Having read this book, you probably could have guessed that we believe a core attribute of the joyful scientist is integrity. If we cannot be honest with ourselves and others in a compassionate and caring way, it will feel nearly impossible to be at home in our own skins and to encourage others to also feel free to express, explore, and learn. For us, therefore, integrity is the ability to be ourselves regardless of the context. Of course, we encourage you to pay attention to the mores and expectations of the workplace, and discourage you from dishing out the “honest truth” in order to make yourself feel righteous at the expense of others. But we do think that finding ways to bring our whole selves into the workplace, and paying attention to harmony in all parts of our lives – in other words, integrating the different pieces of ourselves, rather than segmenting or compartmentalizing – is a characteristic of those scientists who seem to have the joy thing figured out.

In this chapter, therefore, we encourage you to reflect both on how you might integrate the practices of harmony, courage, vision, curiosity, and compassion into your own life. We suggest you make a plan to try a few new things to shift the flow of energy and attention in your own life. Some of us are capable of making big changes overnight. For most of us, however, we must take small steps, adopting new micro-practices a little at a time until they become new habits. When we are used to seeing the world as working one particular way, it can take time to shift our view.

What do you integrate these topics with? First of all, these topics can be integrated with each other.