Essential to internalizing + processing all you've done, integration is a devotion to intentional rest to restore the system and become one with any new lessons, information, and gems from an experience. The more profound the experience, the more integration time is necessary. This looks different for everyone, and it directly relates to doing what fills your personal stores + allows your mind body to listen to itself deeply.

You may want a whole spacious day to integrate, or your style may be to do it on your travels from place to place, or in small moments over the course of days, weeks, or months.

by Melissa Robin

by Alize Jireh Yaccino

by Sarah Stemle

Some ways I enable integration:

Free write and/or draw in my journal
free improvisational stretch dance
long stretches & breathing
time in nature or with animals
unstructured expanses of time to follow the flow
conversations with close friends
daydreaming
meditation

Whatever you desire to do, ensure you take the time to come down slowly from big or peak experiences so your psyche + body don't snap or rebound and cause extra stress.

What is integration? It is the final and beginning stage of the cycle spiral - where you rest and rejuvenate in stillness. Here, your body-mind spirit-soul knows what to do in the stillness and creates a safe space for you to sort through all you’ve learned and experienced, letting it become part of you.

Soft, still, and easy. Grace guides you. Integration is often un-easeful, as it’s one of the places we must soften to grow. Surrender is bravery and vulnerability at it’s most potent, and after much action and doing the state of BE-ing and still points can feel uneventful or unproductive.

photo of heidi aphrodite by Christopher Moeller

This is the place

You must find

To become your next iteration

The future self awaits here

bypassing rest with motion and busy-ness

Will bypass the integration at it’s deepest levels

And you may find yourself re-doing the whole cycle

Or getting stuck in a whirlpool

Without seeing the spiral exit point (there always is one)

So, rest.

Rejuvenate.

Gracefully connect with loved ones

Who aid the process of still-point being

Because YOU are worth it

this is the part of the cycle

Where you let it all sink in, deep.

Journaling and writing ideas:

Light a candle in physical form or your mind.
Find a place to nestle in and be uninterrupted for a good while.
Set a timer if need be, to let your mind truly sink in for the slice of presence possible.
Take 4 deep breaths and move your body. Hummmmm or tone on the way out. Let your hands find your body, notice where stuck. Ease breath into that spot, and let it move through.

Bring attention to your mind’s eye, center of brain. Soften here and ask “how can I support my integration?”

If desired, move your body for a whole song (or 6) and then start writing, drawing, painting, moving to the following prompts. Do this until you are full, even if it takes 8 sessions. Don’t push it. Let it flow.

PLAYLIST: 7 Stages of Alchemy

LISTEN to a Meditation I made:

Xo xo gaea

General Musing Questions for integration

How do I feel in my body right now?
Relive your most impactful, poignant + memorable moments from this experience & make a list of them.
Where did you encounter the struggle? How did you move to, through, or with it?
Record gems or nuggets you've found that were profound.
How do they relate to your dreams, desires, life?
What musings for your future appear because of what just transpired?

ACTIVE MUSINGS QUESTIONS ON THE 7 STAGES OF ALCHEMY

What have I learned about the alchemical process in my body?

Where do I feel most potently?

What scares me the most/ feels the most uncomfortable?

Where do I feel my attention is needed in my actions, elements, process?

Calcination is the process of burning down what once was that no longer serves. The towers you’ve carefully built are rotten, yet they’ve been held onto for far too long. It’s time, the fire comes and everything tumultuous topples. [fire] Where in your life are you removing / have you removed obstacles in tumultuous ways. Describe your calcination process below.

Dissolution is the process of washing away, dissolving the ashes so the bones of the matter remain. [water] Carving away the rubble with running water bit by bit to create space and ease thru tears and waves. Soggy and chaotic, mourning for what was releases us for what can be. How does/has your tears and water body served your transformations?

Separation is the process of clearing [air]. The chaff blows off in currents of wind, spirit leading you to see what really matters in your life, pointing your compass towards your next new. The spirit of air asks you to align and define. What matters to you MOST in this life - what are your 5 ‘whys’ of living as you desire / want to live?

Conjunction is the process of rebuilding and grounding. [earth] Things come back together, rooting into the new self a new process and way of being. Creating feels good again, and a spiritual or soulfull awakening brings joy. Yet, this is the unformed new self, tender and vulnerable to boomerang back to old patterns. What feels best in your body-mind about becoming, where are new habits taking root?

Fermentation is the process of transformation with the ‘flameless fire’. [fire, water, earth, air] Bubbling, the new self goes thru an icky stinky transformation where these new values are tested and things feel hard and awkward… transformation happens at a deep level, leaving the process from here forward and thinking ‘you’ve made it!’ stalls how deep you can go. Stay in the struggle, bubble and transform in your own container. When have or are you ready to give up when it gets hardest? What practices or people brings you backto your focus - or what do you need to come back to this focus on the work of alchemy?

Distillation is the process of refinement. [soul spirit] Drop by drop, the new self combs over all reactions and actions, habits and physical things, relationships and creations to ensure all is aligned - what and who do you want to be? The fire heats us into steam, the water bubbles up as spirit, the air carries vapour of self, and the earth holds the process in container. We distill our essence with discernment and devotion. What is your process of devotion over distraction? What practices in your life reflect the work you are willing to do for yourself? How can you refine these?

Conjunction is the process of unification. [spirit soul] The hard work of the process joins together in a blissful point where all that has been learned must be shared. Finally, things come together and you glide on wings you’ve created of gold, polishing the stone of your soul to gleaming light to share and illuminate. It is not the end, it is the beginning of another process. When have you felt the ecstasy of completion, seeing your next new self actualized and reflected by others? How do you share what you’ve learned with the world?