4.11.2017 SCIENCE OF THE MIND
Seeing the System as a Source of Self
How an Integrated Identity Creates a Sense of Belonging (and a More Compassionate World)By Dr. Dan Siegel
Imagine if you identified yourself as an oxygen atom. All your life you’ve somehow known oxygen is your identity. Even when you combine with another oxygen atom to form O2, you have no confusion because you and your kin are the oxygen that animals breathe to live.
But there’s another kid on the block that is even more abundant than you—hydrogen. That little pipsqueak of an atom has only one proton and one electron compared to your eight. Sometimes two of those atoms get together with your kind and make a weird combo called a molecule—in this case, the molecule is water: H2O. Who are you now? Are you O or H2O? All of your electron orbits get mixed together with hydrogen’s electrons, and, wouldn’t you know it, you’ve lost the purity you had when you were just plain old oxygen. What’s with this?
In this moment, would you cling to a separate-self view of being only oxygen after you’ve locked orbits with these measly hydrogen atoms against your will? Would you be longing to be only oxygen?
When we think of your dilemma in this situation, we can see that as a single atom of oxygen you are struggling to find what “Me” means for you when the “We” of molecular configuration is denied. But what happens to the even larger collection of all the water molecules that make up streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans? These collections of water molecules are the life-giving and life-sustaining biosphere that are required to maintain life on earth. What would it mean to be such a “selfish” solo oxygen atom to not want to be a part of that larger life system?
Similarly, if you were a cell in a body and fought to separate your identity and life—its functions and features—from other cells by growing at your own accelerated speed and disregarding other cells, the body wouldn’t function well. In fact, we call that condition cancer.
These issues can help us illuminate the nature of mind and deepen our understanding of what the self may truly be.
Since the days of Hippocrates, 2500 years ago, we’ve been told in modern medicine that the human mind is only a product of the brain. When we think of the mind this way—and if we think of the self as coming from the mind—then the skull and skin are the defining boundaries of our mental lives and the sole origins of the self.
People have been fascinated with what the “mind” is for ages. As an educator in this expansive field, many people ask me if the “mind” might just be part of a social brain’s sensitivity to social signals, rather than the fully relational and embodied process that is stated in my writings. That understandable question is a natural part of a view of mind that comes from the perspective that mind is an equivalent for “brain activity.” In other words, this is a natural question when we think the mind is what the brain does.
For me, the view that mind is only a synonym for the activity of the brain is partially true—but embracing it as complete and literal is potentially lethal. Lethal? Similar to cancer, seeing the mind and self as separated from other people and other living beings creates a way of living that is isolating, incomplete, and illusory.
Seeing the System as a Source of Self
How an Integrated Identity Creates a Sense of Belonging (and a More Compassionate World)By Dr. Dan Siegel
Imagine if you identified yourself as an oxygen atom. All your life you’ve somehow known oxygen is your identity. Even when you combine with another oxygen atom to form O2, you have no confusion because you and your kin are the oxygen that animals breathe to live.
But there’s another kid on the block that is even more abundant than you—hydrogen. That little pipsqueak of an atom has only one proton and one electron compared to your eight. Sometimes two of those atoms get together with your kind and make a weird combo called a molecule—in this case, the molecule is water: H2O. Who are you now? Are you O or H2O? All of your electron orbits get mixed together with hydrogen’s electrons, and, wouldn’t you know it, you’ve lost the purity you had when you were just plain old oxygen. What’s with this?
In this moment, would you cling to a separate-self view of being only oxygen after you’ve locked orbits with these measly hydrogen atoms against your will? Would you be longing to be only oxygen?
When we think of your dilemma in this situation, we can see that as a single atom of oxygen you are struggling to find what “Me” means for you when the “We” of molecular configuration is denied. But what happens to the even larger collection of all the water molecules that make up streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans? These collections of water molecules are the life-giving and life-sustaining biosphere that are required to maintain life on earth. What would it mean to be such a “selfish” solo oxygen atom to not want to be a part of that larger life system?
Similarly, if you were a cell in a body and fought to separate your identity and life—its functions and features—from other cells by growing at your own accelerated speed and disregarding other cells, the body wouldn’t function well. In fact, we call that condition cancer.
