Seeing ourselves with Mindsight

The Dalai Lama Center recently had a chance to sit down with Dr. Daniel Siegel and discuss some of the ideas behind his upcoming talk, Mindsight: Brain Science and Transformation for You and Your Relationships. At the heart of the discussion was the concept of Mindsight.

"Mindsight is the ability to see the mind itself," says Dr. Siegel. "And then being able to move the mind towards well-being."

And how do we do this?

"One way is to stabilize the way we see the inner flow of energy and information in our bodies, and also to sense that flow between people, in relationships, and then to move that flow in a way that leads to an ease of well-being."

Dr. Siegel's focus on the inner workings of the mind stems back from his early days in training as a physician when his professors would mostly ignore the mind altogether. Many years later, Dr. Siegel is not so sure that things have changed all that much.

"I just finished surveying 100,000 mental health professionals. For the last eight years, I've kept asking mental health professionals, 'have you ever had a lecture that defined what the mind is?' and what do you think the percentage is that say yes?" Dr. Siegel asks.

"It's 2 per cent. And as a medical practitioner myself, it's an embarrassing finding."

It's not just in medical school that Dr. Siegel would like to see a focus on the training of the mind. He'd like to see it in all classrooms.

"When I talk to teachers, they all say that their job is to train the mind," says Dr. Siegel. "But they're the first to admit that they really don't do any internal training."

"I think it's time that the field of education consider moving into the curriculum something you would call 'internal education' or 'reflection' or sometimes we call it 'time in', where you literally say that every day every kid from K to 12 will take 'time in' to reflect on the inner nature of the mind."

"When they do this, they'll develop emotional intelligence, social intelligence and they'll be physiologically healthier."

For tickets to Mindsight: Brain Science and Transformation for You and Your Relationships visit Vancouver Tix.