3D: Daily Dose of Discernment: 2005

Kevin Everett FitzMaurice

Jan 2011 · 3D: Daily Dose of Discernment Book 1 · FitzMaurice Publishers

About this ebook

Choose to Discover this eBook to Learn—

1. How To Discover Insight by practicing the discernment of sayings.
2. How To Exercise and Improve Your Mind for greater openness, flexibility, and creativity.
3. How To Increase Your Mental Capability by increasing your capacity for understanding, perception, and wisdom.

This book is a collection of sayings for each day of the year, originally created in 2005, but the quotations remain appropriate and relevant for any year. Each saying is dated in the mathematical fashion, that is, with the numbers in descending-size order. The sayings cover various topics. Topics include psychotherapy, psychology, philosophy, psychological skills,General Semantics, Eastern psychology, Eastern philosophy, meditation, flow, identity, authenticity, responsibility, the nature of self, and social commentary among others.

The sayings were originally posted on the author's website. They were edited for this book, and the edited versions now replace the original website versions. Editing was done for typos, grammar, and spelling. Editing was also done for duplicates, clarity of meaning, and precision. However, attempts were made to maintain the original meanings and intentions. For the sake of a general audience No was placed after some of the sayings that are ironic. They are ironic because they state principles people follow that they should not be following. Please excuse the few we missed to notate this way.

You will discover sayings useful to understanding Eastern thought and General Semantics. The agreement between General Semantics and Eastern philosophy is profound, illuminating, and deepens the understanding of both. For instance, the expressions, "The description is not the described," and, "The thought is not the thing," are found in both Eastern philosophy and General Semantics. Both systems arrive at reality as nonverbal, silent, and beyond comprehension with thought. This despite the fact that one is spiritual and one is atheistic. That two entirely different approaches arrive at the same ultimate conclusions is exciting and enlightening.

It is important to understand the usage of the word "change" in this book. Change is considered an impossibility for psychological entities such as thoughts, feelings, and sensations. However, sometimes the book recommends change or describes how to change. This is consistent because change can have the meaning of transforming into something else, which is wrong for psychological usage. And change can have the meaning of switching to something else, which is right for psychological usage. You do not change your dog into a cat. You can change from having a dog to having a cat. You change your shirt by switching to a different shirt, not by mutating your current shirt into another shirt. Switch, not change. Or change in the sense of turning, shifting, transferring, or redirecting, not evolving. More discussion on change can be found in Attitude Is All You Need! Second Edition.

About the author

 Be it as a person's counselor or as a founding member of facilities for the homeless, Kevin Everett FitzMaurice, M.S., NCC, CCMHC, LPC, seeks to make others' lives better by helping others improve how they function. As a volunteer, he supports community services to improve others' living conditions. As a counselor, he "counsels" in the traditional sense: advising, directing, and nudging--or pushing--others into facing and resolving their issues.

Mr. FitzMaurice has a variety of formal and advanced training in counseling, which includes Addictions Counseling, Family Therapy, advanced Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), Transactional Analysis (TA), and over 1300 hours of diverse training for continuing education units (CEUs). To make the best use of that extensive training, he takes an integrative approach, grounding himself in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and using the other theories to build upon that one core theory, rather than focusing on multiple theories and mastering none of them.

After more than twenty years in counseling, Mr. FitzMaurice has worked four years in the substance abuse field, directed two community mental health programs, and spent fourteen years counseling in private practice. In that time, he has refined many principles for and methods of counseling. He now puts those principles and methods into book form to share them with a wider audience, so more people can benefit than he can reach in person. Currently, he has more than twenty books written, most of which are available worldwide as e-books from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Google, Kobo, and Apple.

The philosophical odyssey of Mr. FitzMaurice began in the late '60s. It has remained a mostly self-taught pursuit, with little formal training or education in philosophy. The odyssey started with Western philosophy and a study of pragmatism and atheism. For example, he read every work of Nietzsche that had been translated into English at that time. From there, he moved to the study of Zen, Buddhism, Hinduism, and a misguided experimentation with psychedelics to achieve states of superconsciousness. He continued into Eastern philosophy, pursuing Taoism and J. Krishnamurti. Next came a study of Christianity that started with seven readings of the Old Testament and nine readings of the New Testament from cover to cover, followed by a formal study of Western psychology. The ongoing influences for FitzMaurice's thinking continue to be Christianity, General Semantics, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and an Eastern combination of J. Krishnamurti, Taoism, and Zen.

Academic Credentials: Master of Science (M.S.) in guidance and counseling, with a specialization in agency counseling, from the University of Nebraska. Associate of applied science in human services - chemical dependency counseling (with honors), from Metropolitan Community College.

National Certifications: National Certified Counselor (NCC); Certified Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CCMHC); Family Certification in REBT; Primary Certification in REBT; and Advanced Certification in REBT.
State Licensure: Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Oregon; Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in Iowa; Licensed Independent Mental Health Practitioner (LIMHP) in Nebraska.

Community Service: One of the original founders of the Francis House, Siena House, and Stephen Center homeless facilities still in operation in Nebraska. Supporter of the following charities: OxFam America, Amnesty International USA, Habitat for Humanity, and Green Peace.