These issues can help us illuminate the nature of mind and deepen our understanding of what the self may truly be.
Since the days of Hippocrates, 2500 years ago, we’ve been told in modern medicine that the human mind is only a product of the brain. When we think of the mind this way—and if we think of the self as coming from the mind—then the skull and skin are the defining boundaries of our mental lives and the sole origins of the self.
People have been fascinated with what the “mind” is for ages. As an educator in this expansive field, many people ask me if the “mind” might just be part of a social brain’s sensitivity to social signals, rather than the fully relational and embodied process that is stated in my writings. That understandable question is a natural part of a view of mind that comes from the perspective that mind is an equivalent for “brain activity.” In other words, this is a natural question when we think the mind is what the brain does.
For me, the view that mind is only a synonym for the activity of the brain is partially true—but embracing it as complete and literal is potentially lethal. Lethal? Similar to cancer, seeing the mind and self as separated from other people and other living beings creates a way of living that is isolating, incomplete, and illusory.
The mind, in my view, is an emergent property of a system of energy and information flow that arises within the whole body and our relationships. These relationships include our connections to one another and with nature. One of the mind’s facets can be defined this way: An emergent, self-organizing, embodied, and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information. This self-organizing process is an emergent property, an aspect of reality that mathematics has established is part of complex systems—systems that are open, chaos-capable, and non-linear. This means that a complex system is open to influences from outside “itself.” It’s capable of being chaotic. And, it is quite difficult to predict how small inputs result in large changes to the system.
Emergent properties are an established reality of our universe.
Emergent properties, like self-organization, cannot be reduced to the components of a system alone. They emerge from the interaction of the components.
In other words, the notion of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is a mathematical feature of the emergence of complex systems. What I am suggesting is that mind—as an emergent property of the complex system of embodied and relational energy and information flow—is more than just a social brain responding to social signals, like the brain responding to light or sound. Mind happens as much between us and others and the world as it happens within our body and its brain.
It may be that we’ve fallen for an identity error like that of the oxygen atom I described earlier, meaning that we’ve confused where the “self” actually resides. In systems terms, we have aspects of a system in which the components have channeled interactions called “nodes.” If one node of energy and information flow is the body and its brain, we’ve come to assign the notion of “selfhood” to the node, instead of also seeing the system as the source of self. We’ve come to believe that the node of our bodily existence is the sole source of self, the brain the sole source of mind. But we can propose that the mind is broader than the brain; the self bigger than the body. What if the self includes the whole system? What if these bodies we’re born into are simply nodes of the larger system? What if the human brain has evolved to have this unfortunate vulnerability of a mistaken belief that the self is separate, which is reinforced by modern science, schooling, and society? Are other people merely pawns in a game of self-preservation? Is the planet simply a source of stuff and a useful trash can?
The consequences of this vulnerability of the human brain to misperceive the self as limited to only the body is potentially lethal, in that we cannot sustain such a view on our precious and fragile planet—not to mention that we typically neither find meaning nor joy in living such an isolated existence.
Let’s come back to you as an oxygen atom. Yes, you are still the oxygen atom that you think you are. But you are also the water molecule; you are also the stream; you are also the sea. Our human brain deceives us by convincing us that the skin and skull encase the only source of self and we are collectively dying because of this unintentional neural lying. When we open to the reality that life on earth depends on the emergence of properties much larger than the individual components, we can see that cortically constructing the self as separate is, as Einstein suggested, an “optical delusion” of our consciousness. Not even an illusion, but a delusion, a psychotic belief not consistent with reality.
How can we dissolve that optical delusion?
If we see that optimal self-organization arises from a process called integration—the linkage of differentiated parts—we can see that an integrated identity might involve combining the importance and reality of Me with the importance and reality of We. This leads us to a simple equation of integration, the linkage of differentiated aspects of a system: Me plus We equals MWe.
