Being Integrated

Going live soon! Come join if you can :)

3 weeks ago | [YT] | 1

Being Integrated

Last Chance to Join my new Comparative Meditation Course! grokk.ist/grokkables/comparative-meditation/

Q: Is this course beginner friendly?

A: Yes! The whole idea of this course is to introduce new people to meditation and eastern philosophy in a way that honours the depths of these traditions.

The course is a big picture overview of the most powerful and transformative meditative traditions. I’m setting up a framework to give a basic understanding of these different approaches, which will actually help illuminate the entire meditation path along with its philosophy.

There will be simple “starter” practices offered for each category, as well as numerous options to “go deeper” into these practices. Also as a side note, the simpler practices aren’t necessarily easier, which is why I am offering a nice variety, to help you figure out what meditation practices work for you (we’re all different!).

All that being said, experienced meditators who want to explore new practices and perspectives in a fun and friendly community are also very welcome to join!

Q: What if the live session times don’t work for me?

A: That’s OK! All live sessions are recorded so you can watch them on your own time. And on the Grokkist platform we will have discussion threads sharing our experiences and to ask questions and to chat about the philosophical aspects. So you can still engage with the community and get practice guidance in between sessions.

Q: I want to join but can’t afford it at the moment.

A: That’s OK! We have sliding scale pricing, with no minimum. Even a small token amount of a few dollars would be appreciated. I just love sharing this stuff and would love to engage with a lively community around these topics. If you think you’ll enjoy this course, I urge you to sign up at whatever cost works for you.

grokk.ist/grokkables/comparative-meditation/

11 months ago | [YT] | 6

Being Integrated

I'm excited to announce that I'm offering a new course on Comparative Meditation! This is really the resource I wish I had when I started on this journey over 20 years ago. It's an experiential crash course on the core practices and philosophies of 4 different styles of meditation: Shamatha (calm abiding), Vipassana (Insight meditation), Tantra and Non-Dual (direct path).My goal is to help you understand the essence of each and in turn better grasp meditation and its dynamic yet complementary philosophies better as a whole.

grokk.ist/grokkables/comparative-meditation/

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 13

Being Integrated

I just published a new article on my Substack exploring the Paradox of Pursuing Happiness. This is the first in a series and presents wisdom from Existential Psychology on Happiness, Wellbeing, Fulfillment, and Meaning. beingintegrated.substack.com/p/the-paradox-of-purs…

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 6

Being Integrated

40! 🥳🎂🎉
I called my 30th birthday party my 20s graduation party because I felt at that time there was something from my 20s I was ready to leave behind - I was wanting to get more serious about exploring who I really wanted to be in the world.

Now another decade has passed and I’m thinking of my 40s as leveling up; focusing more on what’s important and trusting this to carry me.

Life is this dance between these two principles; active and passive, doing and being. On the one hand we contemplate what’s most important and set intentions and work in that direction - and on the other we let go completely and trust in the flow.

Here’s to another decade of doing the dance ✌️🕺

1 year ago | [YT] | 66

Being Integrated

I just published a new essay that aims to present a relatively simple, inclusive, and pragmatic paradigm for understanding how growth and change can occur through the use of psychedelics. This is important for two main reasons:

1. Psychedelics are on their way to being integrated into the western medical model. But they are almost exclusively talked about as being used for healing, which is often simply regarded as a reduction of negative symptoms.
This provides an extremely limited model that doesn’t account for much of the actual experience and transformative potential. The more limited the model of understanding the experience, the more limited we are in our ability to support a variety of experiences and challenges.

2. There are many dimensions to the integration of psychedelic experiences, and one very important aspect is helping people understand their experience and the changes that occur as a result.
Many people are left confused and disoriented after transformative psychedelic experiences. Having a framework to understand can be reassuring and offer guidance to further support the individuals process.

Read here! beingintegrated.substack.com/p/understanding-growt…

1 year ago | [YT] | 13

Being Integrated

I just hit 10k subscribers!! 🥳✨❤️🎉

Thank you all, seriously.

To celebrate, I wrote an article on my substack reflecting on how difficult it actually was for me to make the transition into a YouTuber.

The last part is my fave, where I weave in depth psychology with Kierkegaard and an Ursula K LeGuin quote

Read here!
beingintegrated.substack.com/p/finding-ourselves-i…

1 year ago | [YT] | 38

Being Integrated

Starting a new online group where we will explore meaning, wellbeing, and all the themes on this channel. The first live session will be this Wednesday, and accessible to all Patreon members:

www.patreon.com/beingintegrated

I also made a substack post about meaning and purpose and the intention of this group, you can read it here:
beingintegrated.substack.com/p/finding-meaning-tog…

Really looking forward to connecting!

