BN #45: The 9 Integrations You Need to Create Your Better Mind and Brain

Bamboo Newsletter #45

In terms of personal development, we only need to look at our external lives to see where we need help to be better people.  We can look at the components of our external life such as our health, happiness, love, and abundance, to see what is not working well. 

We then can determine who we need to become, our internal life, in order for us to achieve what we want in our external life.  Many have focused on better habits and behaviors.  Still, we fail because we unconsciously have beliefs and a false self-identity that sabotages us and does not allow us to do what we know we should be doing. 

Who we want to be is ultimately about having a better way of thinking and a better mind, an evolution in our consciousness, raising our level of consciousness.  However, there have not been a lot of frameworks to creating this better mind.  Psychology historically has focused on disease.   Now it has focused on positive psychology, and being happy was the initial focus versus what constitutes a healthy mind.

Interpersonal Neurobiology and Mindsight: A Neuroscience Framework for Being Your Best Mind

However, I am really excited by my latest learnings about neuroscience.  I was taking a course (which I dropped) in Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB) by Daniel Siegal, who is one of the founders of IPNB. The course is over several months, so wanting to see what was ahead, I decided I would just re-read his books Mindsight and the Whole Brain Child.

Mindsight is Siegel’s introduction to a framework to understand mental health.  Siegel believes the foundation of this is mindsight which is a combination of insight and empathy for ourselves and others. I think of mindsight as what I call conscious awareness of your mind and brain and relationships (including the body, emotions). 

What is the Mind?

Now, interestingly, when we talk about your mind there is no general agreement of what is the mind.  So Siegal defines the mind as information and energy flow.  The mind is generated from the brain and there is the interaction between the mind, brain, and relationships (Siegel includes the body but not explicitly).  At the core of mindsight is consciousness.

9 Integrations Are the Key to Personal Transformation

Daniel Siegel in his book Mindsight explains that in psychotherapy, nine categories of integration have emerged as the key to personal transformation and mental well-being.  Our thoughts, behaviors, and actions result from how well our brain has integrated with these 9 domains.  These 9 categories of integration essentially correspond to how each component of our brain works and how well they work together.  Note that in his original book, Mindsight, Siegel only identified 8 domains, but in his courses, he has added a 9th domain, transpirational integration, which he now calls Identity Integration.  So we will use 9 domains of integration in our discussion.

Now the exciting part of Siegal’s work is that he has defined mental wellness as the integration of various domains of the brain.  When these 9 integrations in the brain occur, then the mind is deemed to be healthy or have mental well-being.

Mindsight Integration and The True Self Components

An Operating System

I believe it is important that Mindsight views the mind/brain as an operating system. It consists of 9 components working together. Too often we try for the simplistic answer to solve our external issues. If we only knew that one key to success, then we would be able to be successful, or happy or healthy. Both Mindsight and the True Self sees the Mind as an Operating System with many parts. Mindsight calls these integrations, True Self calls these components.

Components and Integration

These 9 integration domains map almost 1 to 1 to the 9 components of the True Self operating system components.  In the table above you can see the mapping of the components of the True Self framework that I have used as compared to the 9 neuroscience aspects of integration.  For example, what he calls conscious, I refer to that state as the True Self. 

In other words, what I had observed in practice with my clients and derived from the symptoms of a trauma-informed model, maps also directly to what Siegal observed in his practice and what the world of Interpersonal Neurobiologists globally has observed in the brain.  When you have “integration” i.e. health in each of these components, you have a healthy mind and brain,  and when you have a healthy mind and brain you have personal transformation.  So the 9 components of the True Self Operating System can now be mapped as a diagnostic and treatment plan, which is what IPNB Mindsight is being used for.  The True Self Operating Components matches almost identically to the Mindsight model of mental health, which is based on neuroscience.  The True Self components are mind-based and are explained by the integrations, which are brain-based.

Just as importantly, I believe that by combining both systems, we can have a better understanding of how to help people transform.  The strength of the True Self operating system is being trauma-informed and recognizing the True Self versus the False Self Operating System and using experiential experiences to return to health in each component.  The strength of Siegal’s IPNB is that it is neuroscience brain based, so we can understand what is happening on a neuroscience basis and guide our “treatment plan” using this information to understand what empirically works and why.  It also helps us create the appropriate exercises to help create the neuroplasticity to build the brain and integration.

Using this Dual Framework For Transformation

Transforming Mark

We will go into greater detail below on how one can use this framework.  However, first, I can use the example of myself and others to illustrate the power of this dual framework.  The first thing is that a person needs to gain consciousness or conscious integration.  I became conscious when I was able to notice my thoughts via meditation.  Once I started noticing my thoughts, I was about to be aware of the person who is aware of my thoughts.  That person I learned was my True Self.  My thoughts are not me.  The observer is me. 

I knew that I have left-brain dominance almost my whole life.  In order to become more whole brain, I needed to be able to use the right brain or emotional brain.  Using your left and right brain together is called horizontal or bilateral integration.  What I didn’t know, and discovered only later in RIM courses is that I did not have enough access to emotions to be able to have information to be whole brain.  I was cut off from my body and emotions.  This is called vertical integration: the ability to observe and interpret emotions and body sensations (use of our interoception skills).  Once I worked on being better at emotions and developed the neurological connections in my brain that connected the emotional parts of my brain in my cortex, limbic, and brain stem, I was able to obtain information that allowed me to have horizontal integration also.  So I became aware of my true self, then became better at emotions.  In neuroscience terms, this is called conscious integration and having vertical integration and horizontal integration of the mind.   I also increased my self-compassion. 

With my True Self, better emotions, and self-compassion, I was able to quiet my inner critic, process past trauma, and change the narrative and beliefs of my core wounds and adaptive behaviors.  In mindsight terminology, I was able to increase my memory integration, state integration, and narrative integrations using the insights obtained.

Finally, having integrated my self the TrueSelf or “me”, I was able to turn to the “we” and have better relationships by learning how to have a secure attachment (using self-compassion), create a mission that involved using my gifts to serve others while creating a better world, and to feel connected to myself, others and source.  This in mindsight or IPNB is called interpersonal integration (connecting to others), temporal integration (mission), and transpirational (connected to everything) integration.  Once I developed a better mind and better-integrated brain, I am now tackling creating a better life and this time, because I have a better-integrated mind, I am able to live in flow with greater Flexibility, Adaptability, Coherence, Energy, and Stability (FACES per Mindsight). 