MWe is an integrated identity that links us across time, across space, within our inner lives, and within our own experience of connection with one another. As MWe, we are connected to others whose bodies have come before ours, and to those whose bodies will arrive long after ours are gone. We become more than just oxygen alone; we become water. And both oxygen and water are essential for life to flourish. Me and We are essential aspects of our identity. MWe is an integrated self that can transform how we nurture life on Earth. With all our differentiated glory and linked collaboration, together MWe can make this a more integrated, compassionate, and connected world for us all.
Dr. Dan Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, which focuses on how the development of mindsight in individuals, families, and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, which will be the basis of his upcoming workshop at the Garrison Institute on May 5-7.
Photos courtesy of unsplash.com
Emergent properties are an established reality of our universe.
Emergent properties, like self-organization, cannot be reduced to the components of a system alone. They emerge from the interaction of the components.
In other words, the notion of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is a mathematical feature of the emergence of complex systems. What I am suggesting is that mind—as an emergent property of the complex system of embodied and relational energy and information flow—is more than just a social brain responding to social signals, like the brain responding to light or sound. Mind happens as much between us and others and the world as it happens within our body and its brain.
It may be that we’ve fallen for an identity error like that of the oxygen atom I described earlier, meaning that we’ve confused where the “self” actually resides. In systems terms, we have aspects of a system in which the components have channeled interactions called “nodes.” If one node of energy and information flow is the body and its brain, we’ve come to assign the notion of “selfhood” to the node, instead of also seeing the system as the source of self. We’ve come to believe that the node of our bodily existence is the sole source of self, the brain the sole source of mind. But we can propose that the mind is broader than the brain; the self bigger than the body. What if the self includes the whole system? What if these bodies we’re born into are simply nodes of the larger system? What if the human brain has evolved to have this unfortunate vulnerability of a mistaken belief that the self is separate, which is reinforced by modern science, schooling, and society? Are other people merely pawns in a game of self-preservation? Is the planet simply a source of stuff and a useful trash can?
The consequences of this vulnerability of the human brain to misperceive the self as limited to only the body is potentially lethal, in that we cannot sustain such a view on our precious and fragile planet—not to mention that we typically neither find meaning nor joy in living such an isolated existence.
Let’s come back to you as an oxygen atom. Yes, you are still the oxygen atom that you think you are. But you are also the water molecule; you are also the stream; you are also the sea. Our human brain deceives us by convincing us that the skin and skull encase the only source of self and we are collectively dying because of this unintentional neural lying. When we open to the reality that life on earth depends on the emergence of properties much larger than the individual components, we can see that cortically constructing the self as separate is, as Einstein suggested, an “optical delusion” of our consciousness. Not even an illusion, but a delusion, a psychotic belief not consistent with reality.
How can we dissolve that optical delusion?
If we see that optimal self-organization arises from a process called integration—the linkage of differentiated parts—we can see that an integrated identity might involve combining the importance and reality of Me with the importance and reality of We. This leads us to a simple equation of integration, the linkage of differentiated aspects of a system: Me plus We equals MWe.
MWe is an integrated identity that links us across time, across space, within our inner lives, and within our own experience of connection with one another. As MWe, we are connected to others whose bodies have come before ours, and to those whose bodies will arrive long after ours are gone. We become more than just oxygen alone; we become water. And both oxygen and water are essential for life to flourish. Me and We are essential aspects of our identity. MWe is an integrated self that can transform how we nurture life on Earth. With all our differentiated glory and linked collaboration, together MWe can make this a more integrated, compassionate, and connected world for us all.
Dr. Dan Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, which focuses on how the development of mindsight in individuals, families, and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human, which will be the basis of his upcoming workshop at the Garrison Institute on May 5-7.
Photos courtesy of unsplash.com
The Healthy Mind Platter
Seven daily essential mental activities to optimize brain matter and create well-being
Focus Time--When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, we take on challenges that make deep connections in the brain.
Play Time--When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, we help make new connections in the brain.
Connecting Time--When we connect with other people, ideally in person, and when we take time to appreciate our connection to the natural world around us, we activate and reinforce the brain's relational circuitry.
Physical Time--When we move our bodies, aerobically if medically possible, we strengthen the brain in many ways.
Time In--When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, we help to better integrate the brain.
Down Time--When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, we help the brain recharge.
