psychospiritual journey. It has immense potential for growth and yet we act as if arising phenomenon is permanent. This potential for growth is always available to us in every situation if we foster a way of being more present in the world by living a more embodied life, a Life in which preparing the field becomes the focal point.
The more we evolve spiritually the more we can embrace and embody change. I find for myself, as Holistic Health Educator, I need to personally foster the growth of the spiritual line of development. Others may not hold this view and that is fine. Remember Integral Theory is inclusive not exclusive. Ken Wilber does say it is a separate line of development. For the purpose of this paper, I suggest suspension of old patterned thinking as we engage in this topic. Reflecting on our own personal journeys’ we might look and make note where the spiritual is showing up in our own lives. We may find some type of spiritual practice; it could show up in a person’s life as a traditional religious organization, being in nature, yoga, meditation, volunteer work, prayer, or a less traveled route. In whatever light I believe any type of spiritual practice that fosters spiritual growth is imperative to develop an empathetic and authentic way of showing up for life, which is crucial in the field of holistic health education.
In this essay, I will investigate transpersonal growth and change in regards to the importance of spiritual development because in general, development in psychospiritual is necessary to facilitate change in the biological, interpersonal, and worldly life; they are all interconnected with each other, helping the other along on the journey if you will. Since this topic is vast, this paper will focus on the psychospiritual by defining and exploring spirituality in relation to change in the Holistic Health Educator. This essay will survey the possible role of personal immunity to change and how that relates to a bigger picture of change of holistic health education. And in doing so, we will, whether implicit or explicit, first briefly touch on the importance of conscious movement from egocentric to the understanding of interconnectedness of all beings. Secondly we look at the immunity to change and lastly, the importance of working with shadow.
We can approach this by looking through the lens of Ken Wilber’s Integral theory, and drawing from the well of insight and knowledge from such sources as Presencing, Theory U and the wisdom traditions. Since I gravitate towards the Eastern wisdom traditions, I will refer to Buddhist and Yogic terms, but in no way is that saying that other spiritual traditions do not have credence. It is simply a way for me to understand and assimilate this information from my own well of knowledge and experience. Wilber (2007) emphatically emphasizes that religious is not necessarily spiritual, however there are aspects of religion that are spiritual. Integral theory is all-inclusive, not a path of reductionism. Spiritual practices are essential to initiate an inward turning and the integral process is necessary to expand consciousness and with that come an increased awareness and ability to foster change in others.
Spirituality as a Line for Development
Emergent Spirituality as a line of development is necessary for Holistic Health Educators to promote change by becoming the change. By weaving Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory into the dialogue of spirituality, we are able to explore the vertical altitude—or the degree of consciousness or complexity of any line. Here we are exploring the spiritual. Wilber (2007) believes simply that “all four quadrants show growth, development or evolution’ (p.22). They all show stages or levels of development and this unfolds everywhere in every moment. According to the all quadrant theory, the upper left quadrant is where we see that the self unfold from egocentric to ethnocentric to world centric or the body to mind to spirit. This evolution is imperative for spiritual growth and expresses itself in how we show up in the world.
Most spiritual traditions emphasize that a spiritual life consists of an open heart and mind. A spiritual life has a quality of openness; in order to embody this openness there are a series of practices which promote various states of consciousness. The practitioner can evolve from a self centered perspective to embody compassion, empathy and understanding the connectedness of all beings. These states or peak experiences are often fleeting “Ah Ha” moments. These states are invoked and practiced over and over again until a change occurs and often, the state becomes another stage of an evolving process of higher and higher states of being conscious in the world.
How might that show up in a Holistic Health Educator who has an immunity to change? How could we provide a space for others to embrace change when we ourselves may be resisting change ourselves? We are exploring these questions and asking the question in and of itself is necessary for us to begin to explore the possibilities. In order for us to begin to move forward with this line of thought let us define spirituality in a way that has a common root. Wilber (2007) defines spiritual as “personal values, present awareness, interior realities and immediate experience” (p.198). Ken Wilber has dedicated years to this very in depth line of questioning. Defining Spirituality, according to Wilber (2000) there are at least five definitions, Wilber includes in the Integral Model. They are as follows:
“1) Spirituality involves the highest levels of any of the developmental lines. 2) Spirituality is the sum total of the highest levels of the developmental lines. 3) Spirituality is itself a separate-developmental line. 4) Spirituality is an attitude (such as openness or love) that you can have at whatever stage you are at. 5) Spirituality basically involves peak experiences, not stages” (p.129).