The Crucial Building Blocks

Notice that there each integration builds on the foundation of the first 3 integration blocks of the mind. Of critical importance is conscious integration (being your true self vs false self (core wounds and adaptive behaviors), vertical and horizontal integration (being good at emotions). The other crucial ingredient is self-compassion. With your True Self, Being Integrated with Emotions (and Body), and Self Compassion, you have the capacity needed to complete all 9 levels of integration.

Transforming John

I find that people get stuck at different stages.  One client, John, is a lawyer who works with his dad.  He was cut off from his emotions.  He was having issues dealing with issues in the family and also monetary issues.  He was already conscious but needed work feeling his emotions and bodily sensations i.e. vertical and horizontal integration.  Once that was completed, I was able to work on his past childhood events, his core wounds, and his adaptive behaviors.  He was able to find out that he thought “I am not good enough”.  So he took on the adaptive behavior of being smart and instead of becoming the medical doctor, became a lawyer to be like his dad, to whom he wanted his approval.   We also worked on creating self-compassion and through this, was able to reduce his inner critic.  These are memory integration (past trauma), narrative integration (core wounds), and state integration (inner critic).

John had an earned secure attachment that resulted from his marriage to his wife.  He had trouble applying boundaries and so we learned a few boundary exercises.  John loved his work as a lawyer, so his mission was on track (temporal integration).  However, since he did not need to “be the best lawyer” and could do more of the things he loved doing i.e. using his legal skills and being a developer, he focused more of this time in that area.  He also felt via his Christian practice connected to God and others (transpirational integration) so we didn’t need further work on that.

In the end, John was already healthy.  However, with his inner critic quieter and being able to feel his emotions, he was able to feel happier and more energized.  His relationships with others improved as he was able to empathize more with others and create boundaries around his family issues.  He was able to put more of his time into developing housing and earn more money. 

Transforming Maggie and Jennifer

Both Maggie and Jennifer work as therapists/coaches.  They have done lots of studying and therapeutic work and understand the process and the integrations.  So they are conscious and their vertical and horizontal integration are good, so their emotional connections are great.  However, when it comes to the more “spiritual aspects” like self-compassion and core wounds, adaptive behaviors, and their ability to change some of their beliefs, I found both Maggie and Jennifer needed some work.  First, they did not believe you could change your deeply held beliefs immediately, so we needed to work on discreating that belief.  We needed to improve their self-compassion, which improved their inner critic and allowed them to create a greater sense of peace with themselves. 

Maggie had core belief issues (I am not good enough) and specific issues with money and with RIM we were able to find some specifically held beliefs, while Jennifer had core belief issues of “I am not lovable.”  After discreating the core wounds and examining their adaptive behaviors, Maggie was able to align her mission more with her work and no longer felt she had to be a workaholic and taking some needed vacation, and not feeling as if she had to be busy every hour working.  Jennifer was able to feel better about herself and the boundary issues she had.  She was able to improve her relationship with her spouse. 

An Overview of Our Brain

In order to explain in detail the concepts of integration, I will discuss a very simplistic hand model of the brain used by many neuroscientists and first introduced by Dr. Siegal. 

The Triune Brain

In the triune (triune means three in one) brain model, the brain is composed of 3 parts: the brain stem, the limbic system, and the neo-cortex.  According to Paul McLean, who coined the term, the human brain is composed of 3 separate brains, which have their own major functions, operating separately and independently (think your heart beating automatically via the brain stem), but also coordinated together.  Both the neo-cortex and the limbic system are composed of a left and right side, each with its own dominant functions.  The brain is composed of about 100 billion neurons each with 8,000 to 10,000 connections.  The brain theoretically has as many different combinations of connections as there are atoms in the universe.  

The Hand Model of the Brain

In the above hand model, if you place your thumb in the palm of your hand, and fold your fingers over your thumb, you will have a hand model of the brain.  The wrist represents the base of the skull and the forearm, the spinal cord.  At the fleshy part of where the palm meets the wrist, is the brain stem.  The thumb represents the limbic system (and ideal there would be two thumbs to go right across the palm).  The 4 fingers represent the cortex.  The middle two fingernails represent the middle prefrontal cortex (also known as the PFC).   Notice that the middle two finger touches the limbic system and the brainstem.  The connection is important for the integration of the brain.

The Brain Stem (Reptilian Brain)

The brain stem is made up primarily of the autonomic nervous system which starts in the brain at the brain stem and goes via the nervous system such as the spinal cord nerves into all the organs and major muscles of the body including our gut (where there is a second brain) and our heart.  When I talk about the brain (it will include all these other nervous functions elsewhere in the body, not just the head). 

The brain stem is responsible for all the unconscious functions in our body such as keeping our heart beating, digestion, circulation, body temperature, and homeostasis.  These functions operate of course even while we are sleeping.  The brain stem is thus one of the three brains operating independently of our thinking brain (cortex) and emotional brain (cortex). The brain stem is often called the reptilian brain because this is the major brain found in reptiles.  The brain stem in the triune brain includes the cerebellum which is responsible mainly for movement.  The brain stem is responsible for our safety. 

In addition, the autonomic nervous system is composed of the dorsal and ventral vagal nerves which are responsible for the fight, flight, freeze, or fold mechanisms in our body.  According to the polyvagal theory, when the autonomic nervous system is in safe mode or at rest, the body and brain are ready for social engagement. 

The Limbic Brain (Mammalian Brain)

The limbic brain is often referred to as the mammalian brain because all mammals have a limbic node.  The limbic brain is composed of the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and pituitary glands.  The primary functions of the limbic brain are to process emotions and also memory. 

Neo-Cortex (Primate Brain)

The neo-cortex composes five-sixth of the total brain mass in the head.  It is often referred to as the primate brain.  The neo-cortex functions as the external conduit that processes all the external information such as sight, sounds, and somatic experiences.  Most importantly, the prefrontal cortex or the “human” brain is responsible for planning, thinking, and analytical functions which are found almost only in humans.  The neocortex is divided into two hemispheres: the left which is responsible for our logical thinking and the right hemisphere is associated with creativity and emotions.  However, the left and right brains have functions for all activities but one part is generally dominant.

Transforming Your Mind Means Transforming Your Brain

Research has proven that various functions of the “mind” are reflected in the brain.  With neuroscience, you can see that when having various thoughts, different parts of the brain will light up.  That is how we have been able to map sounds, sights, and smells to specific parts of the brain.   

Similarly, if our sight is impaired, we will notice that the corresponding part of our brain does not work properly.  Following this course of thought, complex psychological issues can be mapped to the brain not working properly.  What is even more important, when you are able to change the brain (neuroplasticity, the brain is always growing new neurons and connections) and return to “healthy” or normal function, the psychological issue will be “cured”.   