Sleep Time--When we give the brain the rest it needs, we consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.
The Healthy Mind Platter OverviewThe US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently replaced its food pyramid with a needed revision, a "choose my plate" pictorial example of a dish of food groups to remind us of what a daily diet should consist of to optimize physical health. What would be the equivalent of a recommended daily diet for a healthy mind?
With an obesity epidemic rampant in the US, this change is welcome and hopefully will inspire people to be aware of how they compose their day’s food intake. Our mind, embodied in our extended neural circuitry and embedded in our connections to others and even the way we relate to our planet, is also in need of careful attention to establish and maintain mental health. Poverty, hunger, and homelessness threaten the essential needs of many throughout the world. War and natural disasters fill many lives with fear and suffering. And even for individuals in more stable environments, modern life can be filled with an overwhelming focus on the outer world and an experience of being isolated from meaningful connections with others. Multi-tasking with its fragmented attention and the sense of becoming overwhelmed with information overload frequently fracture a sense of wholeness. In each of these conditions, the embodied and socially embedded requirements for a healthy mind are not being created in daily life throughout the world. Many are deficient in a daily regimen necessary for mental well-being.
So what would be included in The Healthy Mind Platter? In the field of interpersonal neurobiology, we define a core aspect of the mind and also propose that a healthy mind emerges from a process called “integration”— the linkage of different components of a system. That system can be, for example, the body as we connect upper and lower regions to one another. Integration can also include how we connect with others in a family or a community, honoring differences and promoting compassionate linkages with each other. If we embrace interpersonal neurobiology’s proposed definition of a key facet of mind as an embodied and relationally embedded process that regulates energy and information flow, how can we make a practical definition of mental habits that can help people with their diet of “daily essential mental nutrients”? How can we use the focus of attention to strengthen integration in our bodies and in our relationships on a daily basis? What would the fundamental components of such a health-promoting daily regimen of mental activities be?
To address these questions, my friend and colleague, David Rock, a leader in the organizational consulting world, and I got together and created what we're calling The Healthy Mind Platter. Here is how we describe the elements of this plan for a healthy mind.
The Healthy Mind Platter has seven daily essential mental activities necessary for optimum mental health. These seven daily activities make up the full set of “mental nutrients” that your brain and relationships need to function at their best. By engaging every day in each of these servings, you promote integration in your life and enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities. These essential mental activities strengthen your brain's internal connections and your connections with other people and the world around you.
We're not suggesting specific amounts of time for this recipe for a healthy mind, as each individual is different, and our needs change over time too. The point is to become aware of the full spectrum of essential mental activities, and as with essential nutrients, make sure that at least every day we are bringing the right ingredients into our mental diet, even if for just a bit of time. Just as you wouldn't eat only pizza every day for days on end, we shouldn't just live on focus time alone with little time for sleep. The key is balancing the day with each of these essential mental activities. Mental wellness is all about reinforcing our connections with others and the world around us; and it is also about strengthening the connections within the brain itself. When we vary the focus of attention with this spectrum of mental activities, we give the brain lots of opportunities to develop in different ways.
One way to use the platter idea is to map out an average day and see what amounts of time you spend in each essential mental activity. Like a balanced diet, there are many combinations that can work well.
In short, it is important to eat well, and we applaud the new healthy eating plate. As a society we are sorely lacking in good information about what it takes to have a healthy mind. Since the mind is both embodied and embedded in our connections with others and our environment—both natural and cultural—these seven essential times help strengthen our internal and relational connections. And since the brain is continually changing in response to how we focus attention, we can use our awareness in ways that involve the body and our connections to create a healthy mind across the lifespan! We hope that The Healthy Mind Platter creates an appetite for increasing awareness of how to nourish our mental well-being each day too.
The Healthy Mind Platter was created by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute and Clinical Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine in collaboration with Dr. David Rock, Executive Director of the NeuroLeadership Institute.
Focus Time--When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, we take on challenges that make deep connections in the brain.
Play Time--When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, we help make new connections in the brain.
Connecting Time--When we connect with other people, ideally in person, and when we take time to appreciate our connection to the natural world around us, we activate and reinforce the brain's relational circuitry.
