Core Concepts of Mind Works with Craig
The Mind Works approach is built on personal experience, clinical practice and a wide foundation of scientific research.
Across many years of navigating my own challenges, and supporting others with theirs, I developed a structured way of understanding why we get stuck, how change becomes possible and what it takes to move forward with stability.
These nine core concepts form the foundation of everything you will learn.
Each concept will help you understand your mind, your behaviour and your health from a practical and compassionate perspective.
This page provides a clear overview.
You can explore each concept in more detail on the pages ahead.
1. The Process of Change
The Process of Change is the backbone of the entire approach.
It follows seven stages, beginning with the Recurring Cycle, which is the moment you recognise that something in your life is not working.
From here, you move through preparation, awareness, understanding, managing, overcoming and finally outcome and growth.
This framework is grounded in neuroplasticity.
Your brain has the capacity to change throughout your life.
Once you understand the process, change becomes clearer and far more achievable.
2. Mental Strength
Mental Strength is the ability to maintain clarity, focus and emotional steadiness.
It is not about suppressing thoughts or forcing yourself to stay positive.
It is about developing awareness, strengthening attention and learning how to observe your internal world without becoming overwhelmed by it.
This is one of the most important skills for long-term change.
3. The Tower Block
Your wellbeing can be visualised as a tower block with different levels representing psychological, physical, physiological and relational health.
When you are higher in the tower, life feels manageable and direction feels clearer.
When you drop lower, everything becomes more difficult and the nervous system shifts toward survival.
The Tower Block helps you identify where you are today and what is needed to support stability and progress.
4. Parts of Self
We all have different internal parts that influence how we feel and behave.
These include the Current or Actual Self, the Ideal or Future Self, the Protective or Aversive Self and the True Self.
Understanding how these parts interact allows you to work through internal conflict, reduce self-sabotage and act more consistently with your values.
This concept forms the basis of identity work throughout the course.
5. Psychological Processes of Distress
Distress often arises from predictable psychological patterns.
These include polarised thinking, overuse of certain positive traits, repressed emotional material, protective strategies and the sense of being trapped in a closed mental space.
There are seven core psychological mechanisms that contribute to distress and they appear in almost everyone I work with.
Understanding these mechanisms helps you reduce their impact and respond with clarity rather than reactivity.
6. Pillars of Health
Your health rests on four interconnected pillars.
These are Psychology, Physiology, Physical Health and Environment and Relationships.
When one pillar weakens, the others take on more pressure.
When several weaken at the same time, motivation collapses, energy decreases and emotional regulation becomes more difficult.
Strengthening these pillars is essential for sustainable change and long-term wellbeing.
7. Gears, Pressure and Decision Scales
This combined concept explains why your behaviour changes from day to day and why some decisions feel easy while others feel impossible.
It brings together three ideas that work as a single system.
The Pressure Gauge
The Pressure Gauge represents the stress load your system is carrying.
It includes allostatic load, heart rate variability, nervous system state, sleep, recovery, emotional strain and the combined influence of the four pillars.
High pressure limits your capacity for change.
Low pressure increases it.
Gears of Motivation
Your nervous system operates in three gears.
Gear 1 is Survival or Stabilisation when pressure is high.
Gear 2 is Regulation or Relief when pressure is moderate.
Gear 3 is Direction or Growth when pressure is low.
These gears reflect your physiological readiness, not your level of discipline.
The Scales of Decision
Every decision balances two forces.
Short term relief provides comfort in the moment.
Long term direction supports the life you want to build.
When pressure is high, the scale tilts toward relief.
When pressure is low, it tilts toward long term direction.
This explains the difference between cannot and will not.
It is a reflection of the brain’s go and no-go circuits and the amount of energy available at any given time.
This concept helps you understand your behaviour with compassion and accuracy rather than blame.
8. Map of the Subconscious
The Map of the Subconscious explains how your mind has been shaped over time.
It includes your early experiences, the beliefs you formed about yourself, your emotional patterns and the protective responses that developed in childhood and adolescence.
By understanding this map, you can work with the deeper forces that influence your behaviour and begin to move beyond old conditioning.
This prepares you for the deeper work later in the course.
9. Acts and Chapters
Acts and Chapters provides the narrative structure for your psychological journey.
Act 1 is the Subconscious Journey, which explains how past experiences, beliefs and patterns led into the Recurring Cycle.
Act 2 is the Process of Change, which is the structured work of transforming those patterns.
Act 3 is Outcome and Growth, where change becomes integrated and you begin to build life with direction, rhythm and fuel.
This concept brings the entire Mind Works framework together and helps you understand your journey as a series of unfolding chapters rather than a single fixed story.
Learn More About The First Core Concept - The Process Of Change
