An Evening Exercise in Personality Integration

This is an evening exercise of getting back in touch with all the parts of yourself and integrating your personality. Before you follow any advice from this article in the suggested exercises, select a blank book or spiral and a good pen, block off an evening of time if possible and then begin. Set a timer for 20 minutes. Turn on your favorite slow relaxing songs and either lie down or sit in a relaxed position. Close your eyes and take deep breaths in and out slowly. Let your mind drift over peaceful, happy memories. Or create your own daydream and visualize the kind of life that would be your dream life. Let your imagination go wild. Paint a beautiful future for yourself or the happiest dream life you can imagine to live.

You don't have to tell anyone about it. It can be your secret you have with yourself alone in the sanctuary you create in your mind. As you paint the pictures in your mind, use your five senses. Are you walking on a beach with gritty sand between your toes or ocean tides washing over your toes? Does that vivid hill of wild flowers smell wonderful and refreshing? Can you imagine the taste of cool lemonade by considering the sharp smell of citrus in your paradise?

When the timer goes off, slowly open your eyes and stretch a bit. If you turned the light out, adjust to the darkness a bit before you turn on any harsh light. Now give yourself a writing assignment. You could sit at your word processor if you insist but there is an inspiring rhythm when you write by your own handwriting in a journal or even a spiral with a comfortable writing pen.

Now here's the assignment. While all your daydreaming is fresh on your mind in your relaxed state, take the pen and paper or word processor and write whatever you can remember from it. Do not edit yourself. Just brainstorm in a kind of flow writing any thought however silly or ridiculous or lame it may seem to be to you. Do not judge your thoughts. This journal is for your eyes only and it is intended for you to keep in a safe place. Write freely for a good ten minutes without stopping. You can stop at five the first time if you want to then build up to more another time.

After you stop writing, do something totally unrelated to writing. Go for a short walk or do some household chore or take a hot bubble bath with candles. Just do something different from writing.

Now when you are done with the activity or bubble bath, go back to your journal and read what you wrote. Don't criticize yourself or judge yourself for the thoughts you wrote down. But imagine how you would view the questions that come to your mind at different stages in your life to bring about integration.

One last writing assignment is to write a dialogue in your journal of what you realized from writing about yourself from the different parts of your personality that make you who you are. As you take time to practice these exercises, they will help you get in touch with the real you, an authentic you, and integrate your personality.