A listener of this podcast asked us to explain what we mean when we tell people to "reflect." When we're trying to understand ourselves and life, we tend to ask ourselves "why" questions. Why is this happening to me? Why can't I come up with an answer? Why did so-and-so do this to me? The list is endless. "Why?" takes us in the wrong direction beca…

We are all "lifelong learners" but we are taught early on to "figure things out." Everyone can remember being told as a child, "Think about it. You'll figure it out." As we move through life, we spend more and more time going over and over life situations in our minds, trying to come up with answers, or asking other people for answers and then tryi…

We are very dependent on our intellect (everything we already know that is stored in our brain) for a lot in life. It allows us to remember how to run things, where we put things, what we've learned, how to find our friends' houses, how to do our jobs, phone numbers, people's names, etc. Sometimes people hear us talking about looking to live from o…

We might awaken from nightmares frightened or sad, but as soon as we wake up we realize it was just a dream. Even if we find our dreams disturbing, we know they are dreams. Yet when we fall into low mood thinking or get stuck on troubled memories or entertain fears during the day, we don't call them "daymares." We don't realize we can "wake up" and…

Low mood thinking is always compelling because it generates strong feelings and it arises from insecurity. So it looks like we have to do something about it. It is habitual thinking that comes to mind from our memories with a familiar feeling, which gives it more weight. People complain about being "plagued" or "haunted" or "frequently visited by" …

People are often confused by the power we have as thinkers to create our experience of reality. It does NOT mean that we can stare at a new car in a showroom and manifest it in our life; it does not mean we can wish for an outcome of a situation and make it happen. Life is happening; there is actual reality in which we live. But what WE see of it, …

When we recognize the simplicity of living in the now, following our wisdom as things come to mind, we live at peace. We benefit from a flow of insight which allows us to see more clearly our own power to think and create our experience of reality and understand life. We learn as we go, finding the lessons and blessings in disappointment as well as…

The definition of changing our minds is "having a new thought." It is natural to allow thoughts to come and go, responsive to the moment, without attachment to any thought. If we get stuck on a thought, though, we hold onto it. We think some things so often for so long that they seem more "real" to us. We all have ideas we assume are true because w…

Each one of us is always creating our own experience of reality with our unique power to think. So there really is no such thing as objective reality. We all see what we see; someone looking at the same situation will see it differently. Indeed, in a different state of mind, WE may see it entirely differently. So our experience of life is unique to…

A lot of people talk about "doing the Principles," or "using the Principles," or "combining the Principles with other 'approaches,'" or thinking the Principles are a "really interesting method." That downplays the power of Principles as words that stand for and describe formless power, the essential energy, from which all creation takes form. We us…

When you hear about the Principles, you hear of "Levels of Consciousness." What does this mean? Our ever-changing "level" is the degree to which we have insights that lead us to realize that all thought is illusion, merely what we make up in the moment. All of it, even though early on, much of it seemed "real." The more we realize that the power to…

Listening to others in neutral is difficult until we understand how thinking works in all of us. Everyone is creating their own experience of every moment in life. No two people see anything exactly alike; we all think our own thoughts and draw information from our own memory and see things in our own way. And we express what we see to each other. …

Many people ask us whether encouraging people to find a calm state of mind and contentment isn't just positive thinking. Our state of mind is BEFORE what we think; when we are at peace and our minds are quiet, the quality of thoughts we produce is a much higher level than the thoughts we produce from a negative or upset state of mind. The problem w…

The Principles describe the way the formless energy behind life manifests in the creation of form. They describe the way creation works. Divine Mind, formless intelligent energy, is the force behind all of creation. Divine Thought is what allows us to bring ideas and images to life within our own minds. Divine Consciousness, the energy behind aware…

Discernment is not judgement. We can speak up if we see a friend heading down a dangerous path, or if we notice a client shading the truth, etc. The difference between the negativity of "judgement" and exercising our common sense with good will and a loving feeling is the difference between harboring negative opinions and speaking from wisdom when …

Not being judgmental does not mean not using common sense to speak up or act honestly when we see people we care about or people we serve doing things that are contrary to living at peace, in harmony with life. Syd says "a non-judgmental mind is a mind at peace." That refers to things like personal judgments -- resentments, attitudes towards certai…

People often express confusion about Sydney Banks' advice to "just be yourself; be ordinary." They hear it as if it means "mediocre" or "not realizing your potential." Actually, the deeper meaning of "ordinary" is "part of the order of things," and that is what we point to with the Principles. Everyone comes into life with extraordinary gifts: the …

