Heroes in Business - Dr Andy Hahn, Compartmentalization, Integration and Self

Episode Date: August 9, 2022

Compartmentalization and integration are in a relationship with each other. In the world, they play out in many forms and contexts. Each has its gifts and challenges Each can be best. Vertically, are we The One Self in this episode of Guided Self Healing Fearless Living with Dr Andy Hahn.

Hi, this is Andy Hahn, and this is episode 57 of Guided Self-Healing, Fearless Living. And today I want to address something that I think is actually a difficult conversation in that I've had so many of them recently, and they start with a conversation about compartmentalization and integration, and the obvious benefits for most people about saying integration is better than compartmentalization. And I think what I want to say is that it depends on the context, and it depends on how we're defining our terms. So let's think psychologically how we define these two terms. And really what we're going to see is that what sounds like what they are isn't truly what they are at all. So psychologically, compartmentalization

essentially means that because of some kind of trauma, different aspects of our being or different parts of ourselves or different members of the inner community that we are in don't really have access to each other. And it's like when one comes out, the other one isn't aware of it. They're not in relationship with each other. And of course, that can create a mess. They're not in relationship with each other. And of course, that can create a mess. And why that happens is because we lose our capacity to be aware. And so what integration really means here is not that there aren't different parts of ourselves, because there will always be different parts of ourselves. Integration means is there a self or an inner witness or some people call it an inner master that is the one that says I'm here holding all of you. And insofar as we can identify with the one who's holding all of you internally or externally,

view internally or externally, we're free. So when we don't realize what the meaning of compartmentalization and integration is, everything gets very confusing. Because instead of looking at it vertically, and by vertically, I mean, what is our relationship with life? And what is our relationship, you say with the divine well the biggest self which is the one that really is the one that truly holds every aspect of being you're not looking at that way but you look at it horizontally everything collapses. And then people will say, you know, keeping things, do we keep things private? Are we transparent? And of course, it depends then on many factors, most of which have to do with power. So why would somebody, power and fear, of course, Why would somebody keep something private?

It's because of a power dynamic there that if it became known, then something terrible would happen. And if you're in a one-down place in a power dynamic, it makes an awful lot of sense to keep things to yourself or to not express yourself because the consequences would be worse. to yourself or to not express yourself because the consequences would be worse. So in a power dynamic where you're in a one down place and there's no place you can turn, people really split off aspects of themselves

and they lose themselves. And in losing themselves, they can't be true to themselves. They can't really be who they are. And they can't learn even how to be who they are because it's too dangerous. And so what they do, of course, is they cover over who they truly are, and then they forget. And then it seems like they have no access to aspects of their being, because it's been too dangerous to bring them up. And so what is healing? Healing is the movement of saying, I'm going to identify with those parts that are who I am, but if I express them, I believe I would get annihilated.

So I have to protect myself by obscuring them and then forgetting that I made the choice to obscure them. Integration then becomes the capacity to say I will be with every aspect of who I am through awareness. And of course true integration at that point means that we can be anything who we are in any circumstance because we're no longer afraid on the material levels. So we have no reactivity anymore. And because we have no reactivity, there's nothing really that we have to hide. Because no one can do anything to us. That, of course, is a North Star to aspire to. It's not who we truly are most of the time. Because we live with people can have power over us, and we live with the fear of that.

And so, of course, then we have to hide. And when we hide, the problem again is that we hide from ourselves, not just from them. And then even when the circumstances are over, we still are in a power relationship, and we're still in a one-down place. Because once it's there, it's always there. and we're still in a one-down place because once it's there it's always there until of course we come to a place of saying why am i doing these things why am i so hard on myself why am i doing things that are destroying my life And we begin to realize that it is so unsafe in some circumstance for us to be human. Now, of course, when that is actualized, when we can give words to this, life changes.

So, if a 13 year old girl goes on a hunger strike because of a power dynamic, they call her bulimic or they call her sick or they say there's something wrong with her or they down with her. I understand that if her name was Gandhi, then we would understand what was going on. That he was saying in a one-down place, the only power I have is to go on a hunger strike. And that, of course, is the power people in a one-down place have, is they can go on a hunger strike. But when you truly have no power, when you're in a family, that can be a very dangerous road to hell, because most of us never find the level of maturity in a family

to be able to say I'm going on strike here because of things that are going on in this family that nobody is talking about it's unsafe for me to be all of who I am and then of course we become many but that's not a problem intrinsically except for the fact And then, of course, we become many. But that's not a problem intrinsically, except for the fact that we forget that we become the many. And so there is no one who is there, who is bearing witness and holding all different aspects of who we are, all of whom are so wanting to express themselves. There's so much more to say about compartmentalization and integration or the many and the one or

continuous and discontinuous or the particular or the generalized or those who focus on self and those who focus on everyone or other, or autonomy and communion and all of these different dualities. But what I want to say about those dualities is each of them has their gifts. And each of them has their challenges. And it all depends on the context. and each of them has their challenges and it all depends on the context. So you know if we're looking at autonomy and communion sometimes it's holy to focus on the self and sometimes it's so demonic and sometimes it's holy to focus on the collective and sometimes it's demonic. It all depends on the context and what life is calling for at any

particular time. So when these compartments versus when many in one are in horizontal relationship with each other, it's not that one is more evolved than the other, it's that each of them is called for in their particular time. And then it's a question of context. And it's a question of an evolution of which we're a part. But the one time it does make a difference is when we become whole in our capacity to say, I am the one who can be with everything but doesn't identify with anything. And that's what we call evolution. That's a vertical process because we're moving towards being more divine because we know that when we see the other is different from ourselves, we know that we're relying to ourselves. And that comes back to what we had said before,

that we really have to be able to simultaneously realize two things as a big S self, that who we are is everything and everything is who we are. This is the template. So the mystical concept being that if we are, you know, biological concept, as we talked about is cells and bodies in the holographic nature of cells, and that every cell is unity, if it has enough perspective to say, I am the DNA, I am the template, I'm not the particular that is the surface. And yet the particular is also important because then when we know we're everything we also know that we're

differentiated which means that each of us has our own part to play and it's this holding of the collective and the particular simultaneously with something that is greater than either, in particular simultaneously with something that is greater than either. That which is greater than the collective and greater than the individual. That which is aware of the collective and aware of the individual. That which is aware of the power dynamics and aware of what's below the power dynamics of truly being empowered and empowering the self. So I didn't know where I was going to take this conversation about compartmentalization

and integration. I think when we don't define our terms and we don't see the context and we don't see the evolutionary process we can get into trouble. But what I would say ultimately is

if we're looking vertically, integration ultimately, ultimately means that we are all one, even as we are all different. So thank you for listening again. And, you know, this is the aspiration of all of this because when we become healed we become whole and to become whole means to become who we are truly which is all of life and to become whole means to become who we are also truly which is the particularity that is in the service of life itself. So thank you again. And again, my name is Andy Han, and I'm the founder of the Life-Centered Therapy Training Institute. And you can certainly find us at lifecenteredtherapy.com.

And of course, you can always write to me at ahan, andyhan, at lifecenteredtherapy.com. So until we talk again, thank you so much for listening. Bye.