This was proven first with OCD.  With OCD, they were able to take before and after pictures of the brain and also compared them to a normal brain.  They showed that first, people with OCD’s brain operated differently than a normal brain (see picture below).  However, with cognitive behavior therapy, one could manage the issue i.e. a mental condition, and that was reflected in the physical brain that was changed and returned to normal.  So when our minds are psychologically not mentally healthy, then we have issues in our brains not working properly.   

Integration Issues in the Brain Results in Method to Diagnose and Treat Mental Health Issues

Integration is the term that is given when all parts of the system work together.  The brain is a very complex system that needs all the parts of the brain to work together.  Dr. Siegal called these brain problems “integration issues”.  When we have integration issues, the brain which flows information of the mind like a river, then we have the river hitting either the left brain bank of rigidity (e.g. anxiety i.e. controlling) or the right brain bank of chaos (e.g. helplessness i.e. emotionally flooded).  Siegal in his practice has identified 9 main groups of integration issues.

“When a person, dyad, family, group, organization, or community experiences chaos and/or rigidity, then we know that integration is impaired. The key to moving the system toward well-being is to identify which elements are not differentiated and/or linked. This search and integrate process is helped by categorizing a set of “domains of integration” that can be the focus of the effort to bring health to a system. The following nine domains are important areas for energy and information to flow in an integrated way to create well-being, as described in various ways within this book’s nine chapters. These domains are also areas in which integration can be blocked. They provide a reasonable way to describe the terrain of differentiation and linkage.”  From an article by Dr. Siegal, A Framework For Integration.

The 9 Integrations

The easy way to think about integration is to examine each of the parts of the brain. Do the individual parts work? Do the parts work together?  So, this is one way to view integration and what is occurring. The first is whether the neo-cortex is working properly. This is called conscious integration and the first of the integration measures.  The second integration or horizontal integration is whether the left and right brain are coordinated, often called whole-brain thinking.  The third integration or vertical integration would be the coordination between the 3 brains i.e. the integration of the neocortex, the limbic, and the brain stem.  The fourth integration or memory integration would be the working of the limbic brain, how well do the amygdala and hippocampus works together to coordinate implicit and explicit memory. 

The fifth integration or narrative integration is the integration of the limbic and the neo-cortex.  How well is the prefrontal cortex interpreting the memory of the events and sensory images that are occurring?  The 6th integration or states integration is the interpretation of the prefrontal cortex of the limbic and brain stem.  The first 6 integrations relate to “me”.

The 7th  integration or interpersonal integration is the part of our brain that interprets interpersonal information between ourselves and others in relationships.  The 8th temporal is how the brain interprets time and meaning in the universe.  The last or 9th integration called transpirational or identity integration is the integration between all the various parts of integration.

These 9 integrations are explained more fully below and in comparison to the True Self Life Mission sub-components.

THE NINE DOMAINS OF INTEGRATION

1. Integration of Consciousness

It is not surprising to me that the number one integration is the integration of consciousness which is the brain model way of saying being your True Self or being conscious which is the mind terminology.  When we are conscious, we are aware of our True Self.  We are the observer. This is the most important skill in my mind and the foundational skill needed to change your life.  Consciousness to me has two components: intention i.e. what we want to do and attention i.e. where we focus our awareness. 

Under Siegel’s model of awareness, we are able to focus on awareness using various of our senses called objects of awareness: the five senses from sight to touch; the sixth sense of the interior of the body i.e. interoception (movement, emotions, and sensations); the “seventh sense” of mental activities; and our “eighth sense” of our interconnections with others and the world.  I would say that the awareness of our awareness is part of our “eight senses”.  I believe that being aware that we are not our mind, nor are we our senses, is an important part of consciousness.  In Christianity, consciousness is often referred to as the “soul”.

Ways of Practicing Consciousness

There are many practices that can increase consciousness integration.  Most forms of meditation and mindfulness and some kinds of journaling such as the Artists Way morning pages will increase consciousness.  Siegal uses a practice called the Wheel of Awareness which I have been testing.  I like it. 

“A practical approach to cultivating the integration of consciousness is the “Wheel of Awareness” practice—a form of focusing attention in an integrative, mindful way, as discussed in Chapter 7. In this metaphor for the mind, the hub represents awareness, and the points on the rim of the wheel represent that which we can be aware of—from sights and sounds to our sense of the body, our thoughts and feelings, and even our sense of connections to others. These are the elements of consciousness that can be differentiated from one another and then linked. A metaphoric spoke can be sent systematically from the hub to any point on the rim. This integrative practice has been found to be quite useful with a wide range of people, including elementary school children. It is designed to be an integration-of-consciousness practice, but it also meets all the criteria for being a mindfulness practice: It cultivates curiosity, observation, acceptance, and a loving stance toward the self and others.” From an article by Dr. Siegal, A Framework For Integration.

The importance of conscious integration or being your True Self is further emphasized by my friends’ recent experience with psychedelics.  One person tried ketamine and several others tried ayahuasca.  In all cases, there was a dramatic increase in consciousness and then insights into their lives.  The Rastafarians have also used Marijuana as a spiritual tool to help consciousness (which leads me to believe with the rise of marijuana, many of us are becoming more consciously aware).

This reminds me of the same thing that happens to people who have near-death experiences (NDE’s).  For example, Anita Moorjani, author of Dying to Be Me, had her NDE and her increased consciousness is well documented in her book.  This led her to believe that loving yourself is the missing link for most people to improve their lives.  After becoming conscious, learning how to love myself or being compassionate was my next major step.

Being your True Self and Self Compassion are two of the three stools of the True Self Operating System—the third being getting good with emotions i.e. #2 horizontal integration and #3. vertical integration, which we discuss next.  

2. Horizontal or Bilateral Integration

Horizontal integration is what most people are familiar with when we say the whole brain. Most people are aware of the left brain and the right brain needing to be integrated (coordinated) and believe that is all there to be a whole brain. As we are dispelling in this article, it’s more like at least 9 integrations are required to be the whole brain. 

The left brain function is logical, linguistic, literal, and linear—the letter of the law.  Kids are always asking why after age 3 because the left brain starts to really develop then.  Once we know the relationship, the left brain wants to express it in language.  The right brain is mostly dominating in the here and now until age 3.   The right brain is responsible for images, emotions, memories, intuition, gut feeling, heartfelt sense and context, the spirit of the law. 

