"The thoughts and beliefs that we want to re-arouse are those that were often predominant in childhood... They are spiritual, mental, emotional and biological beliefs that are innately present in the birth of each creature. Children believe not only that there will be a tomorrow, and many tomorrows, but they also believe that each tomorrow will be rewarding and filled with discovery. They feel themselves couched in an overall feeling of security and safety, even in the face of an unpleasant environment or situation. They feel drawn to other people and to other creatures, and left alone they trust their contacts with others. They have an inbred sense of self-satisfaction and self appreciation, and they instinctively feel that it is natural and good for them to explore and develop their capabilities. They expect relationships to be rewarding and continuing, and expect each event will have the best possible results. They enjoy communication, the pursuit of knowledge, and they are filled with curiosity. All of those attitudes provide the strength and mental health that promotes their physical growth and development. However simple those ideas may sound to the adult, still they carry within them the needed power and impetus that fill all of life’s parts. Later, conflicting beliefs often smother such earlier attitudes, so that by the time children have grown into adults they actually hold almost an opposite set of hypotheses. These take for granted that any stressful situation will worsen, that communication with others is dangerous, that self-fulfillment brings about the envy and vengeance of others, and that as individuals they live in an unsafe society, set down in the middle of a natural world that is itself savage, cruel, and caring only for its own survival at any cost."
The Way Toward Health
Session 6/3, Page 248
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