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INTEGRATING
Connecting with others who share your passion and purpose and connecting with those who will be the beneficiaries of your gifts and talents are essential components of this stage of development. The skills you learned at the conforming stage of development about building safe relationships will become extremely important at this stage of development. To connect with and support others, you will need to tap into your empathy skills. You will need to feel what others are feeling if you are truly going to help them.
At this stage of development, you must assume a larger sense of identity, learn to cooperate with others and shift from being independent to being interdependent.
Some people get so wrapped up in themselves and their calling at the self-actualizing stage that they are unable to make this shift. They get lost in their own creativity, focusing only on their contribution, rather than the larger contribution they could make if they connected with others. There is nothing wrong with this approach; however, in normal circumstances, learning to work with others in service to the common good is more likely to bring a sense of fulfilment to your life than working on your own.
How well you mastered the conforming stage of development will significantly influence your progress through the integrating stage of development. Knowing you can handle your relationship needs—knowing you are lovable—gives you the confidence to create unconditional loving relationships with others.
