Interior Integration for Catholics

In this episode I discuss the crucial role of the right kinds of corrective and healing experiences in our lives. I then offer you three inner experiential exercises to help you understand three questions: 1) In what ways do you not love yourself (with a special focus on inner critics); 2) your inner tension between connection and protection; and 3) your internal battles with rigidity and chaos.

Show Notes

  1. Summary:  In this episode I discuss the crucial role of the right kinds of corrective and healing experiences in our lives.  I then offer you three inner experiential exercises to help you understand three questions: 1) In what ways do you not love yourself (with a special focus on inner critics); 2) your inner tension between connection and protection; and 3) your internal battles with rigidity and chaos.
  2. Lead in:  
    1. Experience.  
    2. I have been wanting for a long time to offer you some experiential exercises 
      1. In episodes 89, 90, and 92, I gave you a lot of conceptual information about polyvagal theory, about interpersonal neurobiology, some more about Internal family systems, but something has been missing
      2. And what's been missing, in my opinion, is the experiential part of this for us.  
        1. Julius Caesar "Experience is the teacher of all things"  De Bello Civilli
        2. John Stuart Mill:  There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home.  -- On liberty
    3. Experience.  There is no substitute for experiential learning
       
      1. Otherwise it can stay all in the conceptual realm, all in your head, all in your mind.  
        1. Michael Smith:  The major problem is that we tend to live our life in our head, in our thoughts and stories, cut off from our actual experience.

      1. What I want for you is much more than that.  I want you to be able to change for the better in the deepest ways.  
        1. And you can't think or study your way there

      1. Not the same experiences over and over -- some people have that kind of life.  
        1. Rather, a capacity for experience -- the ability to take in, process, and integrate new experiences as part of your human formation.  
        2. George Bernard Shaw:  Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

    7. What holds us back?
       
      1. Many would say fear.  Fear of the unknown.  Fear of putting ourselves out there.  Fear keeps us from new experiences and for the corrective effects of new experiences.  And I think that's true.  But I don't think fear is the primary obstacle.  There's some thing deeper than fear that holds us back.
    8.  
      1. What is it that really holds us back from new experiences?  What goes deeper than our fear?  [Drum roll]
      2. Our Shame.  It is our shame that holds us back from new experiences and the healing that new experiences can bring to us.
      3. The fear is a secondary reaction.  We wouldn't have the fear if we didn't have the shame, the gnawing sense of inadequacy or not being good enough.  Too much shame makes us fragile, way to concerned about protecting ourselves
      4. And in the natural realm, it's shame that most often keeps us from taking in the love from God, from others, and from ourselves -- it's shame that generates our fear, the desire to protect our wounds, that shuts us off from ourselves and other people
         
        1. Shame generates fear -- fear fuels our self-protection and shuts down the openness to experience.  The shame to fear to self-protection progression builds walls around our hearts.  We see vulnerability as dangerous.
      5.  
        1. Brené Brown, Daring Greatly  Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center, of meaningful human experiences.
      6.  
    9. Shame is so important, I spent 13 episodes of this podcast just on that one topic.  Those 13 episodes, episodes 37 to 49 on it
       
      1. Those episodes on shame are foundational -- they are the most fundamental episodes of this podcast.  So many of our problem go back to shame, and nearly all psychological dysfunction in the natural realm has its root and origin in shame.  

      1. If you haven't listened to those episodes, or if it's been a long time, go back and listen to them.  

    12. So now, in this episode, I am bringing to you the kinds of experiential exercises, the kind of experiential learning that can help you understand yourself so much better and get you started toward a more solid natural foundation for your spiritual life, much better human formation.
    13. And what I want for you most of all is for you to experience love.  To be able to receive love -- to receive love from others, from yourself, from God.  And to love.  To join those men and women who are on an adventure of love
       
      1. 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
    14.  
      1. How does it do that?  How does perfect love cast out fear -- does it just numb fear while leaving your shame intact?  No, I really don’t think that's how it works for me and you. 

      1. Love is the antidote for shame.  Love cures shame.  Three kinds of love.  
        1. Love from God
        2. Love from others, including the saints, especially our Mother Mary
        3. Love from ourselves to ourselves.  