When Horizontal Integration Becomes Problematic

The left and right hemispheres of the brain are different from each other and responsible for different functions.  However, sometimes at birth such as in autism, the left and right are not properly differentiated.  Or in attachment theory in childhood development, when there is an avoidant attachment (vs secure attachment), the left hemisphere is overly differentiated while the right hemisphere is under differentiated. 

Under differentiated right hemisphere results in blocked access to emotions and body sensations.  This also affects vertical integration.  In my case, I was definitely left brain or logic-driven.  It is why I am good at finance and horrible at art and music.  However, my prior inability to be more right brain had resulted in a lack of emotional development and also lack of creativity. 

For many clients, especially females, I notice they have “math anxiety”.  They are unable to do maths and science-based subjects and careers.  This is an underdeveloped left hemisphere.  In this case, logic is also affected and more chaos (hitting the river right bank) is involved in their lives.  Logical planning is not facilitated easily.  Interestingly, many of these math anxiety females are good in languages.  This tells me that females bad at math may also be a “narrative” issue, and not necessarily a left-brain issue because math and languages go together.  

Working Together

Neither side is better than the other.  The left and right brains were meant to work together to lead a balanced, meaningful, and creative lives.  The corpus callosum is a bundle of fibers that connects the left and right brains together to work as a team.  This way we can value both our logic and emotions and be balanced.  The key to living a full mental life is a collaboration between both sides.  When the right brain is overly dominant, there is chaos as we are drowning in images, emotions, and memories, literally an emotional flood.  When we are left-brain dominant, we are rigid and logical and we are removed from our feelings and personal experiences; we are living in an emotional desert. 

The ideal is to have a balance or be in the flow of the river of life versus being emotionally flooded or in an emotional desert. We want to live to allow our nonrational images, emotions, memories, sensations, and experiences AND also have order and structure in our lives.  We can remember (memory) the emotions, images, and bodily sensations in our right brain, and then we can tell our story with language in a linear and logical fashion with our left brain.  

People who are left-brain dominant have a hard time responding to the right-brain upset.  Often people who are very upset are in their emotional right brains.  They cannot respond to our left-brain logic.  We need first to respond to their emotional right brain needs first.   We need to connect the right brain to the right brain first.  Once they feel felt and understood and connected then we can go into our logical left brain.   People who are left-brain dominant often will have difficulties with kids because they do not understand this message (I am looking straight at myself in this mirror. LOL). 

We need to connect with our right brains first, “understood and heard” (physical touch (if own kids), non-judgment listening, nurturing tone of voice, and empathic facial expressions) before we can “use our words” and logic (explanation and planning to make it better in the future) in the left brain.  A good analogy to remember this is that when someone is drowning at sea (in this case emotions), the lifeguard will rescue the person first with a life preserver (being felt and heard), and once out of the water, the lifeguard can explain not to swim out so far next time.

Name and Tame

For ourselves, sometimes we are unable to process our emotions.  One strategy is to name and tame the fears and emotions.  Once we are able to name the fears and emotions, we are bringing our left brain (i.e. using our words) to help explain what is happening in our right brain emotions.  This is one reason why LALA technique works well or somatic experiencing.  Research has shown that when we can name an emotion or fear, the emotional circuits calm down. 

Feelings in our right brain plus Words in our left brain equals a whole brain.   When we are able to recall our difficult emotions, sensations, memories and integrate them with our words and logic, we are able to know the full experience of what happened and then be able to process the previously frightful experience.  This is also how healing works in therapy and journaling. 

3. Vertical Integration

A very young child throwing a tantrum (not a deliberate thinking older child tantrum to get their way) and throwing his toys around the room is a classical case of the brain flipping the lid or the lack of vertical integration.  In those moments, the amygdala (limbic brain) has hijacked the brain, shut-off the communications with the prefrontal cortex, and so the child is unable to literally (in the moment) control his emotions or body and loses access to his higher-order thinking skills such as considering consequences, problem-solving, and empathy for others.  The child has literally, neurologically speaking, “lost his mind”. 

When we have vertical integration and connection in our triune brain (our 3 separate brains in one brain) of the cortex, limbic brain, and brain stem, we are able to be rational, control our emotions, make good decisions, think before acting, and be empathic.  

Vertical integration literally means focusing conscious attention on the parts below the cortex (being at the top) on the information from the limbic regions, and the brain stem including the nerves from the gut-brain, the heart brain, other nerves in the muscles and organs that provide us the wisdom of the body.  All of this “wisdom of the body” comes up the vagal nerve into the spinal cord; through the brainstem and limbic areas; and emerges into the middle prefrontal cortex regions of the anterior cingulate and insula, mostly on the right side of the skull brain.

Breathing to Gain Integration

For adults, we often use breathing to gain back control of our vertical integration i.e. calm our amygdala and our emotions (this can also be done by physical exercise—if you are stressed at work, do 25 squats or jumping jacks and this will also calm you).  When we are able to breathe, we can calm our amygdala and get reconnected to our prefrontal cortex.  For a child, we often have to use the right brain-to-right-brain strategy first to calm down.  Once calm, we can use our decision-making left brain to come up with solutions after processing the feelings and emotions.

Vertical integration also enables us to have empathy for others, which helps us to be able to access not only what the other person is feeling (using our right brain) but also what the other person may need or want (using the left brain).  In addition, once we are able to control our emotions, and work from empathy and understanding, we can develop a robust sense of morality, not only right and wrong but also what is for the greater good for everyone, not just ourselves   So vertical integration is very important to morality and ethics.  

Often people who are highly sensitive to pain or had insecure attachments will often have issues with interoception (sensing inside the body), exteroception (sensing space outside the body), and proprioception (sensing of interoception in relation to exteroception) and will need help to increase their windows of tolerance i.e. range of emotions via practice in vertical integration.

4. Memory Integration

There are actually two types of memories in the human brain: implicit memory and explicit memory. 

Implicit Memory

Implicit memory is memory that is the encoded form of perception, bodily sensations, emotions, and behavioral responses.  Implicit memory is the memory that is automatic—like how our hearts beat without us knowing how, implicit memory is what we use to walk and ride a bicycle once we have learned it.  It is what we call “muscle memory.  Implicit memory is associated with the amygdala and brain stem parts of the brain. 

Explicit Memory

Explicit memory is factual and autobiographical.  It is the memory that we use when we remember the day we learned to ride the bicycle and how our parent might have held the bicycle and ran alongside us down the street and the bicycle was red.  Explicit memory is performed by the hippocampus which is part of the limbic system. 

