Integration
A reflection written from within the process (and an important follow up caveat written after it).
Integration:
Why it’s the most important piece in the game of change.
And how it might look.
It’s been 5 days since a long slow goodbye to the oh-so-expansive 2025 Breathe Festival and I am sat with a sea view at dawn and taking some time to reflect on what was shared and, crucially, how what was shared informs what happens next.
For 4 hot August days on beautiful Dorset land, in the arms of the wonderful Leela Community and the Big Oak Tree - I joined a stellar team of breathwork facilitators to co-hold a Festival of Life.
The only UK breathwork festival of its kind, Breathe has been going for 7 years and you can feel the experience and wisdom it embodies as a result.
Each facilitator and assistant brought their powerful medicine up and out into the space.
And whilst my intention is to talk more about their work on IG over the coming months, for now I want to give some attention to the importance of the space before, after and in between the work.
The INTEGRATION
It’s importance
And how it may not look the way you think it might.
And how INTEGRATION is actually the bit that changes EVERYTHING.
In typical, full plate style. I had already committed to a bunch of things immediately after the festival. (I am still learning that commitments take time and energy and that I may not always have infinite supplies of both). But it meant - after a long afternoon of goodbyes and a swim and a walk and all the hugs - I went straight into unpacking and packing again and then working.
Whilst some of my new found friends took their soft shell selves to lay down in pastures, bob about in the sea, journal page after page, meditate, recalibrate gently, rest and be in the softness of a cocoon.
And it got me thinking of the difference of those two (not better, not worse) options.
Here’s what came through.
I would love to have bobbed and rested. I deeply appreciate the wonder of returning to the world slowly, mindfully, with the snow in the snow dome settled once more.
I have experienced that and it is gorgeous and wise.
AND (God, I love an AND), in returning to the world straight away, I have immediately been able to witness the impact of 4 days of breath in my bones on my ability to be in my life differently.
The work I did the day after Breathe was hot and physically demanding and fast paced and to a deadline, and I was able to regularly remember to bring the breath to stop the spin but keep the wheels turning.
The business conversations I had on Tuesday were disruptive to the status quo and required fast pivots and I was able to be with them and stay centred.
The Breathe gathering and the practices shared have permeated my cells.
Everything, life, feels so much more available.
My energy is up.
My system is open and receptive.
And the challenges of life feel less challenging.
I feel more capable and resilient.
It has been a beautiful reminder of the power of the breath really as a tool for life.
And I know that so soon because I have been up and out in my life the last 5 days
The INTEGRATION has been happening in the moment.
Not in the cocoon before the emergence into the world.
I know for myself that I can get so cosy in the cocoon that I don’t want to come out into the “real” world. But the truth for me is that I do this work SO I can engage fully with the “real” world and be an active part of shaping it.
And that requires us to be able to unearth and excavate and really BE with all the tender complex parts of ourselves (so so lovingly) and then to ACT from that place.
Integration for me is the practice of letting it all be part of the mix.
And that can be done laying solo in green pastures and not springing into action
AND it can be done out in the vibrant connected and yes complex world.
It can be done by allowing the full experience of what you have explored to be deeply felt.
AND It can be done by being IN your life with what you have unearthed.
It is a testing out, a merging, a pouring the viscous milk into the clear strained tea and tasting the blend
It can be transcendental and it can be very much not.
What I really want to say is these 2 things.
There are a thousand ways to integrate. It doesn’t need to look a certain way. It’s more important how it feels to you and your system and (as always) that you take good care of yourself in that.
And for me the purpose of any kind of breathwork or therapeutic intervention (in and down) is to embody the change and bring that forth into the world (up and out) when you are ready.
INTEGRATED WORK THAT INSPIRED ME A BREATHE
In this regard I was particularly inspired by the decolonisation work of Nicola of
https://www.instagram.com/grownasswomencollective/
The breaking cycles Intergenerational trauma work of Sugeewa and Hannah at TURN Breathwork
https://www.instagram.com/turnbreathwork/
The social change work of Amanda of Liminal Directions
Thank you for your time and attention, loves.
I wonder, what does integration look like for you?
Cat x
AND NOW FOR THAT CAVEAT
Some days after I wrote the above piece, something else came in to view.
I stand by what I said above but there are 2 important caveats.
I have quite well developed range to be able to hold several (sometimes conflicting things) in my system and not collapse. This has come from decades of doing this work, from my age, my general constitution, my astrology, my mind even and from many years practicing integrating, post expansion.
I also run a pattern of skimming the surface or avoiding the deeper thing. A sort of circling the plughole for longer than most. And a really good way of convinging myself I am not! And it’s possible that the above post had a little of the squirrelly avoidant pattern in the mix.
So then I wrote this follow up piece… on the squirrelly patterns of avoidance.
Maybe read that one too.
Much love
Cat x