Physical Time--When we move our bodies, aerobically if medically possible, we strengthen the brain in many ways.
Time In--When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, we help to better integrate the brain.
Down Time--When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, we help the brain recharge.
Sleep Time--When we give the brain the rest it needs, we consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day.
The Healthy Mind Platter OverviewThe US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently replaced its food pyramid with a needed revision, a "choose my plate" pictorial example of a dish of food groups to remind us of what a daily diet should consist of to optimize physical health. What would be the equivalent of a recommended daily diet for a healthy mind?
With an obesity epidemic rampant in the US, this change is welcome and hopefully will inspire people to be aware of how they compose their day’s food intake. Our mind, embodied in our extended neural circuitry and embedded in our connections to others and even the way we relate to our planet, is also in need of careful attention to establish and maintain mental health. Poverty, hunger, and homelessness threaten the essential needs of many throughout the world. War and natural disasters fill many lives with fear and suffering. And even for individuals in more stable environments, modern life can be filled with an overwhelming focus on the outer world and an experience of being isolated from meaningful connections with others. Multi-tasking with its fragmented attention and the sense of becoming overwhelmed with information overload frequently fracture a sense of wholeness. In each of these conditions, the embodied and socially embedded requirements for a healthy mind are not being created in daily life throughout the world. Many are deficient in a daily regimen necessary for mental well-being.
So what would be included in The Healthy Mind Platter? In the field of interpersonal neurobiology, we define a core aspect of the mind and also propose that a healthy mind emerges from a process called “integration”— the linkage of different components of a system. That system can be, for example, the body as we connect upper and lower regions to one another. Integration can also include how we connect with others in a family or a community, honoring differences and promoting compassionate linkages with each other. If we embrace interpersonal neurobiology’s proposed definition of a key facet of mind as an embodied and relationally embedded process that regulates energy and information flow, how can we make a practical definition of mental habits that can help people with their diet of “daily essential mental nutrients”? How can we use the focus of attention to strengthen integration in our bodies and in our relationships on a daily basis? What would the fundamental components of such a health-promoting daily regimen of mental activities be?
To address these questions, my friend and colleague, David Rock, a leader in the organizational consulting world, and I got together and created what we're calling The Healthy Mind Platter. Here is how we describe the elements of this plan for a healthy mind.
The Healthy Mind Platter has seven daily essential mental activities necessary for optimum mental health. These seven daily activities make up the full set of “mental nutrients” that your brain and relationships need to function at their best. By engaging every day in each of these servings, you promote integration in your life and enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities. These essential mental activities strengthen your brain's internal connections and your connections with other people and the world around you.
We're not suggesting specific amounts of time for this recipe for a healthy mind, as each individual is different, and our needs change over time too. The point is to become aware of the full spectrum of essential mental activities, and as with essential nutrients, make sure that at least every day we are bringing the right ingredients into our mental diet, even if for just a bit of time. Just as you wouldn't eat only pizza every day for days on end, we shouldn't just live on focus time alone with little time for sleep. The key is balancing the day with each of these essential mental activities. Mental wellness is all about reinforcing our connections with others and the world around us; and it is also about strengthening the connections within the brain itself. When we vary the focus of attention with this spectrum of mental activities, we give the brain lots of opportunities to develop in different ways.
One way to use the platter idea is to map out an average day and see what amounts of time you spend in each essential mental activity. Like a balanced diet, there are many combinations that can work well.
In short, it is important to eat well, and we applaud the new healthy eating plate. As a society we are sorely lacking in good information about what it takes to have a healthy mind. Since the mind is both embodied and embedded in our connections with others and our environment—both natural and cultural—these seven essential times help strengthen our internal and relational connections. And since the brain is continually changing in response to how we focus attention, we can use our awareness in ways that involve the body and our connections to create a healthy mind across the lifespan! We hope that The Healthy Mind Platter creates an appetite for increasing awareness of how to nourish our mental well-being each day too.
The Healthy Mind Platter was created by Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute and Clinical Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine in collaboration with Dr. David Rock, Executive Director of the NeuroLeadership Institute.