BOOK PREVIEW: THE MINDFUL BRAIN

The Mindful Brain, Reflection and attunement in the cultivation of well-being.

Anyone interested in meditation and mindfulness might be interested in this wonderful book. It is a western scientific and experiential exploration of the ancient and religious methods of mindfulness to help individuals move toward well-being by focussing their attention and tuning in to the present moment.

The book was written by Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., scientist, neurologist, physician, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, educator and leader in the field of mental health. Siegel is a graduate of the Harvard Medical School and Director of the Mindsight Institute and Co-Director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Centre, USA. Since the early 1990s, Siegel has been involved in trying to create an interdisciplinary view of the mind and mental health (Siegel, 1999). This has led to the field of interpersonal neurobiology, which relies on a process of integrating knowledge from a variety of disciplines to find the common features that are shared by these independent fields of knowledge.

In writing this book, Siegel says that he is not a member of any particular mindful awareness tradition, nor did he receive any formal training in mindfulness per se before taking on this project. Therefore, this book is a fresh look, without presenting only one specific form of mindfulness. It is, instead, an exploration of the overall concept of mindfulness.

According to Siegel, mindfulness can be seen as a form of ‘intrapersonal’ attunement. This is a relationship with yourself, as against ‘interpersonal’ attunement, which is a relationship with others. Being mindful, Siegel finds, is a way of becoming your own best friend. In the process, the neurobiological changes in your brain also make for better relationships with others.

Siegel discusses how mindfulness appears to lead the brain to grow in ways that promote balanced self-regulation via the process of neural integration, which enables flexibility and self-understanding. It leads to a sense of ‘feeling felt’, of feeling connected in the world.

In examining and discussing the brain changes and the neural dimension, Siegel aims to contribute to a greater understanding of why and how mindfulness creates the documented improvements in immune function, an inner sense of well-being, and an increase in our capacity for rewarding interpersonal relationships.

The book is divided into four parts.

1. An introductory section offers an overview of mindful awareness and examines why examining the brain is helpful in illuminating the nature of the mind itself.

2. In the second section he explores his own direct experiences in intentional mindfulness training through guided meditations. The purpose of these experiential chapters is to explore the essence of mindfulness and what may get in its way, and keep us from being present in our own lives. It explores how mindfulness can be achieved through intentional training that disentangles the mind from automatic intrusions.

3. In the third section he integrates the lessons learned from direct experience with a review of existing research on the brain and the nature of the mind.

4. The fourth section reflects on the implications and applications of these mindful brain perspectives on education, clinical work, and the discipline of psychotherapy itself. The section offers some initial ideas about how to integrate these concepts about internal attunement into practical, everyday usage of mindful awareness in our professional and personal endeavours.

In giving you an idea of this book, I also want to alert you to an earlier collaboration with preschool director Mary Hartzell. Having written a text exploring how the brain and relationships interact to shape our development, Siegel was invited to offer lectures at his daughter’s preschool about parenting and the brain. After creating some workshops for parents, the preschool director, Mary Hartzell, and Siegel wrote a book in which they placed ‘mindfulness’ as their first grounding principle in education and parenting. Siegel writes that, as educators “we knew that being considerate and aware, being mindful, was the essential state of mind of a parent (or teacher or clinician) to promote well-being in children”.

I am yet to read this book myself, but I think it will be a most interesting read, therefore I give you the details below. Perhaps one of you can write a review on this book!

The Mindful Brain, Daniel J. Siegel, 2007. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110, www.wwnorton.com; W.W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells St., London W1T 3QT. ISBN -13:978-0-393-70470-9 (hardcover). -10:393-70470-X (hardcover). Available from Amazon.com.

Parenting from the inside out: How a deeper self-understanding can help you raise children who thrive. Siegel, D.J. & Hartzell, M. (2003). New York; Penguin Putman.

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Author Details: Leni Hurley