This is why Titus 2’s curriculum and my approach to counseling includes values self-assessment and clarification, emotional literacy discussions, and biblical relationship principles Self-discovery under the illuminating light of the Holy Spirit is a potentially life changing adventure:
What the Bible calls “double-mindedness”
cognitive dissonance
the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change.
“In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values, or participates in an action that goes against one of these three, and experiences psychological stress because of that. When two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people will do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person’s belief clashing with new evidence (facts) perceived, wherein they will try to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.”
In the most interior, intimate, honest depth of spirit of a person, (that which is created in the image of God) one KNOWS the truth about her motives, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions even if it is mostly hidden to her consciousness and her intellectual or emotional inability to communicate it coherently to another person.. But the external façade, the “mask” that she has created to show the world, can be 180 degrees in conflict with that true inner self. The degree of dis-harmony between the outer MASK and the inner true SELF will determine the amount of emotional distress, anxiety, and inauthenticity that a person reveals over time in relationships. If the individual does not find a means to reconcile the difference between that outer false-self mask and the inner true self, the result will be increasing tension on the psyche to the extent that a breakdown will occur or other means of escape will be sought. Ultimately, double-mindedness will not serve the emotional well-being of an individual and something will have to give.