    17. I invite you to join me on this great adventure of loving, especially in this episode, right now, this episode number 93 of this podcast, Interior Integration for Catholics, let us journey together
    18. I am Dr. Peter Malinoski, clinical psychologist and passionate Catholic and together, we can have the relational encounters we need to learn to be loved and to love.  
    19.  Interior Integration for Catholics is part of our broader outreach, Souls and Hearts.  Souls and Hearts brings you the best of psychology and human formation grounded in a Catholic understanding of the human person to you and the rest of the world through our website soulsandhearts.com
    20. We are continuing our series on how the best of secular psychological approaches define mental health, psychological well-being.  We started with Episode 89 on Polyvagal Theory and covered Positive Psychology, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Internal Family Systems in Episode 90.  
    21. Today's episode, number 93 is entitled "Three Experiential Exercisesx"  and it's released on May 2, 2022 and today, I am offering you
  3. Three longer experiential exercises today, about 20 minutes each
     
    1. Informed by IFS -- can check out episode 71 of this podcast to find out more about IFS -- A new and better way of understanding yourself and others.  Great preparation for these exercises.  
      1. Grounded in a Catholic understanding of the human person

    1. Three experiential exercises
       
      1.  In what ways do you not love yourself? -- where are the gaps in your human formation?  What parts of you are going unloved by you? -- Episode 90 Your Well-being, the Secular experts speak
    2.  
      1. Your inner battle: Protection vs. Connection -- Episode 89 Your Trauma, Your Body: Protection vs. Connection
      2. Rigidity and Chaos -- episode 92 Understanding and Healing your Mind through IPNB

  6. Overall guidelines for these exercises
     
    1. Cautions
       
      1. window of tolerance
         
        1. Upside -- Fight or flight, sympathetic activation
      2.  
        1. Downside -- Free response -- dorsal vagal activation, shutting down, numbing out, 


      1. don’t have to do this exercise, can stop at any time, reground yourself
    3.  
      1. no steamrolling parts
    4.  
      1. Also bringing in God from a Catholic perspective, which may activate some parts in some people. 

      1. Good to do this exercise when you have the time and space and privacy -- not while driving or engaging in other activities that would require you to divide your attention.  


    1. Options
       
      1. Take what is useful to you
    2.  
      1. Feel free to go your own direction if that seems what's best
      2. There will be some quiet moments in the exercises to give you time to do your inner work.  If it's helpful, feel free to pause the audio and really settle in and do extended work inside if that seems best
      3. Can have pens, pencils and paper to write down things that are helpful -- like a journal -- or to map out things, draw if that's helpful. 
      4. Can do these exercises multiple times, with different parts

    1. A lot of gentleness with and for yourself.  Moment here for your to really care for yourself, to really see what your parts need from you.  
      1. Luke 10:27 Love your neighbor as yourself -- we are supposed to love ourselves in an ordered way
      2. And that means loving the parts of ourself that are in need.  With care and compassion
      3. If you get distracted, that's ok, that's common.  You can just refocus, or if that's not possible, then focus in on that distraction -- get curious about why a part of you needs to distract you.  
  9. Experiential Exercise 1 --In what ways do you reject yourself, or condemn yourself as a person?  In what ways do you not love yourself?  
    1. A part of you finds it hard to love or even accept some other part of you.  That's true for almost everybody, in our fallen world.  
      1. Leads to inner conflict
    2. You can't delegate that responsibility of loving yourself to anyone else.  No one else, not even God, can take your place in loving yourself.  
    3. Working on the natural realm here. 
    4. We're not focusing on unloved parts yet.  We are asking that parts that bear the burden of shame -- our shame bearers, can they be patient, to not flood or overwhelm.  
    5. As you ask that question, In what ways do you reject yourself, or condemn yourself as a person?  
      1. What part of you is doing that -- an inner critic?
      2. What is happening in your body?
      3. In response to that question. How am I rejecting or condemning myself. \
    6. Find the bodily response
    7. Focus in on that bodily response.  We call that a trailhead. Connected with your inner critic.  
    8. Might not be a bodily response.  Could be other trailheads
       
      1. Images, thoughts, desires, impulses, memories, sounds, beliefs or assumptions -- any internal  experience in response to the question -- what do I need.  

