The Way of Integrity: Finding the path to your true self

Emotionally, we feel grumpy, sad, or numb. Physically, our immune systems and muscles weaken; we might get sick, and even if we don’t, our energy flattens. Mentally, we lose focus and clarity. That’s how it feels to be out of integrity.

I’d found a bit of my true nature, which really did enjoy learning and really did love my family. But the vast majority of my actions were responses to cultural pressures. I was halfway up Mount Delectable and climbing fast, toward nothing that made me genuinely happy.

My exhausted body was still dragged down by insomnia, pain, and illness.

It’s simple logic: if you don’t walk your true path, you don’t find your true people.

Looking back at that experience and the stories of so many clients, I feel enormous gratitude for all our confusion, and despair. Those feelings meant that our internal guidance systems were working perfectly, signaling “WRONG WAY!” as the way of integrity clearly as they could.

“There’s no there there. I thought there was a position in the world that would make me feel good, but I got to that position and didn’t find anything that made me happy. It all seemed pointless.”

Humans are so tuned in to cultural values that once we start craving our way up Mount Delectable, we may go completely blind to our own real desires.

from my favorite book, the Tao te Ching,

You won’t be able to drum up the energy to climb the success ladder—or for that matter, to wash your hair.