Molecules and cells organize into clusters, which further organize as layers, tubes, tunnels and pouches. These give structure to liquid life and set the stage for embodied human consciousness. Through the act of living, a personal human shape grows, one that is changed by the challenges and stresses of life. Formative psychology is based in the evolutionary process in which life continually forms the next series of shapes, from birth through maturity to old age. At conception each person is given a biological and emotional inheritance, but it is through volitional effort that this constitutional given fulfills its potential for forming a personal life.
Form gives rise to feeling.
The smallest volitional effort begins the process of self-contact. It brings forth the existential truth of one's immediate personal bodily experience rather than ideas, mental concepts or someone else's notion about appropriate behaviors and actions. The gift of cortical function makes possible volitional participation in our lives. Through volition, distinctions can be made in a general pattern of experience. Volitional function is learned with practice over time.