Health Realization is a resiliency approach to personal and community psychology first developed in the 1980s by Roger C. Mills, and George Pransky, and based on ideas and insights these Ph.D. psychologists elaborated from attending the lectures of philosopher and author Sydney Banks.

The Health Realization teaching focuses on the nature of Thought and how it creates our experience of the world. Students of Health Realization learn that they can change how they react to their circumstances by connecting to their innate health and inner wisdom, and by becoming aware that they are creating their own experience as they respond to their thoughts.

Health Realization also goes under the earlier names "Psychology of Mind" and "Neo-Cognitive Psychology," and it is closely related to "Innate Health" and the "Three Principles" understanding.

The Health Realization Model

In the Health Realization model, all psychological phenomena, from severe disorder to glowing health, can be understood as manifestations of three operative "principles" first identified by Sydney Banks. These principles are "Mind," "Consciousness," and "Thought." "Mind" is the name given to the universal energy that animates all of life, the source of innate health and well-being. "Consciousness" is the name given to our ability to be aware of our lives. "Thought" is the name given to the sum total of our mental activity. "Mind" has been likened to the electricity running a movie projector, and "Thought" to the images on the film. "Consciousness" is then like the light from the projector that throws the images onto the screen, making them appear real.

According to HR, we experience our reality and our circumstances through the constant filter of our thoughts. Our Consciousness makes that filtered reality seem "the way it really is," and we react to it as if this were true. But, when our thinking changes (as it inevitably does, through the activity of Mind), reality seems different, and our reactions change. Thus, we are constantly creating our own experience of reality via our thinking.

The person who practices Health Realization learns that even though insecure and negative thoughts may always arise, they do not have to be taken seriously; we can choose whether to react to them or not. When we choose to stop reacting to them, our minds quiet down and positive feelings emerge spontaneously. Thus the student of HR also learns that he or she has health and well-being already within them, ready to emerge as soon as his/her insecure, negative thinking calms down. When this happens, s/he also gains access to "common sense," a clear-sighted and highly ethical way of relating to the world, and s/he can tap into the universal capacity for creative problem-solving or "inner wisdom." When a person truly grasps the understanding behind Health Realization in an experiential way, an expansive sense of emotional freedom and well-being often results.