Integrating Polarities — Questions for Beena

I have the same question. So I am following.

Hi there Beena and Corey,

Thank you for making this course available for us as members !

When I saw the description of the course I got so curious because this material is something I have been working with for years but from a different context, with slightly different vocabulary and immediately recognised it. That’s also why I got trough the course in one go… (some months ago already).
I was just wondering if you are aware of the other framework. I am refering to the ‘core quadrants’ the work of “Daniel Ofman” from the Netherlands. The core quadrants is a tool to help you unravel/discover the wisdom in the polarity to put it in polarity terms. The quadrant looks a lot like Beena’s quadrant, organised a bit differently. But with the same 2 poles and their extremes… ! So I have been working with this a lot already . As such the course was not really ‘new’ for me but still worth it to hear it coming with a slightly different approach and wording. Expecially the business examples were interesting. I was using the tools mostly in one-on-one coaching to reveal interpersonal dynamics but thanks to this course I feel more confident in using it for business as well.

And after years of giving people useful insights with this, I have developed a more experiential method for using this framework. With movement and dance I go after the felt sense and make the polarity wisdom embodied (body-mind polarity at work). I am hoping to bring this to leaders in Belgium.

I just have a practical question:
-where can we find the list with polarities as mentioned by Beena?

Thanks so much for making this available.
Warm regards,
Winnie Winters
Belgium

This may be helpful regarding polarities in business. Dr. Ginny Whitelaw in her book Zen Leadership talks about this from a slightly different perspective but there are some great examples of polarities.

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Hi, watching the second lesson now and hearing ’ It’s our preferences that cause the problem’. Would our prefernces be unconcious biases/meta programmes/personality drivers?

‘Our preferences’ does’t sound like it descripes enough gravity?

Thanks,

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Hi, Thank you for making this course so affordable and so available. May I say to members if you’ve ever wondered what on earth is going on in the world at the moment, get your credit card out buy the course and listen to the webinars!
I’m working my way through the course with a view to it becoming an ongoing part of my personal development. As such questions come to mind. The polarities I was working with were Harmonising and Challenging. The first question is whether there is a connection between what arises for me under sections 1 and 3 of the quadrant (more specifically the fears that arise) and elements of my shadow or is it a coincidence that there is a similarity in these aspects of my development? I am wondering whether the Integrating Polarities process brings to light shadow elements which can be dealt with under the Shadow Module of Integral Life Practice? Going on from that - and you may not be in a position to answer this - I am using IAwake Profound Releasing meditations. It seems to me that releasing on one side of the polarity may lead to an imbalance at worst or at best, not be as effective as releasing on both polarities.
These questions arose as I was working through quadrant 3. I realised my fears in this quadrant have been so great that the downsides of quadrant 1 have always been overwhelmed by my fears in quadrant 3. My intellectual understanding of the process showing the benefits of appropriately adopting quadrant 2 didn’t touch my fears, hence rarely going there. Hence the enquiry as to shadow work and releasing as a possible way to approach my issue here.

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Hi, I can see that there has been no discussion thread for some time and I can’t see how to create a new one, so I am using the reply function to ask a question of Beena of Corey. Is the use of the four quadrants in this Integrating Polarities model aligned to the internal/exterior; individual/collective four quadrant matrix? Alex

Hey @axmurphy!

No, the polarity quadrants are not the same as the Four Quadrants :slight_smile:

For polarities, the left/right axis represents the polarity itself — e.g. “Self-care” vs. “Selfless service”, let’s say,

The top/bottom axis represents the integrated and unintegrated expressions of these polarities. So the positive qualities of “self-care that’s integrated with selfless service” would go in the top boxes, and then the negative qualities of “self-care that is dissociated from selfless service” would go in the bottom boxes.

So you can see, this is quite a bit different from “interior and exterior” + “individual + collective”.

I hope that helps! Let us know if you have any other questions :slight_smile:

PS — just as an example, check out this “Trust but Verify” polarity map I created, which will hopefully further illustrate the point.

Thanks Corey,
That makes much more sense and thank you for the trust and verify example.
:grinning:

Glad it was helpful!

And of course to take it a step deeper — the integral model is itself largely composed of polarities, each of which you could turn into a polarity map like the one above!

Individual and Collective
Interior and Exterior
Part and Whole
Emptiness and Form

etc.

Good point! I, and the managers in my organisation, have been working with guys in The Coaching Room (Sydney, Aus) on an Integral Leadership program - have been finding it useful to supplement my learning with the Integral Life materials and events. :slight_smile:

This course has been extremely helpful and even transformative for me. I came to integral life with deeply painful binary questions, this course has untangled the two headed snake! Thank you so much, for the clarity and wisdom of the course and your engaging and perceptive presence.

Hi Beena, Does work on polarities assume we are all rational? Evidence seems to suggest that many people are entrenched in their biases and impervious to rational investigation. How do we overcome people’s unconscious biases and prejudices - I’m sure the course will answer this but I thought I’d put it out there anyway.
Phil Voysey

Hello,
Would anyone like to be a learning partner for this course?
-Kevin

Hi @Beena_Sharma,

I have a couple of questions regarding this course. I am unsure how to process the course fully and comprehend it through the lense of my own perspective. I wrote down the polarities meaning for me the two poles that exist between two concepts…

I generally felt weird doing this course in combination with taking the ennegram course and I rushed through it because it felt very weird looking through all of these videos without fully comprehending what was going on. I mostly wrote down in my journal/notebook what each polarity was about, yet in generall… I only understood… polarity. I am unsure if I fully believe in what I wrote down and if this is an core issue or what I in general can expect out of the course.

Each section provided gives me a very good reflection of what is going on in my life. I am unsure how detailed I am supposed to write down my questions and reflect them, becaue I felt I could do that endlessly AND ad infinitum. I mostly realized that looking at two positives sides of each spectrum in each quadrant, I will generate results and create value for others.

Is this generally a good and very good direction that I am heading towards when I have an issue concerning my life ? Look at a Both/AND perspective and gaining insight through contemplating these questions writing them down and at best speaking with friends about it whom I can trust. It felt extremely weird watching all of the videos, especially because of my european bias.

I would appreciate if you could reply with a response that adresses the course as a whole, since really did not understand what this course was about or if I just rushed through it. I mainly felt that meditating again was the best state that I can be in to adress issues in my life and receive feedback. lol

Also, is it enough to write the question section inside my journal ?

Hi Beena,

apologies if this question has been asked already but I couldn’t find it. When filing out the 4 quadrants do we need to stick with one specific topic? I also related it to the question we asked on worksheet 1 or is that too broad?

Thank you for your help.
Vanessa

Hi Beena,

thank you very much for the course (almost finished). My question is: If I want to mention this kind of working with polarities in a text I plan to write what would be the best reference? Is there a book or article I could refer to? Or should I refer to the course?

Thanks,
Chri

I cannot find the downloads for the course either on my Iphone or PC. I have searched many times. Please help.

Hello everyone , i am in the exercise of Itegrating polarities - paired stregths
And i choose my quality as humbleness and the other polarity as tough love , is it correct , tough love is a positivw thing ???

I am doing finding the pairs exercise, it was difficult for me to find the positive interdependent pairs
Here is the list i came up with

  1. Down to earth - Confident
  2. Humble - Assertive
  3. Politeness - Healthy agression
  4. Kindness - Tough love
  5. Patience - Proactive
  6. Sincerity - Enjoying
    7.Curiosity - Stability
    Any feedback is welcomed
    Thankk you