“If you have a fight with yourself, who can win?”
Daniel J. Siegel“If you have a fight with yourself, who can win?”
Daniel J. Siegel, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation“Internal mental experience is not the product of a photographic process. Internal reality is in fact constructed by the brain as it interacts with the environment in the present, in the context of its past experiences and expectancies of the future. At the level of perceptual categorizations, we have reached a land of mental representations quite distant from the layers of the world just inches away from their place inside the skull. This is the reason why each of us experiences a unique way of minding the world. (pp. 166-167)”
Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are“Each of us needs periods in which our minds can focus inwardly. Solitude is an essential experience for the mind to organize its own processes and create an internal state of resonance. In such a state, the self is able to alter its constraints by directly reducing the input from interactions with others. (p. 235)”
Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are“We must keep in mind that only a part of memory can be translated into the language-based packets of information people use to tell their life stories to others. Learning to be open to many layers of communication is a fundamental part of getting to know another person's life.”
Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are“At the most basic level, therefore, secure attachments in both childhood and adulthood are established by two individual's sharing a nonverbal focus on the energy flow (emotional states) and a verbal focus on the information-processing aspects (representational processes of memory and narrative) of mental life. The matter of the mind matters for secure attachments.”
Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are“Mindfulness has never met a cognition it didn't like.”
Daniel J. Siegel, The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being“...not all encounters with the world affect the mind equally. Studies have demonstrated that if the brain appraises an event as "meaningful," it will be more likely to be recalled in the future.”
Daniel J. Siegel, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are“Too often we forget that discipline really means to teach, not to punish. A disciple is a student, not a recipient of behavioural consequences.”
Daniel J. Siegel, The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind, Survive Everyday Parenting Struggles, and Help Your Family Thrive