Integrity: The Compass & Core Value #1

Welcome to 2015! I hope the new year has started with peace, joy and happiness for you. As I look forward to 2015, I’d like to take the next few Blog posts to reflect and focus on the Core Values of our Organization. Our Core Values set us apart from many Organizations. They are a lighthouse beacon of how we connect and communicate with our families, patients, clients, colleagues, students, and professionals in and out of Healing Beyond Borders. They also support and underlie the practice and teaching of Healing Touch.

History

Healing Touch International, Inc. (HTI) identified Core Values with Janet Mentgen, Founder, and the HTI Board of Directors in 2003. These Core Values foundational to HTI were: Integrity; Heart-Centeredness; Respect of Self and Others; Service; Community; Standardized, established curriculum; Letting go of ego; Unconditional Love; recognizing the Outcome of the Work is the Spiritual Journey.

In 2004, these Core Values were revised and approved by the HTI Board of Directors (now Healing Beyond Borders, Educating and Certifying the Healing Touch™) for application by Healing Touch Practitioners, Instructors and Students at all levels of the HTI Healing Touch Certificate Program. These Healing Beyond Borders’ values are: Integrity, Heart-Centeredness, Respect of Self and Others, Self Care, Service, Community and Unconditional love.

Integrity

What does it mean to have Integrity?  According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Integrity is: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values; an unimpaired condition; the quality or state of being complete or undivided.

Other definitions include words such as ‘honesty’; ‘doing the right thing at all times under all circumstances’; and ‘courage to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity’. I feel that to act with integrity illustrates to the rest of the world exactly what constitutes our personal moral compass. Are we honest? Do we stand up for our beliefs, or perhaps are we sometimes swayed by opinions of others? When considering our personal moral compass, does it include setting intention for "the highest good of all", regardless of what that might look like? Are we able to let go of attachment to outcome?

Integrity, to me, also involves the ability to be centered to the core of our beings. This enables us to stand firm in our beliefs and actions. As we journey along our path, setting our individual Hara each day, integrity will surely blossom and strengthen as we grow and expand in the awareness of taking the right action in each moment.

Integrity is seen in many aspects of our work and our Organization as well. In the face of adversity over the past few years, we have persevered to bring as many as possible the gift of Healing Touch. The commitment to our Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice is also a demonstration of integrity. How each member of Healing Beyond Borders interacts with clients and patients from introducing Healing Touch to making appointments, all intertwines with integrity in every interaction, conversation and connection we make. 

I invite you to take a moment and share with me what role integrity plays in your life and as a Healing Touch Practitioner, student, instructor or mentor.  You can simply submit your thoughts by clicking on the ‘Comment’ above. I look forward to our conversation!

Until next time,
Blessings,
Mary-Cathrine