The hippocampus is a master puzzle maker.  The hippocampus integrates all the bits and pieces of information of implicit memory found in other parts of the brain and pieces them together to form the puzzle and cohesive understanding of what is happening.  This information can then be relayed to the cortex.  

Each person’s hippocampus takes the various implicit memory pieces and creates its own puzzle based on its own experiences.  This is why everyone seeing the same event might have different versions of what happened.  And as discussed below, even the same person retelling the story of the event often changes the story slightly each time.

Trauma and Memory

In trauma and other overwhelming events, the prefrontal cortex is cut off from the hippocampus.  And just as importantly, the hippocampus is shut down and we are only left with the implicit memory of an event.  So flashbacks are implicit memory that has not yet been assembled into explicit memory.  This occurs with many other stressful or overwhelming events. 

Another aspect of memory that is important is that each event or experience creates new synaptic associates with other memories that are like that memory.  So for example, if I am driving to work and I make a left turn at Main and King St., the memory will be wired with the previous times that I went to work and made a left turn at Main and King St.  The new neurons “fire” off at the same time as other neurons that had stored the left turn and then wire together. 

So neurons that fire together, wire together in the brain.  The brain is then using these past experiences to try to predict the future.  This is why after a few weeks, we can drive to work and then wonder, how we “got there”, as we were thinking about something completely different and we automatically made the left turn at Main and King and all the other turns without even having to think about it in our prefrontal cortex.

Implicit Memories Issues

The bad news is that these implicit memories are automatic (the limbic brain operates unconsciously) and many times our past experiences that have not been fully integrated hijacks our present moments without us even understanding that we are reacting to the past event and not the current event. 

This is almost 100% of the time when someone is angry.  In using compassionate Inquiry, Gabor Mate has shown time and time again that we are often triggered by a past event and not by the present event.  What is often worse is that our action to the event is based on past actions without stopping to choose what would be most appropriate in the current moment. 

E + R = O

This is why E(vent) + R(esponse) = O(utcome) is so important.  The ability to pause between the event and response, i.e. to be conscious and present, allows us to see what is triggering us and gives us the flexibility to choose from a range of responses instead of the automatic response from the past.

The good news is that each time the neurons fire together and wire together, they are creating new memories.  So this slightly different experience of the old event changes each time we bring it up in memory.  Each time the event is brought up also creates new integrations or what we “remember”. Understanding memory integration thus allows us to travel back in time to bring clarity and resolution to past overwhelming events, especially those in our development years in childhood.

Memory Integration is the major issue with Trauma and Adverse Childhood Events (ACE Study).  These past events often are driving our decision-making process and our behaviors subconsciously.  Much therapy and coaching are centered around making these past implicit events, explicit so that they no longer drive our decisions unconsciously and are “healed”.     

5. Narrative Integration

Since the time of cave drawings, human beings have been using stories to tell our lives.  Storytelling is one way of making sense of our lives.  A story is a linear telling of a sequence of events, so it involves using our linear left brain and right brain storage to tell how we see ourselves and others in the world. 

A story could just be one episode or incident, or it can be the common thread of our lives, our identity.  With my clients, I can see where narrative issues occur in one incident or the common thread. 

The Biggest Narrative Issue

The biggest narrative issue for 95% of the population is that we all have a core wound and adaptive behavior.  We believe on a subconscious level that we ARE our core wound and on a conscious level that we ARE our false self.  So for me, I believed unconsciously that “I am damaged, I am a failure” and on a conscious level, my false persona was that I was a “smart’ person and had to do smart things in life and be a “success” in life according to wealth. 

This narrative false self core wound and adaptive behavior is the biggest issue remaining for many of my advanced clients.  Virtually all my clients have not processed their core wounds and understood their adaptive behaviors. Core wounds such as “I am not good enough” lead to perfectionism tendencies.   “I am not safe” leads to controlling behaviors.  “I am nobody” or “I am not wanted” leads people to create careers in helping professions, so they will be wanted.

Grace Core Wound

Grace was 5 years old when she had a very bad math teacher. She did poorly in her math tests and suffered from math class anxiety. In order to compensate, she made the unconscious decision that she had to be good in all her other subjects and be “perfect” in everything else she did. She later learned her math issue was a result of math dyslexia and even though she fixed it as a teenager, she never healed her core wound and adaptive behaviors. As an adult lawyer, she feels ashamed that when she is unable to keep any appointments which mess with her perfect meeting attendance image (even if there are circumstances like accidents beyond her control). She also needs to be the perfect mother, the perfect wife, the perfect daughter and in order for everything to be perfect, she needs to be controlling in everything she does.

Our core wounds and adaptive behaviors are addressed in the first few sessions that I use in my True Self Life Mission Program.  I am able to use RIM techniques to help to find these unconscious beliefs, and the Belief Closet process to discreate these false and negative beliefs. We were able to find the root cause of Grace’s perfectionism (her 5-year-old math class) and now she is able to relax more about her court attendance records, her perfectionism, and her controlling behavior.

Journaling For Healing

Journaling is a very powerful tool to help those who need to work on the stories of their lives.  Journaling accesses the implicit memories while using the prefrontal cortex used in language while writing.  Therefore, stories that were previously “trapped” in implicit memory, can now be organized during the journaling process by the prefrontal cortex and the implicit memory can be moved to the explicit memory, and also the narrative can now be understood. ,

6. State Integration

We have different parts of us and different roles.  On a basic level, in Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness, he helps to create not only consciousness, with the True Self at the hub of the wheel and the spokes being the areas that we can focus our attention, but also being aware of each of the things that are happening to us.   We can focus on the TIMES (use by Kimberly Ann Johnson, Call of the Wild: How we Heal from Trauma, Awaken Our Own Power, and Use it For Good.), which stands for Thoughts, Images, Movement, Emotions, and Sensations (5 Senses or interoception, exteroception, proprioception).  Siegal actually uses SIFT (Sensations, Images, Feelings, Thoughts), where he changes Emotions to Feelings to get his acronym to work…however, I think Movement is an important part that is left out by SIFT.  When we can do the wheel of awareness and notice the TIMES, we help to build the neurons that fire together and wire together (neuroplasticity) that integrates states.  This forms the basics of state integration.

I feel sad versus I am sad

At the next state level, we need to first differentiate from the I feel sad versus I am sad.  I feel sad indicates there is a part of you that is feeling sad.  I am sad indicates a trait that you, yourself is sad.  Often people get stuck in these states; for example, some suffer from anxiety or perhaps depression.

