Mindfulness Becoming as Part of
Counseling and Psychotherapy

In you, in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness
Far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We
May call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness. In
The ancient teachings, it is the Christ within, or your Buddha nature.
From: Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

If counseling and psychotherapy is about the ability to make choices, more healthy and self-fulfilling choices, then it must also be about the ability to become more aware, and consequently, to make more fulfilling choices.

If choice and awareness are central aspects of consciousness, and of the process of Becoming more aware, then we must be concerned with Becoming, and how Becoming works.

In contemporary culture, Becoming travels under the auspices of mindfulness. Mindfulness, an ancient path, is a popular and artfully involved notion in our society right now. But before looking at mindfulness, a short history of Becoming and consequently, mindfulness is in order.

One can trace several historical and philosophical roots of Becoming, most notable of which might be Existentialism. The term perspective is relevant in existentialism because the existentialists don't care for the term "theory". Rather than being a theory, existentialism is seen as a perspective that cuts across many theories. It proposes to be more "experiential" than theoretical. Why is that important? The existentialists try not to analyze and dissect, or to take human things apart. They aspire for "wholeness", "completion", and the convergence of meaningfulness in this moment. The moment is the essence of knowing, and subsequently, of Becoming. The moment represents the convergence of the past, and the hoped for future, in the present. The past is important in that it informs the present, and the informed present allows us to use the present moment to aspire for an informed self in the moment, and consequently, increase awareness, or, to become a more conscious self.

The early existential philosophers were Martin Heidegger, Kierkegaard, and Friedrich Nietzsche. We learned more about this perspective in the literary works of Jean Paul Sartre and Camus in the 1940s and 50s. The counseling/psychotherapy field borrowed from the existentialists in the development of Existential Psychology. The existential mantra is: one steps off the cliff, into the void, in the hopes that one will land on ones feet, or that one will learn to fly. That mantra expresses an extraordinary belief that one will become what one needs to be in the moment.

Mindfulness is very much about experiencing the moment, fully and completely. But it is not enough to experience the moment simply as a vessel of the past, but as a mindful architect of the present moment and experience. In order to "learn to fly" one must become more aware and become more of the "self". At the risk of over-simplifying, that is largely the definition of counseling and psychotherapy. To use the past as a method to create a more informed present, to become more of who one is, and consequently, to aspire to a more fulfilling future. The patterns of behaviors -- the re-enactments from the past -- become the "grist for the mill" in the present, grist that we can explore, knead and mold into who we wish to become.