Here’s What’s Wrong with Integrity

What's wrong with integrity? Morality. That’s what’s wrong with integrity. Under the influence of legalistic religiosity, in Western culture, integrity has been reduced to morality. It’s been reduced to adhering to an external, imagined, universal moral code. It’s invisible until it’s chiseled in massive granite slabs for publicly display.

Some assume everyone agrees on what the moral code is. They are shocked when it becomes clear that others have different moral codes.

Some believe one, divinely revealed moral code applies to everyone whether they think so or not. (Do you know how many versions there are of the Ten Commandments?) Their righteousness is offended, even threatened, by those who believe otherwise.

Westerners have no consensus on one moral code that applies to everyone. Western culture is morally diverse rather than monolithic.

But before the dominance of religiosity in Western culture, integrity is not reduced to adhering to a moral code. It’s about parts being in their natural state, untouched and integrated into a whole. Wonderfully, this view of integrity survives.

An old growth forest has integrity until a “developed” nation’s lumber industry workers touch it with saws, bulldozers, and trucks.

A building with integrity is whole and sound. All of its parts fit securely together. Its windows and doors open, close, and lock securely. Wind and burglars can’t get in. Its roof doesn’t leak when it rains. It remains standing in strong winds. All of its mechanical parts work. 

A person of integrity is one whose heart, hands, head, and homies hum together in harmony. Her spirit, body, relationships, and mind are healthy, whole, and in synch with each other. 

When integrity is reduced to morality, it’s about shaming and punishing those who violate the code. It’s about coercing and forcing everyone to comply.

No moral code has been morally imposed on others.

When integrity is about being sound, healthy, and whole, it’s about virtue. And virtue, like integrity isn’t about morality. 

Virtue is about strength; strength of spirit, body, relationships, and mind. Strength of life.

It’s morally good to invest in integrity, virtue, and life. The choice is yours.

Goal of Life Therapy: A Process

The goal of Life Therapy is to engage in the therapeutic process.Therapy is the process of attending to, serving, and taking care of. It’s not healing; it facilitates healing.

Healing is the natural process of becoming an integrated whole. It happens with and without therapy. 

Physical Therapy is the process of attending to, serving, and taking care of your physical body. Psychotherapy is the process of attending to, serving, and taking care of your psyche, your mind. Life Therapy is the process of attending to, serving, and taking care of your life.

As Physical Therapy nurtures physical integrity, and psychotherapy nurtures psychological integrity, Life Therapy nurtures the integrity of your life. 

Unfortunately, religiosity has restricted the meaning of integrity to moral integrity. Moral integrity is about complying with an externally imposed moral code. It’s about living up to someone else’s expectations.

In therapy, integrity means “sound, whole, complete.” Integrity in physical therapy is about the wholeness of your body. In psychotherapy, it’s about the soundness of your mind. In Life Therapy, integrity is about the soundness, wholeness, and completeness of your life.

A life of integrity is an integrated life. It’s when your heart, hands, homies, and head harmonize as a whole.

“Heart” refers to your spirit, that which makes you alive. “Hands” refers to your body and what you do. “Homies” refers to your relationships and social groups. “Head,” intentionally listed last, refers to your mind, your mental processes.

When your spiritbodymind and relations harmonize, your life is integrated. You are integrated, whole, and healthy.

Change is the essence of life. As your life is ever-changing, so is your life’s integrity/ wholeness/health. It’s fluid. It’s more or less healthy. 

As you attend to, serve, and take care of your life, your life naturally becomes sound, whole, and complete.