'Integrity' holds the dual senses of moral uprightness and wholeness. It includes the sense of trueness to self and others that develops when our words and actions coincide in honest and transparent ways. It also entails the spiritual work that has to do with integrating the different parts of ourselves and our relationships into a whole throughout life. We may see these two definitions as distinct and even at odds to each other, one moral and one psychological, when in fact they carry a synergy that belies a deep truth.
Hebrew scripture calls out regularly for integrity of heart and uprightness in our stance facing God and the world, and teaches us much about what righteousness can look like. We may not be aware, however, that our own sense of internal rightness with self (self-integrity) adds so much to our own sense of peace and well-being.
Matt Bloom, in Thriving in Ministry: How to Cultivate Clergy Well-being reminds us that, "We now know, for example, that people who have self-integrity—a balanced, secure, and positive identity—enjoy many benefits. They tend to have higher daily wellbeing and stronger resilience. They have better interpersonal relationships, including better marriages. They are positive leaders and valued work colleagues. They adjust well to a myriad of different life changes and challenges. Research shows, for example, that people with self-integrity deal very well with health challenges. They adjust much better and much faster to personal losses, such as the death of a loved one. People with self-integrity continue to grow and develop over their entire lives, especially in their senior years. They are vibrant, alive, and contributing to the lives of others and to the world around them." (p. 37)
The key to understanding the connection between the two meanings of integrity is to recognize that an expansion of personal well-being leads to increased well-being of the whole as well. Dan Siegel argues in IntraConnected: MWE (Me + We) as the Integration of Self, Identity and Belonging, "With the internal embraced, we move to the relational; we integrate identity, broaden belonging. What arises is a synergy of self, an emergence of something from the Me and We that is integration made visible: kindness, compassion, love. (p. 49).
Seigel cites Robin Wall Kimmerer, who makes the point this way in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, "There are layers upon layers of reciprocity in this garden between the bean and the bacterium, the bean and the corn, the corn and the squash and ultimately with the people…. The beauty of the partnership is that each plant does what it does in order to increase it's own growth, but as it happens when the individuals flourish, so does the whole." (p. 38)
May our own ways of being and the partnerships that we engage in reflect ever more clearly the kindness, compassion and love of integration made visible.
