When we relate to our feelings as these stuck parts of us that need to be released in order to live more fully and alive, we can sometimes miss the deeper point in the process of inner growth, which is not as much about releasing as it is about integration.

Part of integration/coming into integrity with ourselves means embracing our feelings.

Allowing them to run through us like the medicine they are. Being with them, where they are at. Not to shame them away, or only release them and remove them—but to allow them, and give them permission to move through as they desire.

I've found that focusing on integration work over only catharsis or release in our inner growth journey, is what creates a more cohesive, more safe experience for us here.

Working with an integrative approach includes catharsis or emotional releases in a way that honors our developmental, environmental, and nervous system states.

Don't get me wrong—I love and find great value in emotional release work, and practice it with clients in various ways (breathwork, bodywork and other modalities).

Yet while emotional release work is important for "emotional hygiene", the foundations (like developmental work, somatic healing, nervous system regulation, subconscious rewiring, slowing down, "being with", etc.) are incredibly important in order to build an integrated, solid, foundation.

To learn to be with. To learn to ground. To learn to hold. To learn to find deep embodiment. To learn to find quiet faith.

Much of our most profound inner shifts are completed in moments of the quietest alchemy.

(And—to leave space for nuance: "both/and")

Catharsis lasts for some time. Integrating deep permission and regulation lasts forever.