Let’s look at number four in the above statement. At the heart of spirituality is an attitude of openness and love, which is accompanied by the ability to let go. I believe it is here that there can be a paradigm shift. Often we have invested so much time, into our WHOLE perceived identity this takes years of our energy into creating this perception. We have a lot invested in this reality; no wonder change is often difficult and resisted. We need to be able to let go to the attachment to old patterns.
Senge (2008) explains in his lecture The Power of Presence, a wonderful metaphor about letting go. Senge emphasizes that there is a turning point in which old patterns of perspective shift and that this shift is often associated with letting go and letting come. He talks about Jesus and the phrase “Eye of the Needle.” The meaning behind that phrase is that there is a narrow entrance way into the city of Jerusalem, in order for one to pass through; one would have to unload all their goods and wares. This is symbolic of the letting go, putting the burden down and having faith that everything will unfold with a much more open heart. I am not suggesting that Holistic Health Educators need to be ascetics, but their path should be in the direction of the eye of the needle. This is a spiritual path of inquiry and practices that develop ways of being that are much more present in each unfolding moment.
There are many reasons why we cannot be more present in our lives and I believe that trauma may be one of the main reasons why we cannot show up in an authentic manner. Everyone has suffered traumatic experiences in their lives. I do not think one can be incarnate as a human and not have experienced suffering. We can become stuck or invested in a fixed view. Levine (1997) has explored the somatic connection between trauma and resistance to change. Levine purports that “…traumatized individuals have an investment in being ill and may form some kind of attachment to their symptoms” this may explain resistance or the immunity to change. (p.218). There are many reasons why this happens. What is important is the process of healing, which requires letting go of the attachment to these symptoms. Levine’s work centers on the disconnection between body and soul. Results from his studies indicate that there is often loss of skin sensation and numbness associated with trauma, which calls for some sort of somatic component.
George (2005) indicates that it is imperative that providers of health care have “their own spiritual evolution to actually experience what the model represents. As Wilber puts it, do not confuse the map with the territory; having a map of Hawaii is not like actually being there” (p.476). In other words if we do not see ourselves as divine there is no way to fully embody the realization that each person we are working with or come in contact with is “a luminous jewel… often tarnished from …the imperfect (from a relative perspective) unfolding process of human development” (p476). This tarnish manifests as disease.
Disease often presents something, which was once hidden and brings it into the light. In the book Heal Thyself, Dr Bach (1996) tells us disease will never be cured by modern materialistic means because its origin is not material. It is the conflict between Soul and body, and “…will never be eradicated by except by spiritual and mental effort” (p.2). In his conclusion, Bach touches on reoccurring themes found in many health modalities and in spiritual practices in the context of change and its correlation to disease and health. In summary, Bach (1997) tells us we need to know that divinity within us and disease is due to a disharmony between “…the personality and the Soul.” He emphasizes the importance of “the willingness and the ability to discover the fault which is causing such a conflict…and the removal of any such fault by developing the opposing value” (p.52). I hold that the development of compassion is a value that should be cultivated to alleviate disease.
Referring to the works of Buddhist scholar and practitioner, Hixon (1993), we see that in Mahayana Buddhism the writings are concerned with karuna (compassion), the profoundly influential Perfection of Wisdom Sutra emphasizes wisdom. It is wisdom of a very specific sort: the wisdom of sunyata (emptiness). The doctrine of emptiness calls attention to the absence of inherent existence in processes that are mutually dependent. It is another way of expressing the interdependence of phenomenon that the Buddha called dependent origination. It is all about embracing change and interconnectedness as a spiritual practice. This compassionate aspiration towards an integral life is the key. In the contexts of Holistic Health Educator, in whatever capacity that might be there is a process by which a quality of spaciousness can be cultivated. This space that is created by an open mind and heart cultivated by a spiritual practice requires participation between all involved. Whether working on an inside job or with someone else both the healer and client can transform their respective lives because we are all part of the manifestation of health.