Changing our State

The state of integration is important to understand the various parts of us and to change our state.  We can start to train our minds to go to a happy place.  We can create a happy place (perhaps an image by the beach with relaxation or our dream house) and be able to switch from that painful state to our happy place in our minds.  This ability to change our state is the second level.  The easiest way to change our state is through our body posture and movement.  For example, recently, I have noticed that when I am stuck with the anxiety from writing, I can do 25 squats and my state and thoughts will change and be calm, then I can write again. 

LALA

The exercise LALA+ (Locate, Accept, Listen, Act is a way of changing state).  Briefly, if you are feeling an emotion such as anger,

Locate it in the Body (where is it, size, color, shape). 

Accept it (feel it and Name it—this is anger or scared etc.). 

Listen to it (hear what it has to say: normally anger is associated with the need for boundaries, happiness is doing more, sadness is reaching out to others, and scared is needing to be safe). 

Act (based on what you listened to and heard the anger say, do something). 

For Acting, you can use the physical, emotional, mental ways of acting.  Physically, you can soften into the anger and allow it and normally it will just pass.  You can emotionally soothe yourself as if a close friend was talking to you in a soothing voice.  Or you can physically place a hand on the spot of the emotion and channel compassionate energy.  And finally, you can mentally accept it.  Know that you are human and that it is the human condition that you are allowed to feel anger and allow your feelings. By Acting using all three modalities you may feel a shift in your state.  Feeling the state, is inter-state integration, moving from one state to another is intra-state integration.

Inner Critic, Inner Child

The third type of state integration is the kind I identify as the parts of us: the inner critic, the inner child, and the defender.  Often we can overidentify with parts such as the inner critic (inner voice saying you are bad), thinking that is who we are, or feeling shame (inner voice saying I am bad) and thinking that is who we are.  Notice that for inner critic we will use You ARE versus Shame we will use I AM.

The mind seems to be able to compartmentalize different parts of our personality.  In working with the True Self process, I have found helping people to quiet their inner critic and rescue their inner child is a crucial part of bringing an integrated self.  Being able to recognize that they are not their inner critic and being able to quiet it, and rescuing their inner child, and being allowed to be more playful, creative, and connected.  The process I used is Voice Dialogue supported by my interest in Internal Family Systems.  Self Compassion is also crucial to working with Shame and the Inner Critic.

7. Interpersonal Integration

Many of us struggle with relationships.  For those of you who have been following my blogs, it will not come as a surprise to you that our relationship struggles relate back to our childhood development and the lack of integration in our brains that affects how we differentiate as an individual and then link this self to others. 

Our connection to others is either chaotic or rigid.  Emotional outbursts, fighting, or destructive behaviors may dominate some relationships.  For others, the relationship is predictable and perhaps boring.  In both cases, interpersonal integration of the brain is impaired.  Often differentiation of self or linkage is often impaired in both members of the relationship.

Attachment Theory

In other cases, many are not in long-term relationships because of their narrative.  “I am not wanted” and “I am nobody” were the core wounds of two of my clients.  Not surprisingly, both found themselves single for the last decade.  This is not surprising based on the research into attachment theory.  Research over the last 50 years has shown that our early relationships shape how our minds and brains develop in early childhood AND just as important for my clients, how we narrate our stories when we reach adulthood.

Still Face Experiment

In order to understand the importance of the baby’s signals for connections and responses, I think it is instructive to watch the Still Face Experiment.  Mothers do not react to babies for 30 seconds and babies go into severe distress. This will change your life on how you view attachment theory and why we all probably suffer some trauma from childhood.  Watch this 3 minute video here. 

Strange Situtation Test

Mary Ainsworth in the 1970s did the best-known research into attachment theory in what is now called the Strange Situation Test.  The test is used to determine how securely attached is the child to the mother.  During the infant’s first year of life, researchers would visit the mother and child at their home to observe the mother-infant interaction. 

Then at the end of the year, the mother-infant would be brought into the lab for a test that lasted 20 minutes.  First, the mother would be observed playing with the child.  Then a stranger would enter the room, speak with the mother for a few minutes, then turn to speak with the child.  The mother would leave the room, then return.  Then both the mother and stranger would leave the room together.  The child would play by himself and then the mother would return. 

The two points of interest are what happens when the child is left with the stranger AND surprisingly, what happens when the mother returns.  What researchers through the years have observed are 4 fundamental patterns (initially it was 3, then after 20 years, they observed the fourth kind).

Secure Attachment

When the research was initially done, they found about 2/3 of the children had a secure attachment.  When the mother left the room, the baby would cry and when the mother returned, the baby would seek direct contact with the mother and would be soothed easily by the mother.  Looking back at the home-visit observations, these secure attachments were babies who had mothers that were sensitive to the baby’s bids for connection and would respond to the baby’s signals. 

Insecure Avoidant Attachment

Around 20% of the children demonstrated what is called an avoidant attachment.  These kids focused on playing with the toys and showed no signs of distress when the parent left and avoided the mother when she returned.  During home visits, the observers noticed that the mother didn’t respond to the baby’s bids for connection in a reliable and sensitive manner, often ignoring the baby.  The baby appears to have developed the adaptive strategy of: “mother doesn’t soothe me or help me, so why should I care whether she is here, leaves or return.”  In order to cope, the baby minimizes the activation of the brain’s attachment circuits via the mirror neurons.

Insecure Anxious Attachment

In 10% to 15% of the cases, there is an ambivalent or anxious attachment.  In the home visits, the parent sometimes responded to the child and other times, the parent didn’t. The parent’s responsiveness was inconsistent.  In the Strange Situation, the child was fussy with the mother, with the stranger and when the mother returned, the child would seek out the mother, but would not be soothed.  Here, there appears to be an over-activation of the attachment circuit.

Insecure Disorganized Attachment

Later, a fourth attachment style emerged, called the disorganized attachment, which was later found to be in 10% of the population, but 80% of high-risk parental groups such as addicts.  In the case of when the parent returns, the infant may actually be terrified of the parent.  The child first approaches, then withdraws from parent and then might go into freeze or fold (falling to the ground), or clings and cries and simultaneously pulling away.  This disorganized attachment style demonstrates parents with severe lack of attunement, being frightening to their kids, and often them being frightened of their kids.

Fewer Secure Attachments

In the first 3 patterns, the kids have developed an attachment strategy for dealing with consistent, disconnected, or inconsistent caregivers.  In the fourth, the child has not developed any strategy and his strategies collapse.  Interestingly, as the now-discredited “don’t pick up your child and let them cry themselves to sleep”, Dr. Spock advice from the 1960s worked its way through generations, the 1970’s 66% secure attachment style was reduced to only 51% and 45% of the parents were not viewed as being attuned by 2000. This leads me to believe the current generation will now see even fewer secure attachments until the next generation learns the importance of being attuned and attached to themselves and to their babies.