    10. Focus in on that one sensation or inner experience that reflects some kind of self-condemnation or negative judgement of yourself as a person..    
    11. Fleshing out
       
      1. Listen in to what that experience, that body sensation or that impulse or desire or image or memory or belief.
         
        1. Really notice that inner critic.  How do you experience it.    

        1. Let's see if we can work with one part at a time.  You can do this reflection and guided exercise over again with multiple parts if you'd like.  But see if your parts inside can agree to let you work with one part.  
        2. We are going to ask that one part not to flood you with its intensity.  That's a safety thing.  We are asking that part not to overwhelm you with its distress.  We want to be separate but near, so that you as the self can have a relationship with that part.  If your target part fuses with you or blends with you, you can't have a relationship.  See if that part will agree not to overwhelm.  Just ask it.  See what the response is.  If it agrees, then
        3. Really sense that part.  See that part or sense that part, however that part is becoming more apparent to you.  
          1. How old is that part?  Some parts of us are very, very young.  Even preverbal.  
        4. Really listen to what that target parts wants to share with you, what it wants you to know.  

    13. How are you feeling toward that part, toward that experience
       
      1. C's
         
        1. Compassion
      2.  
        1. Connection
      3.  
        1. Curiosity -- genuine interest
      4.  
        1. Calm
      5.  

      1. If feeling negative, can we get concerned protector parts to soften, to relax back so that you, as the self, can connect with your distressed target part?
    15.  
      1. If not, focus on the concerned protector part.  Really get interested about why that part is not ready to let you connect with your target part.  There's a reason.  Parts always have good intentions for us.  

    17. Befriending
       
      1. Let that part tell you all about what it struggles with.  

      1. Emotions
         
        1. Anxiety
      2.  
        1. Sorrow -- deep emotional pain
      3.  
        1. Anger
      4.  
        1. Numbness
      5.  

      1. Thinking -- assumptions, beliefs
         
        1. Really be open to these beliefs, asking protectors not to censor them if possible.
      2.  
        1. Concentration issues.  

      4. Behaviors -- why does the part do what it does 
        1. Positive intentions
      5. Spiritual and existential issues
      6. What does this part need from you?
      7. What does this part need from God?
    20. Fears
       
      1. What if it doesn't do this job.  

    22. Does it know that you exist -- that it doesn't have to pursue an agenda. 
    23. Where are you with:
       
      1. Compassion
    24.  
      1. Connectedness
    25.  
      1. Curiosity
    26.  
      1. Calm
    27.  
    28. Can the part feel love from you?  
    29. Winding up
       
      1. Can write down what you learned, what was helpful, what came to you -- giving your parts a voice on paper.  

      1. Can do this exercise again with a different part
    31.  
      1. Gratitude for all your parts -- all have good intentions are trying to help
    32.  
      1. This doesn't have to be the end of connecting with your target part -- doesn't have to be a one-off experience, can check in with that part again. 

  10. Experiential Exercise 2 -- Protection vs. Connection -- based off of polyvagal theory.  Episode 89
     
    1. ANS heavily involved in the ongoing weighing of two fundamental human needs -- two major objectives.  
      1. To survive -- Protection
      2. To bond relationally with others -- Connection
      3. This is the central theme of this discussion of our bodies and our traumas -- Protection and Connection.  How can we have both?  
      4. We have on the one hand a drive to survive -- cause if we don't, you know, we're dead.  On the other hand, we have this yearning to connect, to be in relationship with others 
      5. We need both -- to be protected and to be connected, but trauma puts those two indispensable needs -- protection and connection into tension.  Can't have both.  

    1. If we are experiencing trauma, our ANS automatically moves us away from seeking connection with others to a position of protection. 
      1. In the state of protection -- we are seeking only survival.  Our nervous system is closed to connection with others.  It is closed to change.  There's only one goal.  Survive.  If we don't survive, nothing else is possible.  When we are in a state of protection, it's all about one that one thing: survival.  Nothing else matters.  
      2. However, when we are in a state of connection, we have so many more possibilities
         
        1. Health
      3.  
        1. Growth
      4.  
        1. Restoration
      5.  
        1. Change
      6.  

    1. Coming at this a different way
  13.  
    1. Going inside
  14.  
    1. Major question -- which parts of me are protecting -- my protectors in IFS
       
      1. Managers -- protecting proactively
    2.  
      1. Firefighters -- protecting reactively
    3.  
      1. Protecting exiles and protecting against exile
    4.  

