Sigmund Freud was perhaps the first Western physician to study the internal life of his patients. Centuries before Freud, Indian yogis studied the inner workings of the mind. And early in Roman history, several disparate men retreated to the desert for a contemplative life. These became known in the Christian Church as the Desert Fathers.

What do all these movements have in common? An internal search. A search for something deeper than life’s day-to-day routines. Freud chose to study the unconscious. The Indian yogis pursued the depth of the soul. The Desert Fathers studied their own inner nature.

Freud studied the unconscious to integrate it into consciousness. The Indian yogis studied the nature of God to achieve union with divinity. The Desert Fathers studied their own inner nature with humility, to release any tendencies that took them away from God.

What is the divine? The yogis reference an inner ecstasy, far surpassing mortal pleasures. The Desert Fathers, like the yogis, saw God as omnipotent, omniscient, and both transcendent and omnipresent. God is in the smallest leaf, a gift of bread, a glance across the room. God is in small things and large and, to the yogis and to the Desert Fathers, always accessible.

One modern day teacher has said, “In order to see the face of God, you must see your own face first.” Self-recognition is key to enlightenment. This is where Freud comes in. We need to look within. And what we see first is usually not our essential, God-given face. We see the parts of ourselves that we haven’t wanted to look at. We see the repressed, the unconscious, the hidden tendencies that hide our essential nature. And until we allow these into consciousness and integrate them, we are bound by them.

The Indian yogis call this samsara — repeating the same bad habits over and over. Enlightenment, at least to a degree, is facing the unresolved aspects of our consciousness. These are not always pretty. But until we integrate them, we remain fragmented and bound.

Carl Gustav Jung recognized that integrity comes from integration. Integration is integrating the hard stuff as well as the easy stuff. Integration depends on soul-searching — not to eschew the negative, nasty sides of your character, but to recognize them. To say, yes, you’re there. Yes, you have a reason for being. Yes, you and I are in evolution together. We need to make sense of each other. I cannot give you free rein. Neither can I repress you. I must find where you stand in my life and let you wash through me. This is freedom. This is not license, but freedom to recognize who I am at any given moment. This freedom leads to greater freedom, and to wholeness — integration, integrity.

We see the face of something we long ago decided we didn’t want to look at. And we look. And it resolves. And then we see the next face. And we look. And it resolves. The faces and feelings we have been unwilling to face are the doorway to freedom.

The faces and feelings we have been unwilling to face are the doorway to freedom.

What’s Next for Me?

Your inner life holds the keys to your physical, mental, and emotional health. Once you have the keys to wholeness, you can embrace a daily practice. Until you have the keys, a guide is helpful. Schedule a 20-minute discovery call to assess the areas of life you would most like to work on. You’re on your way to a life surprisingly and delightfully free of the things that currently hold you back. Will challenges end? No. Will you have the internal resources to deal with them? Yes. You’re on your way to a greater freedom and ease than you have known to be possible.