Attachment Predicts Adult Outcomes

The other fascinating part of attachment theory is that enough time has gone by (over 25 to 35 years later) to observe what happens in later life with the various categories of attachments. 

Secure Attachments

As it turns out, securely attached children meet their intellectual potential, had good relationships with others, were respected by peers, and could regulate their emotions well.  This is in line with brain studies that show proper integration of the prefrontal cortex results in good bodily regulation, emotional balance, attunement to others, response flexibility, empathy, fear modulation, insight, and moral awareness.

Insecure Avoidant Attachments

Those with an avoidant attachment tend to be emotionally restricted, and they are often considered aloof, controlling, or plain unlikable.  As adults, they often don’t recall much of their relationship details, and grew up as “little or mini-adults”.  Their dismissing attitude to childhood relationships is often given with brief answers.  Their childhoods are often “average” or “fine” and they often think that their family upbringing has no bearing on their development. They are often left-brain dominant (lawyers, engineers, and finance professionals).  Leaning to the left is a way not to overwhelm their small window of tolerance in the right emotional brain by feeling the pain and longing for connection.

The avoidant attachment style has a core wound, “I am alone” and will have a false self-adaptive behavior of autonomy.  Relationships don’t matter, the past does not influence the present and they definitely don’t need anyone.  Avoidants have shut down their attachment systems (including emotions).  Even when they don’t show the need for belonging on the outside, research has shown avoidants to have anxiety on the brain and body level indicating a need for connection. Fathers who are avoidant will be good providers financially, not have much emotional interaction with their own children, and will have an intellectual relationship with their children.  This is how intergenerational trauma may pass from one generation to the next.

Insecure Anxious Attachment

Children with ambivalent or anxious attachment ended with high levels of anxiety and insecurity in adult life.  When these anxious attachment adults talk about their childhood, they will often flip back and forth between the past and the present.  Their relationships will be filled with insecurity and angst.  During childhood, the ambivalent attached tried to get a reflection back from his mother of who he was.  But often that never happened consistently and has a “confused” sense of self.  A central theme is “I am not good enough”, I need others, but I cannot depend on them. 

Ambivalent adults often have significant boundary issues and have difficulty separating their issues from others’ issues.  A girlfriend showing up late becomes an issue of whether the girlfriend loves him or not (he becomes anxious about his abandonment issues), instead of there must be traffic or the girlfriend has time-related issues.  During childhood the baby might have felt anxious, the mother was also anxious, so the mother and baby's anxiousness melded together and the baby had difficulty understanding clearly what was hers versus what was mom’s anxiety. Ambivalent adults need to learn not to get overwhelmed by their emotions and build their window of tolerance via exercises that help to build vertical and horizontal brain integration.  Once they do this, then they can sort out their past wounds of abandonment.    

Insecure Disorganized Attachment

Children with disorganized attachment have significant emotional regulation issues and also impaired ability to relate to others.  They exhibit at times both avoidant and ambivalent characteristics but often exhibit a complete collapse.  Quite often these individuals will have complex trauma from alcoholic parents or addicts.  They will re-experience the trauma while trying to also use one of the coping strategies.  As adults, they will be the parents who have trouble handling kids at all (completely scrambled at times), or in relationships, they both want to go towards the person for love and also pull back.  These adults are often disconnected, disorganized or confused. 

As children, their autonomic nervous systems were warning them to get away from the dangerous parent, yet their attachment systems said, move towards your parent for love and soothing of the danger.  Their brain is simultaneously telling them to “move away” and “go toward” your dangerous parent.  This confusion results in disorganized attached adults as dissociation, disconnection, and often unresolved trauma and loss.

What We Do As Parents Matter

Many studies have confirmed that these attachment differences were not genetically linked.  In fact, attachment patterns clearly demonstrate that what we do as parents matters.  The good news is that research has also shown that those with unsecured attachments can also create what is known as an earned secure attachments.  That up to 20% of the population have an earned secure attachments as adults. 

This is important because, for almost 50% of the population who grew up with insecure attachments, it is important for them to create an earned attachment in order to have a more satisfying relationship.  Self-compassion is actually one way of earning a secure attachment.

Intergenerational trauma and Attachment

Often those that have relational difficulties often result from their parents having attunement issues which come from their parents (the grandparents having issues).  I find that often clients with grandparents who were affected by world war II trauma, have the same trauma-related issues as their grandparents, though they have not recognized it until we look back intergenerationally. It is why intergenerational RIM is one of my most powerful tools. 

Shame and Attachment Theory

Understanding the relationship between shame and attachment theory is very relieving for many people.  Shame is “I am beliefs” and when people understand it is often their parent’s lack of attunement that caused this shame, they find relief and can forgive themselves. 

Dan Siegel explains in the above-referenced article:

“For some the feeling of shame is subterranean, beneath the radar of awareness, and yet it dominates the relational world. With shame, people can have a buried belief of the self as defective, unworthy of connection, “damaged goods.” When people learn both conceptually and viscerally that shame has its developmental roots in impaired attachment, the path is opened to heal that early relational wound. It may have been a person’s way of preserving her sanity to think that she as a child was the defective one, rather than seeing her parents as the ones in trouble. The young child would have been paralyzed by terror of death if she believed that her parents were not able to be protective. Such reflections are the gateway to letting shame be understood and released. With such internal changes, the opportunity for interpersonal integration is made available; people can feel whole as they remain differentiated and yet deeply and intimately linked to others.”

Understanding the Neuroscience behind Attachment Theory

There are two parts to understanding better the neuroscience of attachment: Polyvagal Theory and Mirror Neurons.

Polyvagal Theory and the Brain

Our brain is wired for survival.  Our brain stem and the autonomic nervous system operate unconsciously.  Without our thinking mind, our heart beats, our temperature is always regulated and we have a flight or fight system that is geared to keep us safe. 

The latest and best theory of the flight or fight system is now called the Polyvagal theory.  When we are in danger, it was previously thought we responded by flight or fight and then returned to a normal system.  This turns out to be our ventral vagus nerve or sympathetic nervous system reaction which geared up our body for significant emergency action.  Later, it was noted that we also have a parasympathetic nervous system response that shuts down our body, we can freeze (stay still) or fold/faint(collapse).  This is the classical response taught in trauma as the 4F’s: fight or flight, freeze or faint.

