Mind is a regulatory process that can be monitored, measured, observed and modified.Within each of us there is an internal mental world – what I have come to think of as the sea inside – a wonderful rich place filled with thoughts and feelings, memories and dreams, hopes and wishes. It can also be a turbulent place where we experience the dark side of all those wonderful feelings and thoughts – fear, sorrow, dread, regret, nightmares.
When the inner sea seems to crash in on us, threatening to drag us down below to the dark depths, it can make us feel as if we are drowning. Who among us has not at one time or another felt overwhelmed by the sensations generated from within our own minds? Sometimes these feelings are just a passing thing … but sometimes they seem to be something much more intractable, so much part of the very essence of who we are that it might not even occur to us that we can change them. This is where the skill that I call “mindsight” comes in. It has the potential to free us from patterns of mind that are getting in the way of living our lives to the fullest.
Mindsight is a kind of focused attention that allows us to see the internal workings of our own minds. It helps us to be aware of our mental processes without being swept away by them, enables us to get ourselves off the autopilot of ingrained behaviors and habitual responses, and moves us beyond the reactive emotional loops we all have a tendency to get trapped in. It lets us “name and tame” the emotions we are experiencing rather than be overwhelmed by them.
Consider the difference between speaking or thinking, “I am sad” and “I feel sad.” Similar as those two statements may seem, there is actually a profound difference between them. “I am sad,” is a kind of self-definition and a very limiting one. “I feel sad,” suggests the ability to recognize and acknowledge a feeling without being consumed by it. The focusing skills that are a part of mindsight make it possible to distinguish between the feeling over the identity, accept the present moment of that feeling, let it go, and then transform it.
Consider the difference between speaking or thinking, “I am sad” and “I feel sad.” Similar as those two statements may seem, there is actually a profound difference between them. “I am sad,” is a kind of self-definition and a very limiting one. “I feel sad,” suggests the ability to recognize and acknowledge a feeling without being consumed by it. The focusing skills that are a part of mindsight make it possible to distinguish between the feeling over the identity, accept the present moment of that feeling, let it go, and then transform it.
Mindsight acts as a very special lens that gives us the capacity to perceive the mind with greater clarity than ever before. This lens is something that virtually everyone can develop, and once we have it we can dive deeply into the mental sea inside, exploring our own inner lives. A uniquely human ability, mindsight allows us to examine closely in great detail and depth, the process by which we think, feel, and behave. It also allows us to reshape and redirect our inner experiences so that we have more freedom of choice in our everyday actions, more power to create the future, to become the author of our own story. Mindsight is the basic skill that underlies everything we mean when we speak of having social and emotional intelligence...READ MORE..