The concept of the mind-body connection, the idea that the mind and body are not separate but richly related and mutually responsive, continues to have a profound and revolutionary impact on health care.  Experimental evidence supports the effectiveness of imagination and consciousness to affect beneficially the symptoms of disease.  Research also supports the essential propositions upon which Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is based.  Namely, that thoughts and beliefs shape and affect our behaviour, feelings, physiological states and life events.  And that perception and understanding of events affects our emotional, physical and behavioural reaction to those events.  Therefore by altering the mental processes of conscious understanding we can change both our inner and outer worlds.

This vindication has seen the widespread increase of the use of consciousness as an agent of therapeutic change both in physical and psychological instances.  These instances illustrate proven and accepted means by which we harness the power of the conscious mind, the direction and re-direction of thoughts and conscious mental processes to achieve a desired end.

The unconscious mind, the vast reservoir of emotional and psychological resources, can also play a significant role in a process of personal change.  We all have the potential for greatness, great acts of courage, generosity, forgiveness, love.  To varying degrees and at different times we might express and experience elements of the mystic, artist, visionary, poet and priest, what Carl Jung termed archetypal experience.  By this he meant common fields of psychic experience which can scale up to mythic proportions whereby the father can become God, the Heavenly Father and the mother can become Isis or the Virgin Mary.  We might not always act from the sublime heights of our nature but often we are actually alienated from this potential.   Possibly seeing it outside ourselves, in others, in heroes or idols, or even ourselves but deferred to some ideal, future incarnation when we have the perfect job, partner, car, body.

Therefore our greatest potential can lie dormant within us; manifesting as obscure yearnings and a growing sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction.  Or if we are aware of this promise, realisation might seem unrealistic and unlikely.

However, these potentials can be reached, and realised.  We are not all Mozart, Picasso or Elizabeth I, but do have the potential to live deeply rewarding and fulfilling lives.  It is this potential and this journey which can be discovered. Connecting with our inner potential, it is possible to orientate toward meaningful success, achievement and fulfilment. 

Creative and practical engagement with our true potential and inner resources can enable us to find out why we do what we do, how we can change, and help us to address any blocks or resistance to growth.  In this way we can bring about profound and lasting change and transformation.