It's that time of year again when we're all expected to be joyful and enthusiastic, and a lot of people just feel stressed, pressured, and anxious about doing all the things they think they have to do for the holidays. We forget that we're making it up. It's our own thinking about holidays, our own exaggerated ideas of what we need to get done, our…

(We are re-sharing a podcast from last year during the holiday season because it feels timely to us to remind ourselves and all of us that love and understanding are the answer to to human suffering and the problems of the world.) The universal energy of creation finds expression in human beings through our ability to think and experience our think…

Many people struggle with the painful feeling of shame. Perhaps we were told as children that we "should be ashamed" of something. Perhaps we suffered mistreatment that we interpreted to mean we were not worthy of love and care. Perhaps we did things for which we harbor shame. Shame is nothing more than a negative thought about ourselves. As we und…

People tend to define themselves according to the outside world. We try to "be" something or someone, pursuing the ideas we and others have made up about ourselves, and react to events and people. The Principles show us we are guided by our spiritual power of Thought and, when we have peace of mind, by the quiet wisdom beyond our personal knowledge…

We are often asked, "Why is my child hanging out with 'bad' friends?" Or "Why do I keep falling for abusive men?" Or "Why do I keep doing business with people who cheat me?" Those questions arise from one deeper question: "What is it about the state of mind I live in that attracts me to the 'wrong' people?" Everyone lives in a range of feeling and …

Everyone has guilty thoughts. Some people get stuck in guilt and never lose the feeling. Others experience guilt and make amends if possible, or learn from the experience it's related to and move on. Guilt is a feeling that informs us we have done or said something that we realize was not right or caused harm. It is healthy to experience the feelin…

Psychology is a product of early 20th century interest in studying the soul and the mind. The word psychology has its origins in Greek words meaning "the study of the soul." As scientific methods -- focus on the measurable -- became the focus of study, Psychology abandoned the immaterial, immeasurable soul, calling it the purview of Religion, and f…

The essence of The Three Principles is that everything in the world originates from Spiritual Energy formed into thought. The Principles belong to the Spiritual realm; they describe how the energy of life works and what creation is. Often, when people hear "spirituality," they think religions, but religions are the form the energy of spirituality h…

Most of us grew up being told that humility was recognition that we were "mere mortals," or that humility was a set of behaviors -- modesty, consideration for others' feelings and needs, being grateful. The Principles describe a universal fact: we all come from the pure energy of life, and before we use our gifts to think and see our thinking as ou…

People are always asking us to "define" Mind, Thought, and Consciousness again, or put them in different words. If you're trying to "figure out" the Principles by looking at the words, you can easily become frustrated and confused. Definitions are the intellect trying to figure things out. Look to understand how life works through us, from within u…

We've all done it -- looked for an expert, or a highly recommended source, or a certain book, or a guru, or a technique, to find the answers to our deepest questions. No matter how hard we look, we end up still confused or uncertain. For many, the search goes on for a lifetime. Looking outside of ourselves for understanding will never lead us to pe…

The Principle of Thought describes the absolute power every individual has to create their own experience of life. We do not experience anything we have not thought, whether it's a memory, a fear, a desire, a pain, a recognition, a profound insight. Until it enters our mind as a thought, it has not happened for us. The good news is we have free wil…

A misunderstanding that arises from talk about the Principles is the idea of "listening for a feeling" or "following your feelings." When we create thoughts, images in our mind, Consciousness allows us to recognize our thoughts and to understand whether they are helpful. Our feelings provide feedback. When our thoughts are producing negative feelin…

Often our clients bring up some version of, "I understand what you're talking about, but knowing it just isn't helping me." The Principles are not about "what," but about "how" life works, and SEEING what it truly means that we are the thinkers always creating our own experience. What "works" is listening for the feeling behind the words, allowing …

Memories are stored thoughts, like all information we have accumulated. They have no "power" until we focus on them. Otherwise, they are like books we've already read on the shelf, unimportant unless we take them down and start reading again. They have "invisible" power only because, when they come to mind, Consciousness brings them to life and we …

We often encourage our clients to "reflect" rather than "think about" or "figure out" life situations. Reflection is a quiet mind in a peaceful feeling; it is when we turn off the spigot of our personal thinking and listen for the natural flow of the stream of wisdom. Wisdom comes to us directly from the unknown, before thought, and it is our sourc…

