Getting It Together: the Integrative Wisdom Process

In one of the most famous soliloquies ever written, Shakespeare’s Hamlet struggles to come to terms with his life that is starting to spin out of control:

To be, or not to be--that is the question: 

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep--

No more--and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to.

“The thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” Not only does Shakespeare famously dangle a preposition, but he puts his finger directly upon the central issue of how we handle all that life throws at us. As someone has put it, “No one escapes this world unscathed.” The “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” pierce and wound all of us at one point in time or another. Some have said that the song “I never Promised You a Rose Garden,” is one that could easily be sung about God. Others point out that even if we do get a rose garden, it is notoriously full of thorns. “The thousand natural shocks” indeed.

Just this last week another series of catastrophes was visited upon our world in the form of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. At this writing, over 10,000 people have been confirmed as having died, and thousands more are missing still. There have been three explosions at nuclear plants as a result of the earthquakes and tsunamis, and dangerous radiation is leaking into the air.

Catastrophes such as this, as well as wars, tragic deaths, long-term abuse, bone-grinding poverty, displacement from homes and a thousand other tragedies and traumas scar and wound us deeply. Many of our soldiers regularly return from the battlefront suffering from what is clinically named Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This same disorder afflicts people who have gone through the other traumas I listed.

The PubMed Health website discusses PTSD and points out the following:

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may occur soon after a major trauma, or it can be delayed for more than 6 months after the event. When it occurs soon after the trauma, it usually gets better after 3 months. However, some people have a longer-term form of PTSD, which can last for many years.

PTSD can occur at any age and can follow a natural disaster such as a flood or fire, or events such as war, a prison stay, assault, domestic abuse, or rape. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States may have caused PTSD in some people who were involved, in people who saw the disaster, and in people who lost relatives and friends. These kinds of events can produce stress in anyone, but not everyone develops PTSD.

The cause of PTSD is unknown, but psychological, genetic, physical, and social factors are involved. PTSD changes the body’s response to stress. It affects the stress hormones and chemicals that carry information between the nerves (neurotransmitters). Having been exposed to trauma in the past may increase the risk of PTSD.

Having good social support helps to protect against PTSD. In studies of Vietnam veterans, those with strong support systems were less likely to get PTSD than those without social support.

People with PTSD re-experience the event again and again in at least one of several ways. They may have frightening dreams and memories of the event, feel as though they are going through the experience again (flashbacks), or become upset during anniversaries of the event.

Treatment aims to reduce symptoms by encouraging you to recall the event, express your feelings, and gain some sense of control over the experience. In some cases, expressing grief helps to complete the necessary mourning process. Support groups, where people who have had similar experiences can share their feelings, are helpful.

While PTSD represents an extreme case of the lasting effects of trauma, anyone who has experienced a tragedy or trauma of some form will bear the effects emotionally and psychologically, if not physically. If part of the treatment is to gain some sense of control over the event, just how does one go about doing that? How do we integrate the tragedies and traumas of life – the outrageous fortunes, that Hamlet decries – into our lives in a way that can become a source of meaning and even insight for us? How can we gain control in this way, rather than remain subject to their control of us?

The vast riches of the Christian religious tradition provide a framework for coming to grips with the “sea of troubles” we have experienced throughout life. Over the years I have assembled many of these practices into what I call an Integrative Wisdom Process. The barebones outline of the process is as follows:

A      Describe your Worldview and your core beliefs about the way things are. What are the deepest values you hold about life? What do your religious beliefs say about the world?

B      Determine the Way to live in accord with that worldview. What does a Christian life look like? What are the components that make it up? How does one live intentionally?

C      Self-assessment of how things are in your life. This practice was regularly urged by John Wesley upon all who earnestly desired to live a Christian life. Meeting in small groups, early Methodists would ask one another, “How is it with your soul this week?”

1      Honestly examine how your behaviors, attitudes, actions, reactions, align with the above description or understanding of a Christian life. Not in order to heap guilt upon yourself, but in order to soberly and truthfully assess what requires your attention.

D      Examine the course of your life, naming those things that have influenced you, for the better as well as for the worse. What are your sources of strength? What are your wounds and weaknesses?

E      Examine traumas, wounds, need for healing.

F      Determine what needs to be changed or healed personally in order to live in accord with your deepest commitments and beliefs in life. Find specific spiritual practices, moral behaviors and forms of engagement that are beneficial to society that you can do.

G     Become involved in an accountability group of some sort.

I refer to this as an Integrative Wisdom Process because it is based on the understanding that wisdom is developmental in nature, and it involves the work of reweaving the pieces and frayed threads of our life into an integrated whole. This is, after all, what it means to live with integrity. However, this process of becoming wise must be structured and guided. Just because one has a lot of life-experience does not mean one is wise.

Wisdom entails the ability to reflect upon critical experiences, problems or difficulties one has experienced or encountered in one’s life, as well as the ability to (self-)critically examine the factors, etiology and development of those experiences, problems or difficulties. In addition, wisdom includes the capacity to derive modes of behavior and mental attitudes based upon this analysis that are conducive to the adaptive well-being of one personally, and the commitment to extend those modes of adaptive well-being to others.

Wisdom is best achieved through an intentional and directed process of self-reflection, engagement in adaptive, therapeutic and formational practices, and participation in a community of support and accountability with people who share your religious beliefs and commitments.

Hamlet provides us with a portrait of someone who did not seek out such a process. Instead of finding a way that provided strength, healing and the positive development of character, he instead chose to be defined and shaped by his thousand natural shocks, and taking up arms against his sea of troubles by opposing was ended by them. Too soon did he shuffle off this mortal coil. The same need not happen to us.