Brainstorm: Part 1
This week you will have read Part 1 of the book Brainstorm and we will begin learning the tools to improve the function of the adolescent (and adult) brain.
Monday Class Content
Components of Mindsight
Siegel created the term Mindsight to describe a tool we will work to develop in ourselves over the next several weeks. He postulates that Mindsight is composed of three component skills.
Insight allows us to see into our own mental workings. It lets us see ourselves as a whole functioning individual over time. Past, present and future.
Empathy allows us to sense the inner mental life of another person. He describes it as a "gateway" to compassion and kindness toward others. He also cites it as a component of social intelligence which allows us to understand the intentions and needs of other people so that we can best arrive at mutually satisfying ways of being together.
Integration allows us to link different parts of something into an interconnected whole. He talks about it in three ways.
Integration creates better relationships as we use it to honor differences and promote compassion in the way we communicate with others.
Integration inside ourselves allows us to connect our past and present to an imagined future and to have an understanding of ourselves as a whole.
Integration also helps us link body and brain so that we are healthy and function well as a whole human being.
Brain components: The cortex of the brain creates "maps" or patterns of firing neurons that produce representations of various things.
“The highest region of the brain, the cortex, makes “maps” or patterns of firing neurons—the basic cells of the nervous system—that create an image or representation of various things.
The back of the cortex makes maps of what we see, and the side areas make maps of what we hear. In the frontal area we make many kinds of maps, including a map of past events and a map of possible future experiences. The most forward part of this frontal area, the prefrontal cortex, makes a map of the mind itself.
This is how we sense and imagine another person’s feelings, thoughts, and memories, among the many aspects of our mental life. “
Three types of Mindsight Maps:
Maps of “me” which are made up of insights into myself.
Maps of “you” for empathy with others.
Maps of “we” for sensing how we live in a world with others. This is how we develop morality.
Siegel goes on to say that brain science suggests that “training of a skill grows connections among our neurons that help create a more integrated set of circuits in the brain. And these integrated circuits support how we balance our emotions, focus our attention, understand others and ourselves, approach problems, and interact with others.”
Beginning to define MIND:
While the term “mind” is often used to mean our inner, subjective experience of life and the process of being aware or conscious, the mind also regulates the flow of energy and information. The mind regulates how energy moves both within us (embodied energy) and between us and others (relational energy). And since regulation entails both monitoring and modifying, the mind tracks and changes how that energy and information flow over time.
A representation or map shows the pattern of energy regarding a specific image, memory, or thought in what is called information flow. Recognizing the mind’s role in regulating energy and information allows us to learn to direct their flow in a positive way. In order to move in a healthy direction, we must engage our minds in integration—linking different aspects of our inner and interpersonal worlds into a more harmonious and functional whole.
It is important to note that (1) the mind affects not just your internal processes, but your relationships with others as well, and (2) the mind is a regulatory process that is self-organizing in that it enables us to sense and then shape how energy flows within us and with others. This is how mental activities are formed. What are mental activities, really? What do they all have in common? Mental activities like feelings and thoughts can be described as patterns of energy and information that flow inside us. Energy comes in many forms, like light that enables us to see these words or the sound energy that we use to hear them. In the brain, ions flowing in and out of the membranes of its basic cells, the neurons, lead to the release of chemicals that allow these neurons to communicate with one another. That’s electrochemical energy. At its most basic level, whatever its form, energy is the capacity to do stuff.
Siegel created the term Mindsight to describe a tool we will work to develop in ourselves over the next several weeks. He postulates that Mindsight is composed of three component skills.
Insight allows us to see into our own mental workings. It lets us see ourselves as a whole functioning individual over time. Past, present and future.
Empathy allows us to sense the inner mental life of another person. He describes it as a "gateway" to compassion and kindness toward others. He also cites it as a component of social intelligence which allows us to understand the intentions and needs of other people so that we can best arrive at mutually satisfying ways of being together.
Integration allows us to link different parts of something into an interconnected whole. He talks about it in three ways.
Integration creates better relationships as we use it to honor differences and promote compassion in the way we communicate with others.
Integration inside ourselves allows us to connect our past and present to an imagined future and to have an understanding of ourselves as a whole.
Integration also helps us link body and brain so that we are healthy and function well as a whole human being.
Brain components: The cortex of the brain creates "maps" or patterns of firing neurons that produce representations of various things.
