Throughout all of the Human Infusion Project online courses and presentations, I'll refer to this 4-stage working framework. It's one that I used in my own whole-brain strengthening, integrative recovery, and serves as an outline of the foundational process I saw running through many different therapeutic, spiritual and psychological healing approaches. So first I'll share its outline, and then I'll elaborate and share how it came to be. So although this post is a bit of a longer read, I believe it's informative and will give you some helpful background about the Human Infusion Project.
AN INTEGRATIVE, BRAIN-STRENGTHENING CHANGE FRAMEWORK
So let’s first take a quick look at the change process framework that I found running through many of the approaches that practitioners, therapists, psychologists and spiritual leaders use. It’s the basic sequence or stages behind sustainable mind-body change or integrative growth and recovery. I’ve summed it up into these 4 Basic Stages:
Stage 1 - (S1) Learn and Understand
Or said another way, in order to head where you want to go, you first need to know how you got where you are. Here, we do this by gaining knowledge about you, your brain, your body and how patterns get created. And then developing a few essential skills that you’ll need later. This stage also builds foundational neural pathways that will act like infrastructure that supports and facilitates higher-level learning, later in the process. And this new knowledge will give you the needed objectivity that anchor you to the work, even when times are challenging. You can learn more about the classes in this stage here.
Stage 2 - (S2) Discover and Prepare
This is where our classes show you how to get specific details about what’s at the root of your behavior, clarify where you want to go from here, and then guide you in setting the stage to optimize your change efforts. You can learn more about the classes in this stage here.
Stage 3 - (S3) Implement and Establish
This is the stage where you'll take everything you've learned and discovered so far about your brain, body and yourself, and put into a customized, daily brain- strengthening and emotional response system refinement practice. (coming soon!)
and finally….
Stage 4 - (S4) Amplify and Infuse
Here is where you begin to integrate your new way of operating into your relationships and life, transfer the rewards of your hard work and keep them coming across many different areas of your life. Once you get to this stage, you'll have an opportunity to be pass on what you've learned as a member of the Modern Sage Society™.
Overall,
What results..is a brain and body operating in such a way that it amplifies and infuses who you are and what you value at your core… into everything you do.
How the framework was developed
As I've shared throughout my posts and presentations, my husband and I burned out in our careers and our marriage nearly imploded in 2015. So we began the process of reaching out for support and gaining more knowledge in different emotional recovery and emotional development approaches. All I can say is "wow"! In the 30 years since I first started personal growth work, the number of incredible people with interesting strategies who are ready, willing and eager to help us out is enormous! I could fill this page with the long list of coping techniques and healing approaches that are out there to choose from. I know you can relate to what I'm talking about. It's sort of like, have you ever been motivated to do something and then just get immobilized with too many options? - Option Paralysis. It’s real! Even in the field of personal development.
Now, please don’t misunderstand me. There are some really amazing people out there trained in all sorts of modalities, practices and fields of study. And they all specialize in a lot of really helpful areas. Each type of practitioner provides incredible insight into a specific theory, a specific approach or a specific area of the human brain – one piece of the pie so to speak. Which means..
..we end up with a lot of really helpful strategies, but they’re all kind of disconnected, incomplete and competing for our attention.
And I don’t know about you, but I personally don’t want to be going to six different therapists or practitioners… just to get a comprehensive approach to improving my life.
So I systematically started researching, studying and weaving them together myself. I applied the research-supported aspects of several different emotional development approaches, and then isolated out the tools I found to be the most effective and transferrable across many aspects of my life. Then I committed to intensive, personal development work over the next 4-5 years, recovering and reshaping my brain and body from the inside, out. as well as the outside, in.
And I worked with some excellent therapists along the way. But I also wanted to accelerate my growth, do more and go beyond what I gained in my one-hour, weekly or biweekly sessions. Fortunately, due to rapid technological advances in the 90's, the field of neuroscience has been seeing rapid growth. Scientists now have the ability to see and monitor how the brain produces thought and emotion. And they have a deeper understanding of their effect on human behavior. The language of 'Possibility' has now become 'Science'. I was fascinated and systematically spent the next 5 years working with therapists as I could afford it, but also studying as much research as I could get my hands on, the latest in modern brain science, a multitude of applied psychology theory, NLP, somatic therapy, the neurobiology of trauma, modern leadership, quantum physics, 12-step work, and even Buddhism.
And I was surprised to find that even the most seemingly unrelated topics were basically teaching very similar concepts.