When we talk about living a happy life, we are not talking about living in denial of the facts of life events, we are not describing a life miraculously free of trouble, we are not suggesting a strategy of avoidance. Happiness is a deep feeling of well-being, of confidence in our moment-to-moment access to the guidance of wisdom and insight, of fai…

Unlike other therapy approaches, The Three Principles has one primary goal for therapy: Happiness. While that seems counterintuitive to people who seek therapy to address problems or resolve issues, it is the expression of the profound truth of the Principles: Before the formation of thought, we come into the world at peace and content and living f…

Continuing on our last podcast, since we are not analyzing what is wrong or problem-solving with clients, what DO we do? Although every 3P practitioner works from their own wisdom in the moment, and there are no "techniques" or "processes," all of us listen as deeply as we can to clients until we "hear" their mental health in their stories and "see…

Traditional psychologies diagnose what's wrong with clients and help them "fix" issues. To us, that does not lead clients to a deeper understanding from which they can access their spiritual power to think, and to recognize our shared origin from the intelligent, formless energy of life, the source of wisdom. We point to the deep feelings of peace …

Clients often say, "OK, I understand the Principles: Mind, Consciousness and Thought. We create our own thinking and then see it as real via Consciousness because of the formless power of Mind. But I still don't feel any better." The Principles are words, metaphors that explain the logic of how human beings come to experience reality. "Learning" th…

For 50 years, since Sydney Banks first shared his profound insight into how the intelligent energy of creation manifests in human beings as the power to think, to create our unique experience of life, some people have called us a cult. Mr. Banks spent his life telling people not to be followers, but to find their wisdom and insight to guide them th…

"What do you mean by 'change is one thought away'?" people often ask us. "Isn't change a hard, long process of working through stuff?" As we come to understand the inside-out nature of thought, how our thoughts create the moment-to-moment reality we experience, we recognize that change occurs when we realize something we didn't know before. For exa…

Those who have spent their lives accumulating knowledge and working hard to figure things out have, without realizing it, gotten lost in the Memory Library. Our personal thinking, a product of active, busy minds, lives there. It can only work with already-thought thoughts, what we already know, which is why we get frustrated going over and over the…

Many people mistake excitement, high-energy, cheerfulness as "the positive feelings" we talk about in the Three Principles. They assume that having a good time, being temporarily happy, is the desirable state. The Feeling we point to is deep peace of mind, a sense of connection to the moment and to the universe, a feeling that generates quietude, a…

Psychology is traditionally focused on solving problems. Right now, there is a focus on working through past traumas. We say that when you dredge up the past, you get trapped in something that cannot change. Every time you think about it, you relive it, but you can't make it turn out differently. With the 3P perspective, a Wisdom-Focused approach, …

We all have in common that we emerge into life from the power of Divine Mind, Thought, and Consciousness and we use that power to create our experience. Every single one of us uses it differently, and builds their own unique personal thought system. Even after we see that finding peace of mind and access to wisdom to guide us through life is the pa…

In traditional psychology, practitioners often see "resistance" in clients. Resistance, from the standpoint of the Principles, is really hopelessness. People lose hope that they have innate mental well-being, that they always have access to their own wisdom, that they are born with the gift of creating their own reality, and that peace of mind is a…

It's easy to get addicted to troubled thinking because our worst moments, or our most negative thoughts look and feel more significant to us than ordinary everyday thoughts. We get frightened, embarrassed, discouraged, upset, angry, etc. about them. In other words, they bring us bad feelings. Bad feelings get our attention. They're supposed to. The…

Once we begin to notice how the power of thinking works and how we change as our understanding deepens, it becomes a thrilling lifetime learning experience to experience new insights and keep growing and changing. We are taught early on that "figuring out" is the way to learn, but very few people are taught that insight is the way to grow and find …

Parenting becomes challenging as children grow and develop their own thinking and start experiencing their own moods and reactions. It helps to remember that children are all individuals, with the same access to wisdom and mental well-being as grownups, and with the same free will and free thought to develop their own way of seeing life. It takes l…

Sexual abuse is a horrible experience for people of any age or gender, and often generates feelings of shame, fear of being damaged, unwillingness to seek help, hesitancy about any relationships. No trauma, not even the worst personal trauma, can break our innate well-being, which is a spiritual truth, formless and invincible. Only the way we think…

This is part two of our discussion of brain disorders, focused on the common issue of ADHD. Many people struggle with ADHD, and how to "manage" life tasks with it. First, there are good medicines available that slow down thinking, and there is no shame in taking them appropriately. Second, over time, we have come to recognize more and more that tho…