5 Lessons That We Absolutely Love From Daniel Siegel’s Mindsight

“Mindsight is a kind of focused attention that allows us to see the internal workings of our minds, without being swept away by them.” This is what the book Mindsight by Daniel Siegel is all about. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the executive director of the Mindsight Institute. He is also the author of bestselling titles like, The Mindful Therapist, Brainstorm, and The Developing Mind.

In his book Mindsight, he talks about how the human brain is capable of changing the thought pattern, perceptions, habits and conditioning that it has overgone over the years. He explains the concept of neuroplasticity in detail and how you can tether to the power of mindfulness to grow mentally and emotionally.

Table of Contents

Here are 5 concepts from this book that we absolutely love.

Neuroscience – How the mind works

Siegel explains the conceptual difference between the brain and the mind. And this is one of the easiest explanation for neuroscience. The brain and the body integration is essential to regulate the flow of energy and information. Our mind is a machine that continuously prepares itself for the future. But it’s mentally and physically impossible for the brain and body to do so. When this discrepancy happens it generally leads to stress and anxiety. Siegel very innovatively explains how being mindful can help us align these aspects of our thinking and being.

Neuroplasticity – How to rewire your mind

The brain is very malleable, it changes physically in response to experience. In other words, it can be rewired and changed as desired. This can be done by establishing a neural pathway, neural pathways can be formed repeatedly performing the same action. What the brain does more often, it does well. And the best part about all this is that we get to choose what we do and how we do it. Mindfulness practice is all about harnessing the power of your mind to develop these new neural pathways. Expand your potential by taking full advantage of neuroplasticity, you can do this by taking full advantage of the underdeveloped circuits.

Learn to let things be

Sometimes letting things be as they are allows you to feel free and to take personal judgement and perception out of the equation. This process also helps you understand the power of gratitude as it pushes you to let go of the expectation to change something and instead start appreciating the things that you already have. This also helps you to let go of the negative emotions of anger, fear, hurt, and betrayal.

Memories are not always accurate

Did you know that 3-10 percent of our memories tend to be inaccurate? Remember something that happened is nothing but an art of storytelling. The brain has the tendency to tweak around these memories to suit our perspectives and life much better. There are basically two kinds of memories, implicit memories, which is based on perception, emotion, sensation, and behaviour. The ideas derived from this are almost always biased to the past. The other is the explicit memory, which is our autobiographical memory based on the different experiences that you have had in the past. It is very important to understand the difference between these two and types of memories.

How to integrate consciousness?

Development isn’t about creating a single self and growing into it. It’s more about acknowledging and accepting the different versions of you that exist and integrating all these states to collaborate and work as a whole unit. And this is where mindfulness plays a major role. Being mindful is the only activity that can cater to all the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs. Being mindful help you become more aware of all the aspects of your existence. And this is the best way to form a single, self-aware individual.

Who is this book for?

This book is for all those who find it difficult to integrate all the different aspects of their lives. Want to harness the power of your mental and emotional strength? Then this book is a must-read. With fun, personal examples and various activities, Siegel pushes you to become more mindful. He also teaches you the secret to creating atomic paradigm shifts. There is no specific age group to read this book.