Add an auxiliary module for the area you neglect most
Once the four core modules feel steady, add one auxiliary module, such as Work, Relationships or Ethics.
Why it works
The Starter Kit lists auxiliary modules beyond the core four, including Ethics, Work, Emotions and Relationships, and presents them as additions to add as you wish. The reasoning is one of scope: a practice aimed at one area of life can address that area more directly than the core four. The page found no evidence on whether adding an auxiliary module improves outcomes.
How to do it
- Name the area of your life that feels least touched by your current practice.
- Pick the auxiliary module from the Starter Kit’s list that matches that area.
- Choose one practice from that module and do it for two weeks alongside the core four.
- Write down whether keeping up the core four has become harder.
Evidence
The auxiliary module list and the advice to add modules as you wish come from the ILP Starter Kit. The Starter Kit reports no outcome measurement for adding them. (anecdotal)
The authors present auxiliary modules as optional. Adding one can crowd out the core practices, and no study on this page shows whether it helps.
Sources
Common mistake
Adding an auxiliary module before the core four are steady, which turns a balanced practice into a long list that is hard to keep.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for Integral Life Practice: The Four Core Modules, Explained
- Pick one practice from each of the four core modules
Choose one practice each for body, mind, spirit and shadow, instead of trying to work on every area of life at once.
- Do a Body module practice: aerobic or strength work
Pick one physical practice, such as aerobics or weightlifting, and do it on a fixed schedule you can keep.
- Take multiple perspectives on one disagreement
Write the strongest version of a view you disagree with, in its own terms, before you answer it.
- Meditate for a set time each day
Sit for a fixed, short period, notice when attention wanders, and bring it back to the breath each time.
- Use a one-minute module on a crowded day
Do a condensed version of a practice you already know, in about a minute, at a fixed moment of the day.
- Audit which core area you keep skipping each week
Once a week, check which of the four core modules you did and which you skipped, and write down the first reason for each skip.
Related concepts
- Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory (AQAL), Made Practical
Five elements for catching what your view of a situation leaves out, held as a map rather than a truth
- Using Wilber’s Four Quadrants on a Real Problem
Eight ways to put the I, It, We, Its map to work on a problem you actually have
- Waking Up, Growing Up, Cleaning Up, Showing Up: Four Kinds of Growth That Do Not Move Together
Why awakening, maturity, shadow work and everyday embodiment can each grow without the others — and how to notice which one you have left behind
- States vs Stages of Consciousness: Wilber, Combs and O’Fallon
Why a powerful experience and a lasting change are different things, and how each one grows
- First, Second, Third and Fourth Person Perspectives
How the number of viewpoints you can hold grows, what the research does and does not show, and how to practice it in a real disagreement
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