Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening

by Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, Adam Leonard

How to put Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory—which synthesizes the teachings of the world’s great wisdom traditions—into practice in all aspects of everyday life, so you can reach your full human potential

“A masterpiece guide of grounded, intelligent, self-transforming wisdom integrating the insights of all the great traditions of truth.” —Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit
 
Over the last thirty-five years, Ken Wilber has developed an Integral “theory of everything” that makes sense of how all the world’s knowledge systems—East and West; ancient, modern, and postmodern—fit together and can elevate our awareness. Drawing on science, psychology, human development, spirituality, religion, and dozens of other fields, Integral Theory is a revolutionary framework for understanding ourselves and the world we live in.

Now there is a way to not just think Integrally, but to embody an Integral worldview in your everyday life.

Integral Life Practice is not just a new approach to self-development and higher awareness, but a way of making sense of—and making best use of—the existing treasure trove of insights, methods, and practices for cultivating a more enlightened life. It offers a uniquely adaptive approach to awakened living that’s suitable for everyone: people with busy careers and families, college students, retirees, even hardcore athletes and yogis. It’s geared for devout—and irreverent—people of any religion, or no religion!

This highly flexible system will help you develop your physical health, spiritual awareness, emotional balance, mental clarity, relational joy, and energy level, within a framework that integrates all aspects of your life. Combining original exercises, vivid examples, cutting-edge theory, and illustrative graphics, Integral Life Practice is the ultimate handbook for realizing freedom and fullness in the 21st century.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Self Help, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Personal Development, Health

388 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American philosopher and writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a systematic philosophy which suggests the synthesis of all human knowledge and experience.

Reviews

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ken Wilber is an incredible intellectual and author. He is a great source for those of us who enjoy exploring the crossroads between philosophy, science, and spirituality.

This book brings Integral Theory down to earth, with much more practical ideas about how to apply it to personal development.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The interesting parts of this book are very palatable cliffs notes type summaries of Ken Wilbur's Integral Spirituality. In that regard, the book makes Wilbur's philosophy more accesible to a wider audience which is good. Probably the most useful part of the book for me was the Shadow Module. Essentially, a shadow is when there is something about another person that really pisses you off. For example, if I get really irritated at the guy at work who is a major suck up, that means I have disowned and marginalized my own tendancies toward sucking up. This book teaches that you are not really pissed off at the other person, but at a similar shadow qualitiy within your own self. Not only can you recognize it, but there is presented a simple a method for addressing the shadow and reincorporating it. This section explains how a lot of emotions people have are screwed up by the shadow thing. Significant for me is how depression is really a manifestation of anger. Interesting and useful stuff.

[Elisa Winter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yep. This is the one. The absolute cutting edge of human development. All quadrants all levels, that's my new mantra. Now, I gotta go read it again.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's completely practical but still only the start of it all. It's the paradox of attempting a "theory of everything" - there will be nothing new here, the value is in the organization and attempt at a framework of the best of what we know and applying it to daily life. The emphasis on the shadow, as others have mentioned, is especially valuable here and something that gets neglected in traditional more specifically "spiritual" philosophies. This very act of organization though or consolidation of fields is so valuable to me at this point in life. Wilber is worth checking out for that aspect alone.

[Nick Kroger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had quite a bought of existential / personal reckoning during this read. My partner can attest. Nothing captures this book like crying while making a quesadilla.

I didn’t finish the whole thing because I thought it went downhill after the first few chapters. The most successfully presented chapter is on “shadow material”. Ken Wilber’s so called “Transpersonal Psychology” is an adept model for reckoning with behaviors and thoughts from the mundane to the neurotic.

The biggest theory that this results in is an “Integral ‘Theory of Everything’”. Yes, I KNOW, its quite the tempting title for a theory. Doesn’t it sound so totalistic that it might work? Well... it *kinda* does... but also, definitely doesn’t.

What does definitely work is his integration of multiple theories of human developments in the areas of cognition, behavior, biology, and systems theory. I’ve never / used seen a heuristic more helpful than his “AQAL” map that integrates these theories. As a person (or scholar) you can move from reckoning with Implicit bias in the realm of the personal, to the realm of the biological, and finally to the realm of systems theory.

In short, it is a kind of “super-information-highway” with very detailed exit signs, speed limits, and mapping. It’s efficient, useful, and potentially revolutionary in dealing with the question: “What comes ‘after’ post-modernism?”

HOWEVER, I stopped reading because it tries to answer the previous question with some sort of definitive “evolutionary” game of one-up-man-ship. It would do well to provide less answers and ask deeper and more complex questions.

The one scholastic endeavor which I think the book takes to task is the idea of “holarchies” vs. “hierarchies”. To many people (myself included) the word hierarchy is tainted with the stench of oppression—and for good reason. However, as an educator, I certainly see how Maslow’s Hierarchy of of needs is different from the “Hierarchical organization of Jeff Bezos’s Amazon”. Don’t you?

With that being said, the later chapters are a little too engaged in slightly too “pious” new-age ideas. I’m all for a radical spirituality, but it felt to quid pro quo in what it was proposing. In short, it felt like a set of directions, not a set of deeply moving questions.

& & &: I’m still counting this for a book I read this year, simply for the hours of emotional labor I put into this thing lmao (re: the tear filled quesadilla.)

