The Inner Uproar - Ancient Wisdom & IFS Model.

This post, just like most of my posts, is dedicated to helping you find stillness, clarity, and peace.

Like most people, I've spent years searching for that elusive state of calm.

When I think of a "tranquil mind," I often imagine a quiet, clear mind with no thoughts or worries. But let's be honest... for most of us, our mind feels more like a frantic committee meeting, and at times even like an internal civil war.

Why is that? Why, despite our best efforts at self-care, do we so often feel pulled in a dozen different directions? Why is inner peace so hard to achieve?

I will do my best to answer these questions and offer tools to help in finding your inner peace, just like I have found mine after years of research and practice.

The Inner Uproar: IFS and the Experience of Dukkha

We're going to answer that question using my favourite framework: the Internal Family Systems (or IFS) Model.

The IFS model, developed by Richard Schwartz, offers a groundbreaking perspective on our consciousness. It suggests that your mind isn't a single entity that just needs to "try harder." Instead, it is made up of numerous sub-personalities, or "parts," that are constantly interacting, like an internal family.

The constant tension and effort we feel inside was known to generations prior, and Buddha, for example, called it "Dukkha". While "Dukkha" in Buddhism was often translated as "suffering," Dukkha more accurately means "unsatisfactoriness, “stress, or "unease" (the feeling that things are fundamentally unsettled).

In the IFS view, our minds are characterised by well-intending parts that are forced into extreme, exhausting roles to protect us from pain. These parts are usually created in our early years, and therefore, their jobs are a bit outdated and don’t serve us well in adulthood.

Our minds, through the IFS Model: The Exiles, The Managers and the Firefighters.

The Exiles are the young, wounded parts of us that still carry the pain, shame, or fear from past experiences. They embody the painful suffering, and the rest of the system tries to seal them away so they never get hurt again.

The Managers: These protective parts work tirelessly to control your life and avoid future pain. They are the strivers, the critics, and the people-pleasers. They represent the attachment and craving for stability and certainty, driving us relentlessly to maintain a false sense of control over an impermanent world.

The Firefighters: These are the reactive protectors. When the Exiles' pain breaks through, the Firefighters rush in with any quick fix, distraction, compulsion, or numbing. They represent the aversion and craving not to drive us further into the cycle of unease.

When your Managers and Firefighters are constantly fighting each other, or desperately trying to keep the Exiles contained, there is simply no room for tranquillity. This internal conflict is the engine that keeps the cycle of unhelpful thoughts and behaviours spinning, which may lead to anxiety, panic attacks, and disrupted sleep. Furthermore, extending to our external relationships with others. These parts, due to their extreme reactivity, may skew relationships with our loved ones.

So, how do we split into these parts?

We are born as a whole, with the Self as our natural leader. However, when we experience painful or overwhelming life events such as trauma, ranging from a major single event to chronic emotional neglect, our internal system reacts to protect itself and splits into parts.

1.    A young, vulnerable part gets completely overwhelmed by the pain (fear, shame, hopelessness).

2.    To stop that intense pain from ever happening again, other parts step in to carry the extreme burden of protection. They take on extreme roles as Managers and Firefighters.

3.    Overwhelmed parts become Exiled and are kept in hiding by managers. They are stuck in the past, unseen and unheard. Waiting for their pain to be witnessed.

The Core of Peace: Self as Inner Peace Energy.

IFS also offers a radical promise. At the core of every person is the Self, which is a wise and compassionate presence that is always whole and undamaged. Since the Self is calm, unbiased, curious and compassionate, when we allow for it to lead internal relationships, it may help with the healing of other parts and reassigning their jobs. This energy of the self is our fundamental source of Inner Peace Energy that most of us are looking for while seeking healing.

The concept of “self: isn't just modern psychology; it resonates with ancient wisdom, however called by different names. "But IFS also offers a radical promise.

When IFS talks about "the Self", it aligns beautifully with the Buddhist idea of Buddha-Nature, the pure, inherent potential for awakening, wisdom, and compassion that exists within us all. In Hinduism, this essence is known as the Atman (the true, eternal Self), and in the Sufi tradition of Islam, it is the Qalb-e-Salim (the sound or pure heart). Furthermore, in Daoism concept of the Dao (or The Way) speaks of aligning with the natural, effortless flow of the universe, a state achieved only when the struggling parts step aside.

Across all traditions, the goal is the same: to access this pure core to attain inner peace.

As an IFS-informed therapist who experienced its model on both sides of the therapy room, I would like to say a few words about the benefits of the model.

IFS practice is about unblending from our parts to access the Self, which is that pure, non-attached, spacious awareness, the perfect antidote to the clinging and craving that cause "Dukkha". Whether you call it Self, Buddha-Nature, or simply Inner Peace Energy, it embodies the calmness, clarity, confidence, and compassion that healing requires.

This blog is dedicated to guiding you to accessing that Self. It has both research and tools in its content that will teach you how to listen to the chaos, understand the positive intention behind every part, and, most importantly, lead your internal family from a place of genuine Tranquil Mind.

So, as we wrap up this post, remember the key takeaway:

You are not broken. The chaos you feel is simply the sound of your internal conflicts, your parts, working overtime to protect something precious.

The great news is that you don't have to fight them. Our work here is not about eradication, but re-alignment. It's about letting that Inner Peace Energy, what IFS calls the Self, and what is known to be helpful by other wisdom traditions, for a very long time.

This is why simple practices like mindfulness and meditation are so important. They are of big help in getting closer to accessing our pure and calm self-energy.

They allow you to become a witness to the internal uproar, observing the inner managers and the firefighters without becoming consumed by them.

The therapeutic and mindful work promises benefits like greater self-compassion, less automatic reactivity, and the freedom to finally make choices from a place of clarity and wisdom. So we can gradually move from feeling controlled by fear to leading with courage.

Look Up Related Posts.

In this blog, you are going to explore different types of mindful practices and meditations, and you may go a little deeper into the dynamics of those protectors we introduced today: the Managers and the Firefighters. You'll learn how to recognise their signature moves in your daily life, and why both the pursuit of perfection and the urge to numb out are two sides of the same protective coin.

I encourage you to try one thing: Just for today, when you feel stress or anxiety rise, pause. Don't judge the feeling. Simply ask, "Which part of me is feeling this right now?"

See what you hear in return.

I look forward to continuing the journey to your internal “home”.