Part 1 Overview:

This is the first newsletter for Flow Quest and it seems appropriate to discuss the importance of the Integral Approach, and especially the four quadrants in the quest for a state of flow. Ken Wilber developed and researched the Four Quadrants. He determined that over time and throughout different cultures, people have tended to operate in four separate and distinct different areas in their lives. To have a truly integrated life and to function most effectively alignment between these different quadrants is most desirable.

From the perspective of an Personal Coach it seemed to me that it was important to consider the four quadrants in any work I do with clients because if my clients are not integrated in important areas of life they will not have congruent lasting and beneficial growth. I personally look on this as a quest to be in a state of flow in all areas of my life. I am currently working on a book to outline the ideas expressed here in much more detail. This is also associated with a future training being developed to integrate the four quadrants into one cohesive whole using NLP inspired processes.

The Integral Approach:

Wilber originally formulated the four quadrants in his book Sex Ecology and Spirituality. He further discusses the four quadrants and the entire Integral Approach in his books Integral Psychology and Boomeritus. His recent tape set Kosmic Consciousness available through "Sounds True” also discusses these areas at length. In these works, Mr. Wilber also discusses Stages, States, Levels and Lines. While these areas are also important to an integrally aligned life in this paper I will primarily discuss the four quadrants because coaching can involve any level of depth, but integration or at least knowledge of the four quadrants is essential to any well-rounded development. A brief discussion of Stages, States, Levels and Lines in Wilber’s work follows for perspective.

Stages:

Stages are considered to be earned in the Wilber Model. When one reaches a state of Satori (transcendental awareness/wisdom) through meditation for example, they are said to have reached a prescribed stage of development.

States:

States in the Wilber Model and in NLP are different. In the Wilber Model the three distinct states are Gross Subtle and Causal, or awake dreaming and deep sleep. These states are available to all of us. Through meditation, contemplative prayer or other methods, we may gain access to these states at will, which is when a state may also become a stage.

In NLP, we refer to states in a different context where we are working with an emotional state to achieve an outcome for our emotional well-being. States (in an NLP context) are very important in coaching. NLP is designed to allow people to acquire resourceful (emotional) states and we will be working to acquire the best states possible to achieve and maintain goals. Right now, you are likely in an appropriate questioning state. If I were to ask you to think about the best vacation you ever had and to go into that experience emotionally, feeling what you felt, hearing what you heard, and seeing what you saw at that time, this would likely change your state to something approaching the experience you had on your vacation. By building on past resources of this type, we are able to put ourselves into any number of resourceful states to accomplish our outcomes.

Levels and Lines:

Lines in the Wilber model loosely refers to capabilities or types of skill. Many lines of development have generally been identified. Some lines are essential for most of us such as inter personal skills while others such as musical skill or art appreciation may or may not be as important in our day-to-day lives. For the most part, unless it seems that that an ecology issue arises I will not usually be stressing the lines in any detail and will leave the content (or line of development) of the coaching sessions entirely to the client. Levels refer to the level of development the person is at within the specified line of development.
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While your coach will not be dealing with levels and lines as part of the coaching session’s, levels and lines in different contexts may and likely would be areas the client would wish to work on in coaching sessions. Your coach would not likely, unless asked, offer knowledge in this area, but would steer the client in an appropriate direction allowing them to identify these items for themselves.

Truth, Goodness Beauty / I, We and It or Its / Art, Morals and Science:

There is some confusion in this area because I refer to the three great ideas of Truth Goodness and Beauty. This has also been referred to in Wilber’s work as I We and It(s) and Art, Morals and Science. First, the reason that I refer to three items in reference to Truth Goodness and Beauty is that “Truth” (also referred to as It or Its and Science) includes two quadrants shown as the upper right and lower right quadrants. This would normally be considered the objective realm. Beauty (also referred to as I and Art) is in the upper left quadrant and Goodness (Also referred to as We or Morals) is in the lower left quadrant. The left quadrant is subjective in nature and the right quadrant is objective as shown in more detail below.