Interconnectedness
Wilber (1996) as well as integralists believe that all of nature and everywhere we look we see wholes and that these wholes are hierarchical in nature. Each field is in within a field, which goes on dynamically and energetically forever expanding through out the cosmos. This process as it unfolds in the moment is nothing other than progression and a drive to higher unities or holism. This shows up in the human psyche as development or growth. Continuing in this vein, Wilber purports that “because the human mind or psyche itself, the same hierarchical arrangement of wholes within wholes, reaching from the simplest and most rudimentary to the most complex and inclusive” (1). We could say, according to Wilber’s theory, which very much like unfolding of the cosmos can be likened to the psychological growth or development of humans. It is simply a “microcosmic reflection” of a larger evolution unfolding. We are all connected with each other and the whole Universe. Everything is changing and everything is connected.
Revisiting the metaphor of the field as an example of change, we can imagine the freshly prepared earth sending up shoots of new growth out of what seems to be nothing. If we take an Integral look at this field, we will see that much was involved in the preparation of the soil and earth. The nutrients, the water, the sunshine, the labor, and natural flow of nature unfolding, the hard work of people fostered an environment and nurtured the new growth. Everything is connected down to the worms, the birds all of nature down to the last blade of grass. This concept shows up in Buddhism known as Pratitya Samutpada or dependent origination.
Kholer’s (2002) scholarly research indicates that the historical Buddha realized that “a person’s life is not self-contained and unchanging at its core,” but instead, “a continuous process of change, rising and falling through interdependence with numerous other processes.” The Buddha described the dependence of all phenomena upon causes and conditions thusly: When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not become to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases. This process is known as “Interdependent Arising” (Pratitya Samutpada).
This is a very holistic and integral way of viewing the world. Continuing to look through this particular spiritual lens, the health of the Holistic Health Educator is interconnected with that of the client or group. We are in a participatory creation. It is easy to understand interconnectedness on an intellectual level, but how does one embody this? Jesus was an emanation of compassion and his message was to, “Love thy neighbor as thy self” and Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to be in the world.” We can see evidence of this in the Bodhisattva Path, the Yoga Sutras, and the yogic path of Pantajali.
The Yoga sutras are just another example of a daily practice and the bedrock for cultivating interconnectedness as well. The heart of Patanjali's teachings is the eightfold path of yoga. It is also called the eight limbs of Patanjali, because they intertwine like the branches of a tree in the forest. These are not commandments (although they sometimes sound like them), laws, or hard and fast, but suggestions for living a better life through yoga. These practices are specifically set in place as vehicles. These vehicles cultivate a way to move from the egocentric consciousness to ethno centric to worldly.
Senge, & Scharmer, et al (2005), tell us the following about evolving consciousness or awareness necessary to become effective holistic health educators and as humans:
“An empowering awareness of the whole requires a fundamental shift in the relationship between “seer” and “seen.” When the subject-object duality that is basic to our habitual awareness begins to dissolve, we shift from looking “out at the world” from the viewpoints of a detached observer to looking from “inside” what is being observed. Learning to see begins when we stop projecting our habitual assumptions and start to see reality freshly (p41).
OK so if shifting the way we look at the world is at the heart of being able to let go of our preconceived ideas and that the inability to do so is holding us back spiritually, then the next logical way to proceed is to find out what fosters or aids this process? It depends on ones spiritual leanings. However some spiritual practices may include mindfulness eating, mindful walking meditation, Loving-kindness meditation, yoga, contemplative prayer, 1-2-3 process, or even simply being in nature. Wilber (2007) does not stop there; if we are to look at spirituality from AQAL then we would have to address the body, mind, spirit, shadow, ethics, sex, work, emotions, and relationships.
Immunity to Change
“At the simplest level, any particular expression of the immunity to change provides us a picture of how we are systematically working against the very goal we genuinely want to achieve” Kegan & Lahey (2009)
As agents of change, by now most of us in the Holistic Health field understand that being able to hold a space for change is one of value. Holistic Health Educators often participate in groups and even in a one on one context, will have a leadership or facilitator role. Kegan and Lahey (2002) tell us whether we have chosen to be in a “leadership role” or have found our way there through our own interests, commitments and relationships we are confronted with overwhelming recognitions. In this context, the inability or the immunity to change becomes of interest; with this in mind, we can begin to ask how can we work with the resistance in ourselves and in others? How can work with fear and defensiveness?