Let me explain.
Of course, there is no one ideal way to approach personal growth, emotional intelligence or mind-body connection. I get that. We’re all a bit different, so different approaches, constructs or strategies will appeal to each of us. But the more I study, the more I find that brain science, psychology and even spirituality are all simply using different language to describe related processes that lead to the same outcome.
And that shared outcome is …. comprehensive, whole brain use, a flexible, moderate yet diverse emotional experience, and sustainable mind-body-spiritual connection.
So, if we’re all ultimately heading to the same destination, why make it unnecessarily confusing?
It makes sense to me how it happens.
Becoming an expert in anything, whether its psychology, science OR spirituality, requires exclusive study of one specific subject right? But when it comes to practical, helpful application in the more comprehensive field of personal development...
...it’s hard to find a clear and concise description that pulls them all together, one that effectively plays off the strengths of each discipline, or one that explains the commonalities that underpin so many of them.
That’s sort of the downside of specializing.
It can make it harder to see how your one piece fits comprehensively into the bigger picture for the good of the people you are trying to serve. The truth is that we have a lot of modalities and approaches out there, each representing a 'piece of the pie', but nothing that synthesizes them all into something that’s comprehensively useful.
We have cognitive approaches that minimize the importance of emotion.
We have compassion or spiritual based approaches that underemphasize the importance of intellectual or emotional development.
We have all sorts of terrific practices and approaches for connecting to our core nature and our more energetic essence. But they skip over the fact that we are encased in a human physical body that isn’t fully developed or operating as efficiently as it was designed to.
I believe that all or most strategies can play a part. But where do they fit in?
Where’s the framework or map that shows us how we got where we are, shows us how to get where we’re heading and where along the way we can customize our growth process to meet our individual needs?
When I began my own recovery, I wasn’t looking for a detailed map to get started. I just wanted a map. ANY map. Period. Something that met me where I was, in that unmoored and anchor-less state... something that could get me started in a direction, at least until I got some traction on my own. So sharing this framework, and how it can be used, will be part of all my class presentations. And the Whole-Brain Relationships class is part of Stage One (S1) of this framework: increasing your awareness through education. Or said differently, gaining a better understanding of what you’re dealing with when it comes to the brain and pattern change.
So why are there so many people out there telling you that you that lasting change can happen quickly and it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable at all?
Well, I try to assume good intention, but it's possible they either don’t fully understand the science behind how the brain processes change. Or they may not be thinking comprehensively and integratively about strengthening your brain and body as a whole. It’s possible to learn how to intermittently interrupt our old patterns, reframe our conscious thoughts to avoid uncomfortable emotion, and temporarily shift our emotional state with in-the-moment coping strategies.
But to create new unconscious thought-patterns that sustainably translate to your body and emotional nervous system... then maintain it until it becomes automatic...all while strengthening and integrating your brain so you can use it relationally and as a whole? THAT requires new learning, comprehensive skill development and repetitious dedication to a set of diverse practices over time.
So, the Whole-Brain Relationships class represents the first of two steps in Stage One of the Integrative change process – awareness through brain and body education. And by the end of it, you’ll have a better understanding that:
Integrative, brain-strengthening pattern change involves a combination of three fundamental approaches:
Organizing, strengthening and then integrating the use of your whole brain,
Refining and developing your emotional experience
Re-connecting to your core values. And then...
Infusing who you really are at core into your relationships, both at work and in your personal life.
And in this foundational class, you’ll learn why each of those areas are so important and why the initial discomfort that goes with change is natural and even a bit necessary. Remember, the real goal here is not just about empowering you to GET yourself healthy. It’s about empowering you to learn how to KEEP yourself healthy as well. Lasting change isn’t just about a momentary change of mind. For for your brain and body to neuro-chemically and physiologically adopt your changes and make them automatic, there is a process it must go through. And you’ve already taken the first step… by showing up here to learn more about the Human Infusion Project. So nice job.
So, are you ready to begin?
Check out what you'll learn in the Stage 1 (S1) course below
What is takes to feel more calm, confident and connected
- at work AND in love.
The Human Infusion Project is a grassroots, not-for-profit personal development platform that draws from the combined fields of modern brain science, applied psychology and spiritual philosophy. Our mission aims to augment and supplement the work of professional practitioners in simplified, practical ways, and to give clients an affordable home program they can use in between sessions. 100% of all online class profit funds the Wellness Assistance Grant. If financial constraints limit your participation, please contact me and we'll work something out.
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