  16. Experiential Exercise 3 -- Rigidity vs. Chaos -- Episode 92
     
    1. When a system is not optimally self-organizing, it veers toward
       
      1. Rigidity -- everything seems predictable
         
        1. Dorsal vagal shutdown, the freezing and numbing out state like in dissociation
           
          1. we discussed this in Episode 89 on polyvagal theory
        2.  
          1. This leads to rigidity
        3.  

        1. Examples 
          1. Extreme example would be hysterical paralysis
          2. Another example --  a deep, major depression


      1. Chaos -- everything seems completely unpredictable
         
        1. PTSD symptoms
           
          1. Flashbacks
        2.  
          1. Nightmares
        3.  

        1. Panic attacks
      3.  

      1. Or both -- e.g. bipolar disorder
         
        1. Depressive episode -- rigidity.  

        1. Manic episode -- chaos

      1. Daniel Siegel:  Every symptom of every disorder of the DSM-5 can be framed in terms of chaos or rigidity
      2. "Human suffering can be summed up in chaos and rigidity."  
      3. Health is found in the internal integration, where there is neither chaos nor rigidity.  

    1. When do I feel rigid
  18.  
    1. When do I feel chaotic
  19.  
    1. Rigidity is often a protector's response against chaos.  

  21. If you really understand the important of experience -- of experiencing change, not just thinking about it, not just considering it, but really experiencing it throughout your being, I have an invitation for you.  
    1. If you really responded to these experiential exercises, I have an invitation for you
    2. I want to invite you to the Resilient Catholics Community -- the RCC
    3. There is nothing else really like it out there
       
      1. All about being loved and loving with your whole hear -- all of your being, every fiber of who you are, all your parts.  

      1. It's all about resolving the human formation issues that have thwarted your capacity to be loved and to love.  To be vulnerable, to be connected rather than protecting yourself so much. 

      1. All about restoration -- recovering from being dominated by shame, fear, anger, sadness, pessimism, whatever your struggle is in the depths of your human formation
    6.  
    7. And we do this work experientially -- so many experiential exercises, more than 100 of them for you, you can't get these reflections and guidance anywhere else.
       
      1. Informed by Internal Family Systems and the best of the rest of psychological resources
    8.  
      1. All grounded in a Catholic understanding of the human person
    9.  
      1. All focused on helping you to better accept love and to love more fully, to carry out the two great commandments of our Lord.  

    11. The RCC is a serious commitment -- the whole first year is just that -- a year-long experience of 44 weekly company meetings with those who will be accompanying you on a pilgrimage to much better human formation.
       
      1. On that pilgrimage you have a companion to journey with and for daily connection.  

    13. Are you up for the challenge?  Would you like to join me and the rest of the pioneers in this adventure?  Do you want to be a part of the community?  
      1. Are you ready to prevail over whatever hinders your human formation -- would you like to no longer be dominated by fear, anger, shame, sadness, pessimism?  And would you like to be with other like-minded Catholics on the journey --
      2. If so join me.  Join all of us in the Resilient Catholics Community.  The RCC
    14. We are taking applications throughout June of 2022 for our third cohort, those in that cohort will start their adventure in June and July by taking our Initial Measures Kits and be getting feedback on their parts in a personal Zoom session with me.  It's a great chance for us to get to know each other, really know each other at the level of parts.  You'll get a 5 or 6 page report on your internal system and then be eligible for our weekly company meetings and programming to begin in late August or early September.  
    15. Sign up  for the June waiting list -- Souls and Hearts.com/rcc -- or just do an internet search for the Resilient Catholics Community.  
  22. Not ready for that yet?  Sign up for my email reflections every week at soulsandhearts.com -- addressing the topic of lying and deception in this current series.  Every Wednesday.  
  23. Patronness and Patron
 

What is Interior Integration for Catholics?

The mission of this podcast is the formation of your heart in love and for love, Together, we shore up the natural, human foundation for your spiritual formation as a Catholic. St. Thomas Aquinas asserts that without this inner unity, without this interior integration, without ordered self-love, you cannot enter loving union with God, your Blessed Mother, or your neighbor. Informed by Internal Family Systems approaches and grounded firmly in a Catholic understanding of the human person, this podcast brings you the best information, the illuminating stories, and the experiential exercises you need to become more whole in the natural realm. This restored human formation then frees you to better live out the three loves in the two Great Commandments – loving God, your neighbor, and yourself. Check out the Resilient Catholics Community which grew up around this podcast at https://www.soulsandhearts.com/rcc.