Part 2 The Four Quadrants:

The Upper Left Quadrant:

The upper left quadrant refers to our internal subjective world. Different forms of coaching, psychological and spiritual practice occur in this area. The list of these types of practice includes NLP, The Silva Method, Contemplative Prayer, Christian Mysticism, Zen Buddhism and an almost endless list of other forms of internal and spiritual practice. These are very important endeavors, but taken by themselves do not always help us to live full, happy and integrated lives.

The Integral Approach recognizes these considerations and adds three other areas allowing us to look at the effect the work we do in any one quadrant can affect others and how a weakness in any one of the quadrants can affect us in other areas of our lives.

The lower Left Quadrant:

The lower left quadrant represents cultural or inter subjective areas of our lives. This includes the relationships we have with our family friends workers and so on. We can easily see how if we do not give consideration to how the work we do in the upper left quadrant affects our family and friends our lives can and likely will be in a state of turmoil.

The Upper Right Quadrant:

The Upper right quadrant deals with our physical well-being. This area involves the method a doctor would use in looking at a patient. It is an objective fact based approach, which does not consider our internal subjective or cultural views of the world. Neglect of this area can and often does have serious repercussions in out lives.

The Lower Right Quadrant:

This area deals with how the different environments or systems we are a part of as viewed from the out side. Imagine if a man from Mars came to earth and saw the types of family structures we have or how our varied government’s work. We can readily see how vastly different the systems are on our planet and how these differences are currently causing problems on a global scale. It is also evident how important it is to take these different systems into account when we are dealing with a police officer who pulls us over for driving infractions, or when an auditor wants to .look at our income tax.

Part 3 Integrated Living:

What happens then if we have our lives in congruence within the subjective realm, but we are not considering the effect, our actions will have our physical well-being. This may mean we would have to consider changes to diet, exercise etc. It may be that we can achieve a calm internal state using Tai Chi. Conversely; we can have contact with loved ones by going cycling or walking together.

We may have an integrated life spiritually and emotionally, have meaningful intimate relationships between our friends and family and be moving toward a healthy lifestyle,, but if we are unable to pay our bills or if we are constantly getting speeding tickets or are not acquiring security for our old age we are still not living integrated and happy lives.

We can become obsessed or preoccupied with these factors and this in itself will keep us from developing a state of flow. It is not necessary that we become expert in all of these areas. It is only necessary that we are aware of them. We can let experts in the different fields look after a great deal of these items. This is why we have in an age of specialization doctors, accountants, and a host of other experts to help us. The key is to be integrally informed. We can then recognize the factors at play in different quadrants before they become a problem.

Your “integrally aligned” coach does not pretend to be an expert in any of these areas. Your coach looks for anomalies that may occur and will advise you when he sees potential problems with a chosen course of action. Once recognized these issues can usually be dealt with effectively.

I personally keep a collage showing the four quadrants. The collage has iconic representations of the different things I would like to have in different areas of my life. For me this serves two purposes. It keeps the different areas of my life in view using metaphors that have meaning only for me, and they allow me to see how the actions I take in one area can and often do have effect in other areas. I would recommend this process to any who are developing goals and life plans.

Vertical Growth and Horizontal Growth:

To summarize I will briefly discuss the difference between Vertical Growth and Horizontal Growth.

Usually when we talk about personal growth and development, we consider growing and becoming bigger or better than we are currently. This is the emphasis of most coaching sessions and is certainly important in allowing us to manifest all we are meant to be. The problem is that this approach itself can create the kinds of problems and issues I have previously described.

An integral approach will allow us to reach the same heights, but to do it in an ecologically sound manner. Being integrally informed we are able to continue to aspire to the same heights, but to do it in a way that allows us to maintain effective cohesion between the different areas of our lives. Horizontal growth between different segments of our lives in itself will allow us to grow vertically because the fact that different areas of our lives have been and are continuously monitored allows us the freedom to specialize in whatever area we choose secure in the knowledge that important areas of our lives have not been neglected in the process.

Consider the importance of the interplay between different areas of your life as you evolve and grow in all areas of your life. I invite you to contact me at info@flow-quest.com to continue on this path.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to me. I would appreciate any comments or feedback you may have.

Good luck in your quest for all you want in life.

Gary Gunn