Know Yourself

A sense of fulfilment might be an odd thing to include as part of a decision-making machine, but it does offer an evolutionary advantage. Consider how and in what way it motivates change. It can provide confidence in a successful course or series of behaviors. It tends to be a long-term experience too, rather than an instant gratification. In a way, it encourages use of a wider more abstract scope of consciousness and gets more use of that creative dream consciousness. We can imagine what is yet to be, rather than simply observe what is and it leads to unique expressions of our basic designs by taking advantage of physiological and environmental differences. Diversity is a driving force of evolution. Think of life, if it were all the same. Not only do we need to be different, but we need to keep changing throughout our lives. Developmental psychologists, I think, universally totally agree. The trick to being different, in a healthy way, as opposed to rebellion, is authenticity.

Authentic expression of characteristics is about self-awareness. Mental maladies attack this skill first, as it is the most fragile of all systems. It can be sabotaged by poor data, poor data processing, environmental factors and social pressures. This is where most of my work as a counselor is focused. If self-awareness cannot be achieved, then waking consciousness and dream consciousness are in conflict. There is a lot of work that needs to take place to ensure the harmony of these two often opposing qualities. The unique way we decorate our home usually does not to happen unless the home is safe and organized. Once clean and organized, we tend to be inspired to improve and decorate in their own style; this is an authentic expression born of individual success. Our authentic self can only be revealed to us after successfully interacting with our environment and exceeding basic survival. We can become driven by a calling that becomes more important than life; this is ironically called a zeal for life, but not only your life, and only happens when one is healthy. A healthy person will always have a healthy purpose and be willing to sacrifice to achieve that purpose.

Purpose is by far the most individualized experience. Nonetheless, it is the very thing that dissolves the individual into undifferentiation. Being that of the mystery consciousness, true purpose is not really known, but instead experienced by revealing the self to the self. This is done with a concert of effort and harmony derived from the entire conscious continuum. Counterintuitively, one does not find purpose by searching for it, but by eliminating all internal conflict. Since it has no specific focus on the self, it often has a directed benefit to the community or environment.

Mental health ultimately is observed and experienced as increasingly high-quality decisions, a sense of fulfilment and an authentic expression of characteristics and purpose. CEBT is a modality that specifically promotes these qualities, while ensuring survival and adaptive responses to a changing environment. The model used by CEBT suggests a natural intention, of the healthy organism, to benefit social evolution, which, in turn, contributes to a greater accord between organism and environment. CEBT is mostly about change and that means learning to become experts at changing our behavior. Anyone who has tried to break a bad habit has experienced this firsthand. We often need a little help with change.