Over a decade ago, I was sitting with some friends in a spiritual community sharing how I felt like I was missing instructions on how to navigate life. Yes, I was already a therapist and a spiritual seeker for many years. Somehow, I was missing the how to for my life still. I felt at a loss that even in the spaces I was in, no one was talking about this.
How to deal with a relationship issue? How to overcome my burn out? How to navigate sexuality? What to do with my aloneness or loneliness if not try different people/activities/things to fill it? How to be in alignment with personal integrity in this world which sometimes calls for us to lie for the benefit and well being of others or even our own personal survival and well being?
So many other questions and versions remained unanswered. This week I was reminded about that time and about the struggle that many feel, but find it difficult to admit. The struggle we feel in navigating our daily lives in alignment with who we really are.
The “Functional but Deficient” Adult
Many of us feel, consciously or unconsciously, that we didn’t get the guidance that we needed to navigate our lives. Yes, we are functioning and relatively healthy adults. We may hold great jobs, having relationships, community, wealth, and even children that we are raising or have raised.
At the same time, we feel deficient. And we can’t and don’t want to admit it.
Each of our egos has it’s own flavor. Trying to be the strong one. Shame. Numbing out and dissociating. Hiding. Pride.
The Reality of “Soul Parenting”
The reality is this – we needed parenting for our souls.
But our own parents/caregivers though also functioned as adults, were also just like us – they didn’t receive all the elements they needed to become wise, mature adults who navigated their lives. Like us, they too used the skills they had and with some patchwork, things were often good enough that we ended up as we are.
Even in spiritual communities, despite having access to incredible embodiment of awakening, many of us don’t know how to translate what we experience and perceive in our lives. We may have experienced so much, opened so much. Yet, parts of us still feel alone and incapable. And we too end up with leveraging our strengths while creating a patchwork of functionality.
It’s not our fault. It is simply the best we could do with the tools we had.
Like the soul, a pearl does not arrive fully formed; it is a slow, sacred development of turning grit into grace.
What is Psychospiritual Integration?
There is a way though. This way is what I call psychospiritual integration. It gets us connected with our bodies, inner guidance. It helps us uncover or cultivate the necessary and needed elements to learn how to be there for us in our daily lives. These needed elements include inner guidance, wisdom, joy, compassion, love, passion, peace and much more. Whether it is becoming aware of and transforming our wounds that block who we really are, or developing our capacities, there is a path towards maturity.
I remember a decade ago how innocent my perspective of spirituality, love and growth were. It was really beautiful. And in some ways simple. To have cultivated/recovered maturity, inner wisdom, guidance showing up in places where I still don’t know the answers is a gift that developed with psychospiritual integration and embodiment.
If you want to know more about what it is I do, there are a few ways.
- Free Meditation in Park on Saturdays – Saturday at 10:00 AM. A gentle, community space to begin the practice of returning to your real self.
- The Deep Dive (Group): My new women’s group, “Rediscovering Our Feminine Essence,” is for those ready to bridge cultural identity with somatic depth. You can get more information and watch a short video about this work here:https://ruchikamehta.com/group-classes-workshops/#feminine-essence
- One-on-One Psychospiritual Integration: If you feel called to do this intensive, personal work to uncover your inner guidance and transform the wounds that block your essence, I have limited space for new individual clients.
If you are curious to explore any of these streams with me, reach out—I’d love to hear your story.
May all who are seeking, consciously and unconsciously, find our way to a stream of developing that is resonant for our Being and soul. There really is nothing more precious than returning to our real selves, to be in this world living in alignment with our real selves and cultivating the means to live in alignment.