Social Engagement System

Stephen Porges actually noticed that on the ventral vagus nerve was another response which he called the social engagement system.  This system was activated when there was a felt sense of safety in our bodies and surroundings. This social engagement system allowed us to interact with others and pick up the signals sent by others.  The social engagement system was part of the ventral vagus nerve. 

The social engagement system is the system that allows us to pick up signals from other human beings.  When these signals are activated we are able to interpret other people’s emotions and mirror these feelings back in our body via mirror neurons.  We have resonance.

The 6 F’s

Full disclosure in terms of the simplistic overview of the Polyvagal Theory above and as noted in the following paragraphs, as illustrated in the book Call of the Wild: How We Heal Trauma by K.A. Johnston.  Some researchers are now noting that there are 3 systems: social engagement, sympathetic and parasympathetic; and all three systems actually have a role to play in both safety and threat.

Under threat (not just safety), the social system activates so that we fit in (camouflage behavior) or fawn (people please). Notice these 2 new f’s.  Then if that doesn’t work, the sympathetic system fight or flight is activated.  If that does not work, then our freeze or fold system is activated for protection.

Under safety, our parasympathetic system is activated (not just under threat) and we sleep, wind down, or get aroused.  Next is sympathetic (this is good stress), we wake up, are alert, drive, focus, and have healthy aggression.  Finally, when we are fully socially engaged in safety we have bonding, contact, communication, and intimacy. 

Mirror Neurons

Up until 2013, there were over 800 research articles as noted in one research article written in 2014 on mirror neurons. Still, the following is not accepted as well as the Polyvagal theory.

Mirror neurons are best explained by the reaction we have when other people yawn. Often, we will feel like yawning when others yawn.  I suspect this is caused by mirror neurons that reflect the yawn of the other person (their movements etc.) in our brains and tells us that another person is yawning, which then triggers our own yawning system. 

Similarly, it appears we are able to resonate in our bodies other peoples emotions by using our mirror neurons to detect their physiology and perhaps “energy” and then we are able to tell in our bodies what the other person is feeling and also what they are feeling about us.

This is where attachment theory and mirror neurons intersect.  We essentially rely on the mother’s response to us to train our social engagement system to reflect back to us who we are.  Our mirror neurons and resonance system in our bodies help us to perform this role. 

Most of the research has been performed with monkeys, so we still have a long way to go to map out this brain system.  However, it makes sense that there is a mechanism in our brains that allows us to mirror back to us what others are feeling about us and themselves.

8. Temporal Integration

This is much less linked I believe to a brain issue than existential mind reasoning.  I will let Dan Seigel explain in his words from the above-referenced article.

“Temporal integration is the way we differentiate our longings for certainty, permanence, and immortality from—and link them with—the reality of life’s uncertainty, transience, and mortality. When people deny one or the other side of this temporal slate, rigidity or chaos can ensue. A dear friend recently had a cancer successfully removed, yet she became profoundly depressed. At fifty years of age, she told me, she had never thought she’d have to face becoming ill or dying. She actually is not that unusual, as many people deny death and live as if this will never befall them. Her depression, even in the face of her full recovery from the surgery, is an example of a rigidity that comes from impaired temporal integration. These existential issues are a theme of our common humanity and a fundamental part of the world’s major religions. Learning to embrace our longing for certainty and constancy in the face of life’s realities is the essence of embracing temporal integration at the heart of our human lives.”

For me, I have linked both temporal and transpirational integration which follows as having meaning in life. I have used Canfield’s mission statement exercise to help others to arrive at the next steps for their lives. My mission is to use my analytical skills and love for learning to be an exemplar and to teach others to be their best selves as we create a better world together.

9. Transpirational Integration

“Transpirational integration signifies “breathing across” the other domains of integration—a kind of “integration of integration.” This form of integration involves a person’s sense of coming to feel connected to a larger whole. The “larger” here refers to a sense of belonging to something bigger than merely a bodily defined sense of self (as in vertical integration), or even to friends and family, as in interpersonal integration.

Transpirational integration has the feeling that joining with others to give back to the world is as natural as taking care of oneself. For example, people may find themselves with a deep drive to help with cleaning up the local environment, reducing hunger in the community, or working to reduce child slavery or trafficking of young women. Even when the outcome of their efforts may not be known for decades, people may still feel the drive to become part of something larger than themselves—something that will make this home we share, our planet Earth, a better place for years ahead.” By Dan Siegel.

Siegel notes that when you are have integrated integration, you will have arrived at compassion for yourself and others. I believe you can be compassionate before building all the circuits, though I acknowledge that when you are completely integrated, then it is easier to have empathy and resonate with others.

True Self Components Integrated with the Wheel of Self Development

I previously wrote an article to look at the components of self-development by comparing the 5 Brain Networks in the Conscious mind and divided the subconscious into 3 main categories.  The Wheel of Self Development.

In this article I am comparing the True Self Framework to the Mindsight Framework, I am looking at the mind and the brain components, another way to look at self-development.  You can notice though that the True Self Framework incorporates many more items than just the 9 main components, as can be seen below.

However, you can easily see the relationship between these 3 frameworks in the simplest form.

Comparing Frameworks

In Conscious Integration, we are our True Self and this is Awareness.

In Horizontal Integration and Vertical, we have Emotional Regulation from True Self and the Wheel of Self Development, but also need to include Imagination from the Right Brain Activities of Horizontal Integration. 

For State Integration, in True Self Framework, we have the Inner Critic and other Parts.  However, when we combine with the Emotional regulation to look at Motivation, it incorporates hopelessness and also habits.

The Core Wound and Adaptive Behavior look clearly at our self-identity.  When we add our past wounds and mission, we can look at our beliefs and values.

All three systems use Self-compassion as a core component of the Framework. According to Dan Siegel kindness and self-compassion and feeling connected to self, others and source is the result of 9 levels of integration.  I believe that self-compassion and kindness can result without integration

Evolved Consciousness

Therefore, each framework emphasizes different things and categorizes them differently.  However, by understanding each framework, different people see things differently and therefore one framework might be more helpful to that person.  In the end, each framework is addressing the same things in different languages.  However, each framework allows us to get a better sense of who we are, our strengths and weaknesses, and enable us to build a better mind and brain, an evolved consciousness, that enables us to live our life mission.

However, I do believe like Dan that when you have created a better mind, you are connected to self, others, and source and from there we have access to a calm, kind and creative mind.  We can be more flexible, adaptable, coherent, energized, and stable (FACES) in our health, happiness, love, and abundance.

Action Items:

Where are you on the True Self Framework?

True Self Life Mission Long Form Survey