“Integrity gives you real freedom because you have nothing to fear since you have nothing to hide.” Zig Ziglar
The All-Telling Meeting
We meet and I notice right away that she’s antsy. She fidgets, bites her nails, and doesn’t make eye contact. After several minutes of uncomfortable small talk, with her head hung low, she tells me that she looked up one of my past teachers and wrote to him. Then she went on to tell me that she had a session with my first mentor, and while working on my computer (she did some light computer/online work for me) she took the liberty to check out some of my personal notes.
I had been mentoring her and she was curious about me. Although I understood her curiosity and her integrity issue, I couldn’t quite let go of the feeling of being betrayed.
She felt she had to go behind my back and be sneaky!
I knew that she felt so out of integrity that she had to tell me and that she hoped in telling me she would be seen, understood, accepted and trusted again.
I also understood that telling me took a lot of courage and she wanted to bring herself back into a state of integrity by doing the right thing.
But… how could she!?
Friend, as much as I like to accept the mistakes of others, I had to take a deep dive with this one - meditation, prayer, compassionately discover my part, bringing to light the blessing, forgiveness work, and talking with her Soul and High Self, etc.
I’d like to share that I completely let it go. But…
Although I understand her at a soulful level and still love her to this day, as much as I’d like to, I don’t know if I’ll ever trust her the same. There’s this little voice inside me that wonders, would she do it again?
Since integrity in my relationships is a value that is important to me, I’m honoring that little voice and choosing to love her from afar.
“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” C. S. Lewis
Integrity - In or Out?
We’ve all had peaceful moments of being in integrity. Delightful!
We’ve also had our moments of being out of integrity. Yuck!
You know what being out of integrity means - not listening to our gut or our heart, or going against what we know to be right or true.
Since being out of integrity never feels good and can cause us some real problems, what do you say to a little integrity exploration?
Are you with me?
Okay, here we go.
First Breathing:
As always will begin by focusing on our heart region and breathe as if we’re breathing from that area.
(Sidenote: Ever wonder why I focus so much on the heart? I took training with HeartMath Institute and learned the many benefits of heart coherence.)
After 3-5 breaths, to make sure we don’t load ourselves down with our judgements, let’s move forward by breathing in a higher attribute - such as compassion, acceptance, love, or ease.
If you find that difficult, just think of someone you want to give one of those attributes to and envision that you breathe that attribute from your heart into theirs.
Okay with childlike joyful curiosity let’s explore.
Inner Joy Compass Prompt: To Be IN Integrity
I define integrity as ___________________________.
Personally, integrity means to me _______________________.
A time that I acted with integrity and it was challenging ________________.
An area that I’d like to act with greater integrity is _______________.
When I look at my integrity with a fine toothcomb, I notice that _________.
To support my commitment to practicing my integrity I will______________.
To show compassion toward myself as I build on my integrity I will___________.
I’d love to hear about how you personally define and grow your integrity.
Before going into the - Eighth Face of God: One Word (Integrity) - I thought it would be helpful to hear an opposite experience of it. I also felt it would benefit us to have an opportunity to align with our natural inherent quality of integrity.
Next week we’ll examine the wonderous Eighth Face of God - One Word, Integrity.
Thanks so much for being here with me.
I appreciate you.
With all my love,
Gloria