Ultimately, I believe that you and I are here to cultivate our own Inner Authority. We cannot look to outside authorities to tell us what is right for us, what we should believe, how we should live our lives. This is exactly what most, if not all, “isms” do NOT want you to do–they do NOT want us to think for ourselves–They want to be the authority, the source of truth in our lives. I have never been good at giving power away like that. I don’t encourage it in my clients, either.

All of that being said, here are some life and psychology approaches I have found relevant and helpful in my personal life and professional practice:

CBT/Narrative/Principle of Attraction

The way we think about things, and narratives/thoughts that we repeat often enough that they become beliefs, have a significant impact on our subjective emotional and existential experience (and can then impact our physical experience, spiritual experience, and on and on.) A corollary is that what you focus on, especially with a lot of emotion, tends to show up more in your experience. This is in the Bible, Shakespeare, Henry Ford, Abraham-Hicks–it is all over the place, all through history.

Transpersonal

All of this “personality”, “ego”, and “world of form” stuff shows up against an over-arching, ineffable shared consciousness. In the big picture, upper case “Knowing”, “Understanding“, and “Seeking” are probably fools’ errands. However,  being in awe, asking better questions, and being more fully present in this life are probably where it’s at. At least that is all true for me. You will have your own truth.

There is a bigger picture. Spiritual teachers sometime present as having a handle on the nature of that Bigger Picture, and the more certain and specific they are, the less I believe or trust them. I am more of a mystery and awe guy, and less of an “I need to know the answers” guy. Great and illuminating questions trump premature and unwarrantedly confident “answers.”

Positive Psychology

Focusing on the wonder of it all, on the amazing-ness of who we are, and can be, on the possibility of living the life of your dreams, of amplifying the good-feeling moments, and expansion of awe and manifestations and life satisfaction. Yeah, that.

Coaching

    Related to all of the above. Drifts among encouragement, cheerleading, guiding, mentoring, suggesting, drawing out your own Inner Wisdom (“Educare”) and the like. Feedback, both where you rock, and when you need to ask more questions.

Humor

It’s just woven into everything that I am, and I recognize when to bring it into the room, and when to not.

New Thought Sensibilities

New Thought is a mélange of Transpersonal thought, various spiritual traditions, Transcendentalism, Perennial Wisdom, and Positive Psychology. It dates back to Vedic and Hermetic Teachings, and showed up in the US in the form of Phineas Quimby and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

It appears now, named or not, in the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Caroline Myss, Law of Attraction, Anthony Robbins, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and countless others.

New Thought history is equally informed and written by men and women, and it includes a robust body of literature related to abundance and prosperity consciousness, living the life you want, optimism, love, and joy. In all those respects, it is related to Positive Psychology, though from a more applied philosophical direction than the empirical, evidence based foundations of Positive Psychology.

So anyway, those are some of the sources that have influenced me in my life and career…Hope that was helpful…

If any of this seems interesting, please get in contact with me…

Jim

jamesmicknolan@gmail.com

Text me at 505-699-7616