“The highest region of the brain, the cortex, makes “maps” or patterns of firing neurons—the basic cells of the nervous system—that create an image or representation of various things.
The back of the cortex makes maps of what we see, and the side areas make maps of what we hear. In the frontal area we make many kinds of maps, including a map of past events and a map of possible future experiences. The most forward part of this frontal area, the prefrontal cortex, makes a map of the mind itself.
This is how we sense and imagine another person’s feelings, thoughts, and memories, among the many aspects of our mental life. “
Three types of Mindsight Maps:
Maps of “me” which are made up of insights into myself.
Maps of “you” for empathy with others.
Maps of “we” for sensing how we live in a world with others. This is how we develop morality.
Siegel goes on to say that brain science suggests that “training of a skill grows connections among our neurons that help create a more integrated set of circuits in the brain. And these integrated circuits support how we balance our emotions, focus our attention, understand others and ourselves, approach problems, and interact with others.”
Beginning to define MIND:
While the term “mind” is often used to mean our inner, subjective experience of life and the process of being aware or conscious, the mind also regulates the flow of energy and information. The mind regulates how energy moves both within us (embodied energy) and between us and others (relational energy). And since regulation entails both monitoring and modifying, the mind tracks and changes how that energy and information flow over time.
A representation or map shows the pattern of energy regarding a specific image, memory, or thought in what is called information flow. Recognizing the mind’s role in regulating energy and information allows us to learn to direct their flow in a positive way. In order to move in a healthy direction, we must engage our minds in integration—linking different aspects of our inner and interpersonal worlds into a more harmonious and functional whole.
It is important to note that (1) the mind affects not just your internal processes, but your relationships with others as well, and (2) the mind is a regulatory process that is self-organizing in that it enables us to sense and then shape how energy flows within us and with others. This is how mental activities are formed. What are mental activities, really? What do they all have in common? Mental activities like feelings and thoughts can be described as patterns of energy and information that flow inside us. Energy comes in many forms, like light that enables us to see these words or the sound energy that we use to hear them. In the brain, ions flowing in and out of the membranes of its basic cells, the neurons, lead to the release of chemicals that allow these neurons to communicate with one another. That’s electrochemical energy. At its most basic level, whatever its form, energy is the capacity to do stuff.
In Class activities from Monday 10/29
The first Mindsight skill we will learn is a technique called SIFTing the Mind. We do it to improve Insight into self.
Sensings
Images
Feelings
Thoughts
The second thing we will play with in class is increasing our skills in non-verbal empathy. We will do a Mirroring exercise.
The third is a meditation on Compassion (to develop the sense of “we”)
Sensings
Images
Feelings
Thoughts
The second thing we will play with in class is increasing our skills in non-verbal empathy. We will do a Mirroring exercise.
The third is a meditation on Compassion (to develop the sense of “we”)
Wednesday Class Content |
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Daniel Siegel debunks myths about the Teenage Brain and "raging hormones". He discusses the changes and remodeling of the brain within the adolescent period. He asserts that people need to learn about these changes to support and meet adolescents with empathy and compassion.
Siegel outlines his "Brainstorm" approach, focusing on emotional spark, social engagement, novelty and creative exploration (ESSENCE) as important aspects during the adolescent time of development. Siegel asserts there are four key features to maintain healthy brain growth: keeping passion in your life, maintaining supportive social networks, trying new things and challenging your mind. This not only helps adults navigate the adolescent mind to provide encouraging support for healthy development, but also supports a "life of connection, meaning, equanimity and sense of purpose".
Siegel outlines his "Brainstorm" approach, focusing on emotional spark, social engagement, novelty and creative exploration (ESSENCE) as important aspects during the adolescent time of development. Siegel asserts there are four key features to maintain healthy brain growth: keeping passion in your life, maintaining supportive social networks, trying new things and challenging your mind. This not only helps adults navigate the adolescent mind to provide encouraging support for healthy development, but also supports a "life of connection, meaning, equanimity and sense of purpose".
This is the link to the video we watched in class on Wednesday and is a summary of Part 1 of Brainstorm. You might want your parents to see this one.
Additional Video Links (extra credit)For those of you making up work from missed classes (and those if you interested in more information on Seigel's work in Interpersonal Neuorbiology). The following segments are from a longer presentation he made to the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. For make up work, watch the clips and submit a paragraph for each one in which you summarize what was learned and how it applies to you or people in your life. You can email this to me over the weekend. Allow one hour to view and write the whole extra credit assignment.
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