More about the Actualising Tendency

BLOG – No. 2

The Actualisation Tendency cont’d…..

In the last blog I shared that the actualising tendency, as argued from a Humanistic (Person-Centred) perspective is a biological (innate) force that exists in all organisms (including humans) and direct all towards survival, maintenance and growth – their fulfilment of potential. 

One key psychological factor that restricts our human growth is our mentally constructed perception of who we are and how we should behave – the basis of this is our early conditioning when we learn to respond to the requirements of our environment. This conditioning reinforces a certain way of being in order to gain something of what we value from important others – this could include: survival, attention, love etc. To gain this we create a false persona/sense of self, which could be viewed as a contracted version of our true wholeness, which we came into the world as. 

Every time we repeat conditioned behaviours they become strengthened and embedded in our psyche and holds the false message ‘this is the person I am’.  We can then spend our life seeking to fit our everyday experiences into this false self. Any experience that doesn’t meet the demands of our self-concept we can find ourselves manipulating the experience to make it fit, using defence mechanisms, notably denial and distortion.

Living up to a self-concept can lead to exhaustion, stress, anxiety, unhappiness etc. 

More about why the above happens in my next blog…

The Actualising Tendency

Introduction to Blog by Russ Kendall

Up to this point, my sharing on this page of my website have been in the form of poems and these I will continue to write and share with you. However, in light of the New Year starting I thought I would also start writing a blog to share some of my insights and observations of the therapeutic process and in particular the counselling I offer, which is based on a Person-Centred approach. I shall also refer to Mindfulness and Focusing, which are also very much related to the counselling I offer.

 Blog No. One – The Actualising Tendency 

Person-Centred Counselling was developed in the 1950s by Carl Rogers under the Humanistic school of Psychology. When I studied psychology many years ago, the Humanistic school really resonated with me because of it’s underpinning philosophy in the innate potential in everyone (including me) to have the capacity to grow and aspire to their full potential. This innate potential, emanant writers of the day believed resided in all organisms. In this regard Rogers stated that if Potatoes were put in a dark cellar they would move towards the light. This, I’m sure you will have observed in nature in your everyday life. This is what is called the Actualising Tendency.

I wrote the following poem that says something about this for me:

Winter sky

Winter sky blue, draw me near.

Hold me in your loving arms,

so that I may know how to love.

And when that time comes let me be.

Your quiet, unspoken beauty,

where birds fly in timeless flight,

and the sun shines selflessly giving,

show me how to fully receive of myself.

In my next blog, I shall talk more about the Actualising Tendency in terms of what helps and hinders it……….

The wonder of the hour "Every dawn brings new opportunities to create something wonderful"

The morning wakes and I shake my body into life, darkness lifts like a blanket revealing light. I move slowly one step at a time and my breath stirs thoughts into old familiar rhymes. The heaviness in me is like a weight too much to hold. I keep moving, hoping lightness deep inside is ready to unfold. The last of the winter leaves lay scattered beneath my feet, leaving trails of the past impossible to meet. My eyes gently lift to witness the wonder of the hour, and my mind reaches out from its watchful tower. Armaments are lowered and defences pulled away, at least for now I see the beauty of the day.

6 Steps to Enrichment

1. Create positive energy by opening your mind and eyes and thinking about the feelings and well-being of those closest to you and asking how you can improve their lives because a sense of security enhances creativity
2. Inspire clarity of intention by listening to your thoughts and thinking about what is important and asking what is needed because inspiration enhances good choices
3. Generate considered action by feeling the earth and air around you and thinking about moving in harmony with the elements and asking which is the right direction because the stability of context (knowing where you are) enhances positive action
4. Motivate sustainable development by smelling the environment and thinking about your experiences and asking what has been learned because motivation enhances improvement
5. Appraise measured performance by tasting the atmosphere and thinking about your actions by measuring your progress because appraisal enhances achievement
6. Appreciate universal integrity by using all your senses to take an overview and think about why your actions are important and how they may affect others because a sense of purpose and belonging enriches well-being

On this morning...

On this morning I share in the movement between seasons.



The branches of trees hang heavy with the weight of the early rain.

Nothing is moving, stillness of Mother Nature holds me like a child and my body sways in silent motion as I gently walk.

No sound, even my thoughts go to ground, leaving a trace so faint as to hardly notice their passing.

And my feet touch the earth and are bathed in the moisture held there.

I feel Autumn in the air and all my senses connect with this moment as life in all its glory flows through me.

Summertime blue

Shady green trees in summertime blue, I watch the sunlight passing through, taking it's time to caress the leaves, that dance to the music on the breeze.

The whisper of peace in this morning hour, brings life to all my senses and I'm captured by the beauty of nature that breaks through my defences.

My body feels warmth against skin and my heart responds to bring the outside in. Stillness embraces me like loving arms and I move towards summer's radiant charms.

Blazing skies splayed out in the heavens, my soft eyes smile to see such splendour. In this moment the truth revealed under shady green trees in summertime blue.

Wild flowers - just for you