Open Minds – Show #014

“You’re out of your mind!” “I’m losing my mind!” “Uh-oh, I’m not in a good frame of mind today.” These are all sayings we’ve heard many times, yet, if someone asked you to define your “mind,” could you? You can probably easily describe your brain as that mass of grey matter in your head, but the mind is less tangible, not something we can point to or take pictures of or easily describe.

According to my guest, Dr. Daniel Siegel, that’s because the mind is not a thing to be x-rayed, but instead a process to be understood. Bringing together widely varied academic fields, his many books highlight what can happen when that process leads to harmony and integration, resulting in what we commonly call happiness, balance and mental health; and also how we can suffer mental illness when we lack mental and physical integration and harmony.

Whenever I listen to him, I’m reminded of how very much we still don’t really know about how our brain and our mind work. But as a psychiatrist, a researcher