In the last article, entitled “What Leads to True and Lasting Behavior Change,” we explained why the conventional behavioral interventions have only limited results for some and none for others. We described how the scientific community has been working on remedying this shortcoming, and how the remedy has been found to go beyond the psychology and the biology of behaviors. Today’s article is an introduction to that which goes beyond and that which is behind our psychology and biology, which we call, “The 3 Fundamentals.”
Before we begin, it is worth reminding ourselves that the function of education is unlearning and relearning. It is also worth reminding ourselves that the reason why we unlearn and relearn is because much, if not most, of what we grew up being taught has been proven to be erroneous. It is a universal experience. For as it is said, “Today’s truths are tomorrow’s lies, and you are left questioning your own insanity’;” or from a more optimistic viewpoint, as the father of American Psychology, William James said, “We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.”
And this is exactly what’s been going on in Science:
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200 years of Newtonian Physics supplanted by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
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Centuries believing in brain rigidity superseded by Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis
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And, just when we thought we had solved the chicken or the egg question-Is it biology or environment? We are now finding that our biology, much less our psychology was never the starting point, anyway. We are now finding that there is a foundation behind both biology and psychology. There is an underpinning, which we call the 3 Fundamentals.
Now, the names given to this foundation will vary and are expected to until it becomes widely known. However, what does not, and cannot vary, and are expected to remain the same is what this foundation is.
This foundation is the functional triad of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought.
Here are some of what we can expect to learn:
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The answers to so many questions science has been unable to answer before, regarding our biology and psychology
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A shortcut to lasting changes in Blueprint, Belief Systems, and Behaviors
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A new way of working with thoughts, focus, and emotions, and therefore, a new way of being, of navigating the world, and of doing things
While we will be using The 3 Fundamentals as a point of reference throughout our CBT Certificate Course, they will be central in our other certificate courses, as well. We will be applying them to fully harvest the benefits mentioned above and many more.
Let us start with the Fundamental of Mind:
The Fundamental of Mind is regarded as The Intelligence Center; As The Enabler (in the sense that it allows things to
Let us now move on with the Fundamental of Consciousness:
The Fundamental of Consciousness is basically our State of Awareness. It is that which experiences, perceives, and understands. It is the Decisive Factor. In other words, the Fundamental of Consciousness, for example, allows us to experience a movie, get fully into it, including crying, or laughing, or even getting scared as our hearts race and our hands sweat, while still being aware it is actually not at all real, and it is simply a movie. The Fundamental of Consciousness also allows us to dream and know at the same time that it is just a dream. Like for the Fundamental of Mind, more will be said about the Fundamental of Consciousness in subsequent articles. Now time for the third and last Fundamental-the Fundamental of Thought.
The Fundamental of Thought is the Operant Factor, the Creative Factor, the Catalyst, the Driver, and that which really makes things happen. In order words, while The Fundamental of Mind is the Intelligence behind it all, it gets activated by, or it is operated only from a thought. A thought then may be seen as the most crucial factor of The 3 Fundamentals, though this way of conceptualizing it has its limitations. To further explain, let’s go back to the 3 types of thinking that we have been working on in our CBT Certificate Course. Re: Insightful Thinking; Experiential Thinking; and Incessant Thinking. In a nutshell, when engaged in incessant thinking, commonly known as mental chatter, The Fundamental of Thought is running the show all by itself, and all on its own. Have you ever heard someone say, “You’re just in your head”? well, here’s what she or he actually meant without knowing it. She or he meant, it’s all Thought right now, no Mind, and very little Consciousness, if any at all. Now, it does not mean that The Fundamental of Mind or The Fundamental of Consciousness are absent. On the contrary, just like The Fundamental of Thought, they are always present, but remember, The Fundamental of Thought is the Operant Factor, and it can take over, particularly in forms of limiting beliefs, determining our attitude, then our perception, then the meaning we assign to things, then what we focus on, then the types of associative thoughts that ensue, then our emotions, then our behaviors, and the cycle continues until it gets broken. In other words, left alone, our incessant thinking, the Fundamental of Thought, activates our normal Blueprint (Gene-Environment-Epigenetic; otherwise known as our Biology and our Psychology). It does not bypass it, rather, it reinforces it.
The above understanding, coupled with your knowledge that incessant thinking is always either about the past or about the future and never about the present time, even when it seems to be, is priceless. For you now possess an automatic enhancement in your understanding of what’s behind both biologically and psychologically the conditions that we currently treat in clinical settings. We will be going over ten conditions, as examples to illustrate the 3 Fundamentals. We will be doing so in our next class, entitled, CBT and Therapy, on Wednesday, September 2, 2020 from, 7-9pm (Eastern Time).
Now, given our prior discussion that incessant thinking is and will always be around, you may be wondering how hard it may then be for anyone to be integrated, and how much harder must it be for our patients and clients. This might have been true had The Fundamental of Thought been the Intelligence Center, and not the Operant Factor. But Mind is the Intelligence Center, and through Consciousness or Awareness, both insightful and experiential thinking become more and more at reach, while incessant thinking becomes more and more manageable, and then less and less prominent.
Consciousness or State of Awareness is infinite, and there are levels to it. The higher the level, the more time spent
Where do we go from here? This is simply an introductory article to The 3 Fundamentals Behind Our Biology and Our Psychology. This is indeed a beginning for us clinicians, the start of a new chapter because by learning about this with the SWEET Institute, our level of awareness is expected to increase. As a reminder, with each increase in our level of awareness, we can expect to see an increase in our insightful thinking, experiential thinking, and therefore becoming better managers of our incessant thinking without the tiredness that currently results from doing so through the current mainstream techniques. We will be talking more about how to best manage incessant thinking in one of our upcoming classes in our CBT Certificate Course.
For now, here’s what we are asking you to do:
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Read this article as often as you can, at least more than twice before our next class.
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Think about this new insightful understanding that you are about to discover. Think about what this means for your patients or clients, for your loved ones, and for you, as a clinician
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Allow this new insightful understanding to inform how you practice, going forward, even if you are just starting to understand it. Just become more aware, and allow yourself to elevate to a new way of being a clinician.
SWEET Institute’s vision is to be the place for all clinicians throughout the world. The place where clinicians become acquainted with the latest in science so they no longer have to wait 25-years before a new piece of science makes it to the clinical arena. Given the fact that every 18 months, the amount of what we know in the field doubles, the SWEET Institute’s vision is to ensure all clinicians stay up to date without the sacrifices that may come along with trying to do so. Lastly, the SWEET Institute’s vision is to change the way patients and clients get treated in the field, how clinicians and agencies get treated in the system, and how we can best create change through modeling, through proper education, and through an increase in awareness and adjustment in belief systems.
Are you ready to join us? If so, see you on Wednesday, September 2, 2020 at 7pm Eastern Time.
We look forward to seeing you then,
Karen and Mardoche