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely love this book. The way life is organized makes so much sense and is extremely applicable in daily life. This book really helps you get a grasp on your overall goals and helps you implement them on a daily basis. I highly recommend this book to anyone, but especially those that are interested in adding more spirituality into their lives.

[Thor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it. Real guidance on how to incorporate the integral model into one's life. I have not used this explicitly. Rather, what I discovered is how to satisfy what I'm lacking at any moment. For example, due to this study, I can more easily determine what needs work immediately in my life. I think I lead a relatively integral life already, but this is a way to keep things in balance. There are also many really great ideas for practices, if that's what one is looking for. The book really just scratches the surface of most of the practices, however. I would say that you shouldn't expect to be given every detail of what your practice is going to be just by reading this book. You will need to be creative and do some work on your own fo sho.

[Suhrob · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Integrals are far more synthesizers and systematizers than explorers, so you'd be hard pressed to find anything *new* here. Yet there is a lot of value in this endeavor, although the book does feel rushed and superficial.

What I find weird with Integral is that you'd find it in the spiritual part of the bookstore, where it is a intellectual heavyweight among cheap new age pap. And yet the "spiritual" part within the Integral framework seems the least developed and most... naive?

[Durwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too encyclopedic to be of interest to some readers; however, the strength of the book is that it brings a comprehensive approach to the field of personal development which is so often fragmented. I found the part of the book that focused on how to transform difficult emotions to be the most interesting and encouraging.

[Lisa Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The chapter on the shadow (and corresponding practice) is super helpful

[Bingus Mingus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the general concept of this book, and I think there are lots of good ideas in here (not surprising, considering it draws from everything). Think I'm gonna try out the book's suggestion of combining diet, exercise, study, meditation and shadow work. But it leans too much into the spiritual for me in the middle, especially the parts about "subtle energy".

Ken Wilber is the kinda guy who actually gets Hegel but is also convinced psychic powers are real. I don't really know what to make of him.

[Kate Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly motivating, and they do a good job of both differentiating practices and discussing the way the practices inter-relate to integrate. At times, quite a bit more detail than necessary, though I'm a more experienced practitioner than their target demographic.

The final 2 chapters are by far the most useful and practical; I'll likely use these for framing teachings.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

How can you live your life in the 21st century like an ignorant bare footed monk some centuries ago. Are you happy? Than your heart is not clean enough, as the Gospel clearly states the bare footed monk was happy.

[Shahnaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

satu dari dua buku psikologi terbaik yang pernah aku baca. satu lagi,dengan semangat yang sama acalah obrolan sufi dari Robert Frager. meski sedih tidak membaca buku ini cepqt,tapi aku akan menyatakan semua datang tepat pada waktunya.

[Scott Layden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Became essential to my life

The greatest changes of my 60+ year life has been embracing Ken Wilber’s Integral Life insights. Integral Life Practice, especially the One Minute Modules, have become an almost daily go-to to further me along the path.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great practical overview of Integral theory and ways to try parts of it in your life.

[Deep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Application of Integral Theory to life.

[Melisa Parlak · Rating 5 out of 5]

discovering the integral theory, spiral dynamics and mindfulness through Integral Life Practices

[Bett Correa-Bollhoefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

enjoyed this book so much

This is the most comprehensive book on personal development I’ve read.
It covers all aspects of growth. The charts are very helpful.

[Paul Sochiera · Rating 4 out of 5]

3-4

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible resource of distilled wisdom

[Drick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been intrigued by Ken Wilber's integral theory - his attempt to integrate various spiritual traditions, psycho-development theories, systems theories, and scientific perspectives. In this book Wilber and associates seek to show how to put integral theory into practice. The four basic modules are to work on one's physical health, spirituality, cognitive view and psycho-emotional health. He then has extra modules of ethical practice, and daily living. While I have not fully bought into Wilber's evolutionary view of consciousness and his tilt toward Eastern mystical practices, there is much in this book that is worth exploring including an integration of physical fitness with spiritual practice and an emphasis on focusing on the present.

[Tuukka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book giving an overview of the various ways an integral worldview could be translated to practice.

I, being both scientifically and spiritually inclined and interested, found value in how the book fused together scientific and spiritual material to build a map for holistic personal growth and life-practice.

The strength of integral approach lies in the fact that it recognizes scientific and spiritual/religious worldviews and perspectives need not to be either-or but they can be reconciled and viewed as representing different quadrants in the AQAL model. Both are valid and "true" and are welcomed and included in an integral worldview and life.

[Catherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a great basic book, very accessibly written about developing an Integral Life practice. But I have been studying this stuff for three years now, so I'm a bit burnt out and jaded. But for someone who isn't over-saturated I think it would be perfect.

[Mo75 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't the best thing I've read about the AQAL model. In fact, parts were downright irritating in a new age hippy way. I also felt the suggestions made in the book were somewhat limited in scope. So to me it was ok as a general outline of how to use the AQAL framework in life.

[Stan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am kinda disapointed with this book. The practices that are decribed are really helpful but the whole rainbow system is only confusing. I also found this book very repetitive. The last 30-40 pages were exceptionally boring.

[Johan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book. Forced me to do a lot of introspection regarding the views one has of the universe!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book seems life-changing, but like the Tao Te Ching, is hard to incorporate in a meaningful way in just one reading.

[Robyn]

brilliant.

[Vaudeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book challenged me to commit to the practices necessary for growth.