book release
Introduction
“The Field Within: How Micro-Impulses Shape Who You Are” offers a bold new way to see yourself, not as a single, unchanging personality, but as a dynamic interplay of tiny impulses that shape every action and decision you make. Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and lived experience, London Berens introduces the “Indent-Plurality Model,” a framework that reveals how fleeting urges, be they habits, fears, or sparks of inspiration, combine to form your moment-to-moment identity.
Using vivid metaphors and real-life case studies, London shows how these micro-level impulses function like arrows on a football field. Some point you toward growth, while others steer you into avoidance. You’ll learn how to track the impulses that guide your behaviors and discover practical tools, such as micro-journaling, strategic tweaks to your environment, and simple “pause and note” exercises, to influence their direction. As you experiment with these techniques, you’ll find opportunities to break long-standing habits, reduce inner conflict, and gain a clearer sense of purpose.
Whether you feel stuck in repeating patterns or simply want deeper self-awareness, “The Field Within” provides an empowering roadmap. Step by step, it guides you to harness the very forces that shape your daily choices, offering a blueprint for real, lasting change in how you live and understand who you truly are.
Chapter Summaries
Introduction
The book introduces the Indent-Plurality model, which reframes identity not as a fixed essence but as a dynamic field of micro-impulses shaped by biology, psychology, and environment. By likening these impulses to arrows on a field, the model provides a new way to understand decision-making and selfhood.
Tracking and Influencing Indents in Daily Life
This chapter teaches how to recognize fleeting pre-conscious impulses called "indents" as they arise in everyday moments, and introduces tools like the “Pause and Note” method to begin shaping them consciously.
The Nature of Impulses: Why We Are Motivated by Arrows
The author explores how impulses emerge from our biology, upbringing, and beliefs, arguing that behavior results from a complex negotiation between competing inner arrows rather than from a fixed personality.
Applying the Indent-Plurality Model to Everyday Decisions
This chapter offers five core strategies: Micro-journaling, environmental tweaks, the preview technique, growth experiments, and accountability. Each designed to help readers consciously shift their impulse patterns and live in closer alignment with their values.
Concrete Actionable Steps for Using the Indent-Plurality Model in Therapeutic Practice
Here, therapists and coaches are given a ten-step roadmap for implementing the model in client work, from introducing the arrow metaphor to managing relapse and reinforcing identity shifts.
Case Study 1: Helen
Helen’s story illustrates how chronic procrastination and self-doubt can be transformed through identifying avoidance impulses and slowly reinforcing new vectors of confidence and action.
Case Study 2: Marcus
Marcus, a young adult caught in identity indecision, uses the model to map his conflicting impulses, eventually constructing a flexible life path that honors both his practical needs and creative drives.
Practical Reflections and Ethical Considerations
This chapter reflects on deeper questions of authenticity, cultural context, and agency, arguing that while identity is fluid and responsive to intervention, ethical self-awareness is essential in how we apply this power.
Concluding Insights: Uniting Theory and Practice
Summarizing the full framework, the author reminds us that identity is a probabilistic approximation of selfhood, shaped by past and present impulses, and that even small shifts in these impulses can lead to profound personal transformation.
Full Circle: From Theory to Everyday Practice
The book closes with a philosophical and poetic reflection on how honoring our micro-impulses, with compassion and awareness, allows us to grow toward the person we most hope to become. One small nudge at a time.
Buy Online
This book provides a general overview and practical application for this philosophically and pragmatically sound model of the mind and growth.