2 years ago | [YT] | 12

Being Integrated

New Workshop!

Know Thyself
create harmony through understanding
body+mind | soul+spirit
an experiential online workshop

This workshop explores 4 dimensions of the human experience and the relationships between them. The first session explores how we can better know and work with our body and mind, freeing ourselves of old patterns and bringing more inner peace and harmony.

The second session explores the relationship between soul and spirit. Soul being the part of ourselves that is most unique and genuine, and spirit being the indivisible nature of awareness that unites us with all beings.

Body + Mind (March 8th | 7-9PM ET)
Our thoughts influence our feelings, and our feelings influence our thoughts. We are all caught in this vicious cycle of reactivity, deepening our neuroses, fixations and judgments. Here we will learn practices to disrupt these patterns, leading to more inner freedom and a greater sense of wellbeing.

Soul + Spirit (March 15th | 7-9PM ET)
Our sense of who we are largely develops by internalizing aspects of our environment and culture. This helps us connect with others and feel a sense of belonging in social groups. But at some point this identity becomes too limiting, and we must shed layers of ourselves to make way for a more authentic and unique expression of ourselves. This session explores how connecting with spirit helps to free us from a limited identity, giving way to a more authentic and creative sense of self and expression.

Space is limited!
Email: jude@beingintegrated.net to register

2 years ago | [YT] | 11

Being Integrated

I like this photo of me so figured I should write some sort of meaningful post to accompany it. What follows here is the most important message I can think of to put out to the world…

It is clear to me that people, in general, are not well. Every symptom, whether physical or psychological, carries a message. Although we each have our own unique experiences, we are all reacting to unhealthy environments.

I believe it was Thomas Berry who said something along the lines of “we cannot have healthy individuals in an unhealthy system” or something along those lines.

We are not separate from our environment. We are intimately connected to one another and the natural world too. We are nature.

I remembered learning in sociology 101 that individuals are most well when they are integrated with their culture and environment. When people feel disconnected or isolated from their environment, depression and suicide rates rise dramatically.

The problem is, our world is sick. Its core values are centered around social status and individual importance and success.

Integrating in our world, as it is now, means adopting an individualistic and materialistic value system.

As Krishnamurti said “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.

We are in this weird paradox; to integrate in the world and feel a sense of validation and belonging, we actually isolate ourselves simply through the value system that we adopt.

If we choose to be true to a deeper set of values around caring for others and our planet, we again isolate ourselves from the larger culture.

This problem is compounded by the fact that to connect to ourselves and our environment in a deeper, more meaningful way, we need to confront our collective and individual trauma. We have inherited a painful past, and pain doesn’t just go away, it’s handed down, generation to generation, until it is confronted, felt, integrated, and transmuted.

Our default is to integrate into a superficial life, aligned with the values of a superficial culture, and avoid all the pain and trauma we’ve inherited, doing our best to repress, numb, and avoid the presenting symptoms.

Or we can choose to explore deeper, more meaningful values and take responsibility for the pain and trauma we’ve inherited, and do the healing work so we can connect with nature and one another in a more meaningful way.

I don’t blame anyone who chooses the first option. As confronting our repressed pain is difficult, and we need a lot of support and resources, and these are scarce.

But for those of us that do have resources, we are the lucky ones. And those of us that can share and offer the resources, well we are doubly lucky, as we get to have viscerally meaningful lives.

Doing the healing work isn’t easy, and the only way I see it happening on the necessary mass scale is through the formation of healing communities. We need the support from one another. But in a materialistic world, healing is mostly commodified, making it mostly a luxury for the privileged class.

This is why I try to offer free resources, and also why I generally try to keep my private practice rates affordable and offer help where I can. I have the luxury to do so because I have a relatively low cost of living, possible only because I do my work online and live in places more affordable than where I’m from.

I can say that I am much happier now, doing work that is helping people, than when I was making more money. Focusing on helping others as opposed to investing in financial security or social status has been the single most significant shift of values in my life, and has increased my overall sense of wellbeing more than anything else I’ve done.

This is simply an invitation to those who are as lucky as I am to contemplate how you can prioritize the impact you have on others, and the natural world. I know many of you are already doing so, but this is what we need more of in the world. More move towards caring for the collective wellbeing. And the beauty is that, more than anything, will impact our individual wellbeing.

2 years ago | [YT] | 45