As Holistic Health educators if we have not already encountered some resistance from a client or group, we will. We do not have to travel far from our own personal experience to know that change is difficult. Kegan & Lahey (2009) point out that only one in seven people actually make the changes they need to after being told by their doctors they will quite literally die if not addressed. This information is of great interest because one can assume that the other six people wanted to live. The incentive for change could not be greater. If we look at our own lives, we can see this pattern as well. If people cannot make the changes even when their lives are on the line, how can we as educators or leaders at any level to support the processes of change?
What do we mean when we speak of challenge of change and how does this relate to immunity to change? Kegan & Lahey (2009) indicate that the challenge to change and improvement is often misunderstood. It is often thought of “…as a need to better “deal with” or “cope with” the greater complexity of the world” (p.11). This is not the whole picture. Though this may be true in general, we stay the same person, but we have added some new valuable skills to our already vast repertoire of responses. We have new resources; we have learned, but not developed. The challenge of change is all about an increasingly complex world made up of people and “the fit between the demands of the world and the capacity of the person or organization” (p.12).
The inability to change affects our spirituality. Embracing change becomes the New Spirituality. With this New Spirituality comes personal responsibility. Kegan & Lahey (2002) tell us that it is very difficult to lead others in the art of making the changes necessary to facilitate changes in their underlying ways of making meaning about the world without considering the possibilities that we too must also change. Kegan and Lahey’s underlying premise or course of action would be to develop and foster a sense of personal responsibility from a perspective, which addresses immunity to change and fosters this as well as our clients. Our immunity has us we do not have them.
Kegan and Lahey (2002) built their “new technology” for personal learning around the idea of transformative language. This new technology or language is a tool to gradually reveal one’s own immune system and “own dynamic equilibrium, the forces that keep the immune system in place and the possibilities of transcending it” (p.8). By using language, according to Kegan and Lahey, we are able to transform “customary internal psychological set of mental arrangements into a novel form.”
They are as follows:
1) From language of complaint to language of commitment. 2) From language of blame to the language of personal responsibility. 3) From the language of “New Year’s Resolutions” to the language of competing commitments. 4) From the language of big assumptions that hold us to the language of assumptions that we hold. 5) From language of prizes and praises to the language of ongoing regard. 6) From language of rules and policies to the language of public agreement. 7) From the language of constructive criticism to the language of deconstructive criticism (pp.8-9).
The first four involve personal learning by way of mental dialogue, which primarily takes place in the upper right quadrant; affected by cultural and worldly concepts and the last three involve social language, which is necessary in the role of facilitator or leader. These seven mental arrangements play with all of the quadrants. I see most of the action happening in the upper right quadrant with some biological activity. Their last three statements really begin to bridge the internal “I” with the cultural and worldly quadrants.
Bridges (2001) believes that with any change there are always transitions and visa versa. He writes, “reorientation, personal growth, authentication and creativity: What these four things have in common is that they all require that you let go of the way that you have experienced your work and yourself” (p.38). What seems to be of great value is that if one only lets go of the external or physical manifestations such as a person or job, but not make the internal associations one would be caught on a continuous cycle of repeating unwanted behaviors. Even if one changes the externals often, one would find the same hope, fears and belief systems in play.
In Buddhism and in Yogic philosophy this could be likened to the theory of samsara. This is the phenomenon of repeating the same patterns over and over again. This can be viewed as a form of hell. This ignorance is sometimes a deliberate decision not to engage or look at the inner workings of the mind and other times we are the fish swimming in the water, not knowing we are swimming in the water. Human beings have the tendency to disassociate from their lives and emotions and when this occurs, disharmony a rises contributing to disease states. What I see evolving here is the introduction of the shadow and the importance of how to begin to reclaim that which has been displaced. Let us briefly turn our attention to the Shadow and its role in the challenge of change.
Embracing Shadow
Anything that impedes our spiritual growth can lead to immunity to change. This can foster a view of the world that embraces states of the lack of awareness. This lack of awareness creates ignorance. This ignorance manifests as the denial that all things are interconnected things, and promotes a displacement of shadow by disconnecting from what is considered and labeled wrong, dark or bad. Wilber (2007) indicates that virtually every one of the modules of the Integral operating System or IOS can get sabotaged by unconscious motives as a direct consequence of not doing shadow work. The shadow is a term, which represents the personal unconscious. It can be thought of as all the repressed, denied or disowned material of the unconscious. As we all might know, denying this energetic material does not make it go away, quite the opposite occurs. Often we will see this energy emerge as painful memories and emotions, neurotic symptoms, obsession, and fears. Taking the time to own and uncover these repressed materials is necessary for the healing process and for the removal of the painful symptoms. This process of identifying and coming to terms with the shadow enables us to move towards a more accurate and healthy image of ourselves. Often there is a displacement of the feelings associated with the suppression of emotions. If for example, anger is disowned, it is likely that out of ignorance a person may believe or perceive that this anger is coming from someone else.
