The economics of being integral is a good news and bad news situation. Even possessing an interest in this work seems to correlate with development that’s moving toward increasingly integral waves awareness, resulting in the capacity to see more, feel more, care more, and love more — a capacity for an awareness that is simply greater and more encompassing.

In the late Spring of 2011, a truly global group of integral practitioners stopped by Ken’s loft for a visit. These folks were taking part in Boulder Integral’s Incubator intensive, a week-long workshop aimed to help folks bring to life their integral projects, and Ken was tasked with inspiring their visions. As the hour and a half long talk unfolded, it became increasingly clear that Ken wasn’t merely speaking to the incubator participants—he was speaking to all practitioners of an Integral approach, to everyone who’s faced the dignity and disaster of treading an integral path.

The economics of being integral is a good news and bad news situation. Even possessing an interest in this work seems to correlate with development that’s moving toward increasingly integral waves awareness, resulting in the capacity to see more, feel more, care more, and love more—a capacity for an awareness that is simply greater and more encompassing. With this expansion comes freedom. Freedom from the view that your values are the one and only true values. Freedom from the notion that life is a battle of your beliefs versus the beliefs of everyone else. And freedom from a self-conception that’s stuck identifying with the path of its own evolution.

So on the one hand, you have a general loosening and expansion of consciousness, but, on the other, the story is a bit more grim. To possess a degree of awareness that’s unmatched by a preponderance of those around you simply means that you’re no stranger to being lonely. And beyond the pain of isolation, this fact can manifest in your development as well, leading you to operate beneath your true potential—just to fit in. Then, if you’re like any of the rest of us, you’ve dedicated great effort to converting friends. You’ve given out books, you’ve drawn quadrants on napkins, you’ve spoken at great length on the power of the integral vision and much, if not all, of your efforts have fallen on deaf ears. The challenge of communicating clearly about the integral approach is often times as hard as developing to integral levels of awareness in the first place. And therein, according to Ken, lies the key.

Once your awareness has opened, there’s no going back to partial, fragmented, and broken views. These shifts represent lasting change in the psychological structures at the heart of your being, and the a potential for similar shift exists in others. Instead of working to make others integral, allow your actions to become catalysts of these shifts, triggering others to undergo their own expansions, on their own terms. Bring your integral vision to life and as you do recognize that every behavior you take is anchored in evolution as a kosmic habit—the effects of which, although oftentimes unseen, possess the power to influence others toward more expansive modes of being.