A very interesting and key point to understanding shadows is that I can deny “I.” Wilber (2007) points out that a person can take the “I” and parts of it and simply can push it to the side of the self –boundary. This is reductionist thinking instead of an all inclusive approach, which is characteristic to healthy living and spiritual integral life. Wilber (2007) writes this about shadow and the displacement of our own “Iness.”
One of the great discoveries of modern Western psychology is the fact that, under certain circumstances, 1st person impulses, feelings and qualities can become repressed, disowned, or dissociated and when they do, they appear as 2nd person or even 3rd person events in my own 1st person awareness’ (p.120).
This phenomenon allows us not to address all these areas in our lives in a mindful and meaningful way, we are unable to leave the proverbial cave. Scharmer (2009) turns to the Theory U, which speaks of this in the following statement:
…sensing experience – the view from within—we realize that our normal way of operating—the view from outside—offers us, as Plato eloquently put it, nothing but shadow (or secondary) reality, rather than the primary reality. For that reason the image of being imprisoned inside a cave is not totally inappropriate. As long as we are merely downloading, we are fully imprisoned. All we see are shadows on the wall, shadows produced by passing figures in our own mind” (p.160).
There are many effective forms of shadow psychotherapy. Wilber (2007) names Gestalt, psychoanalytic to transactional Analysis, although he does not believe them to deal directly with the shadow. In addition, Wilber purports that though meditation does help one to be more mindful and aware of repressed and disowned, it does not necessarily dismantle the shadow. The reason for seems to be, according to Wilber that “unless you know exactly what you are looking for, the panoramic awareness of mediation is too much of a shot gun approach” (p.189). However, meditation does increase the capacity for sensitivity and the awareness feeling.
Wilber recommends a practice exercise called the 3-2-1 Process , which helps takes the “it” symptoms, the symptoms that have been displaced from the “I” and converts them back to the “re-owned aspects of self by facing the shadow as a 3rd person, talking to it as a 2nd person, then being it as a 1st person” (p.192). In this same vein, Wilber (2007) introduces us to “The Three Faces of Spirit” otherwise known as “The 1-2-3 of God.” The idea here is that Spirit manifests within the four quadrants or we can look at it thought the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person perspective. Spirit, the “I” in the 1st person is the witness, Atman that is Brahman or the awareness that exists in this and every moment. The Spirit in the 2nd person would be a living intelligence and love. The Spirit in 3rd person is the great Web of Life. All of these faces of Spirit are right and can help to embrace and face shadow reclaiming our birthright and an authentic way of living.
Conclusion
In this essay, we explored personal growth and the challenge to change in regards to spiritual development, within the context of the role of a Holistic Health Educator. This study concluded that the development of the psychospiritual seems necessary to facilitate change in the biological, interpersonal and worldly life; they are all interconnected with each other. Our inquiry into the emergent line of spirituality has revealed a web of complexities on many levels. This study explored and defined spirituality from an integral perspective, explored disease in relation to a disharmony of body, mind and spirit. We briefly investigate interconnectedness, and the shadow, all in an attempt to draw some correlation between this line of inquiry and the importance of this work as in regards to the role of a Holistic Health Educator.
We as humans and of course as educators have a great responsibility to promote health. I believe that in order to promote health we must promote change. In order to promote change we must embrace it and become the change and that starts on the inside. We need to foster a practice in our own lives that will enable us to authentically show up for our life and the lives of others. This is an ongoing process; it is a constant attention to evolution. Through exploring the spiritual line of development, we see how important it is to be active in knowing and learning what prevents change in ongoing immune systems that manifest personally, individually as well as collectively. I feel that the Holistic Health Educator should proceed with the intention dedicated to raising all sentient creatures to higher ground, starting with us. We as humans are conditioned by ignorance and the illusion of a finite self. A solution to the problem is to overcome the fundamental blindness of the ego. We are in a ceaseless process of advancement towards wisdom and compassion. The goal of this journey is eternally achieved and eternally in the process of being achieved.
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