Mindsight, by Daniel Siegel

Question 1

hand model of the brain

Answer 1

Question 2

triangle of well being

Answer 2

The Triangle of Well-Being reveals three aspects of our lives. Relationships, Mind, and Brain form the three mutually influencing points of the Triangle of Well-Being.

• Relationships are how energy and information is shared as we connect and communicate with one another.
• Brain refers to the physical mechanism through which this energy and information flows.
• Mind is a process that regulates the flow of energy and information.

Rather than dividing our lives into three separate parts, the Triangle
actually represents three dimensions of one system of energy and information flow.

Question 3

human brain

Answer 3

Question 4

brainstem

Answer 4

Question 5

limbic regions

Answer 5

Question 6

cortex

Answer 6

Question 7

prefrontal cortex

Answer 7

Question 8

What is the tripod of reflection?

Answer 8

• Openness: release preconceptions of what should be and don’t try to make things how you want them to be.
• Observation: perceive ourselves experiencing an event
• Objectivity: resist being swept away by thought or feeling; all just mental activity, not reality - awareness of awareness

Question 9

mirror neurons

Answer 9

Mirror neurons are thought to be triggered inside our brains when we watch the actions of others.
Many scientists believe that mirror neurons may help create the experience of empathy. The proponents of the mirror neuron theory argue that immersing yourself in a story narrative activates your mirror neuron system.

Question 10

brain lateralization

Answer 10

Question 11

areas in the middle prefrontal cortex

Answer 11

Question 12

resonance circuitry

Answer 12

Question 13

emotional contagion

Answer 13

Emotional contagion occurs when someone’s emotions and related behaviors lead to similar emotions and behaviors in others.

Awareness of emotional contagion is important for managing our own emotions and related actions, and to assure our wellbeing and that of others.

Question 14

What are the qualities of an integrated flow?

Answer 14

• F for flexible
• A for adaptive
• C for coherent
• E for energized
• S for stable

Question 15

river of integration

Answer 15

The River of Integration refers to the movement of a system in which the integrated FACES flow is the central channel and has the quality of harmony. On either side of the River’s flow are two banks - chaos and rigidity.

By its chaotic or rigid characteristics, we can detect when a system is not integrated, when it is not in a state of harmony and well-being. Recurrent explosions of rage or terror and being taken over by a sense of paralysis or emptiness in life are examples of these chaotic and rigid states outside the River of Integration.

Question 16

8 domains of integration

Answer 16

1. Integration of Consciousness: build skills to stabilize attention. Harness the power of attention to create choice and change.
2. Horizontal Integration: balance the two sides of the brain to increase creativity, richness, and complexity of thought.
3. Vertical Integration: bringing bodily sensations into awareness.
4. Memory Integration: making implicit memories explicit.
5. Narrative Integration: making sense of our lives by creating stories that weave together narrator function with autobiographical memory storage.
6. State Integration: embracing our many self-states as healthy dimensions of ourselves.
7. Interpersonal integration: connecting in relationships while retaining our own sense of identity and freedom.
8. Temporal Integration: finding comfort in the face of uncertainty, impermanence, and mortality.

As the mind is an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information, we can use the intentional focus of our awareness to direct this flow toward integration in both Brain and Relationships.

As these domains of integration are cultivated, a ninth domain, transpirational integration, may begin to emerge in which we come to feel that we are a part of a much larger, interconnected whole.

Question 17

wheel of awareness

Answer 17

The Wheel of Awareness is a visual metaphor for the mind. We can stay within the open, receptive hub of the Wheel to sense any mental activities emerging from the rim without becoming swept up by them. A strengthened hub permits us to widen our Windows of Tolerance as we become more observant, objective, and open and thus attain more resilience in our lives.

Mindsight harnesses this important capacity to remain receptive and to be able to monitor the internal world with more clarity and depth. We are
then in a position to modify our inner and interpersonal world as we cultivate integration and move our lives toward more compassion, well-being, and health.

Question 18

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

Answer 18

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter, a chemical messenger in your brain. It slows down your brain by blocking specific signals in your central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord).

GABA is known for producing a calming effect. It plays a major role in controlling nerve cell hyperactivity associated with anxiety, stress, and fear. Scientists also call GABA a non-protein amino acid neurotransmitter.

Question 19

functional areas of the brain

Answer 19

Question 20

synaptogenesis

Answer 20

At least half of the human brain tissue is made from gangly branches of nerve cells called neurons. Neurons use electrical signals to communicate with other neurons and send information throughout the brain and body.

There is a small space at the point where two neurons almost connect to each other, called a synapse. In these spaces, neurons communicate with other neurons using chemical signaling molecules called neurotransmitters.

The etymology of the word synaptogenesis includes the word synapse, which means to fasten together, and genesis, which means to create. Synaptogenesis creates new connections between neurons within the brain, spinal cord, or between neurons and muscle cells.

For a synapse to form between two neurons, the axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrites of another neuron must grow and connect with each other.

Question 21

neurogenesis

Answer 21

The first part represents the word neuron, which means nerve cell. The second part, genesis, means beginning, or creation of. Therefore, neurogenesis is a fancier term that simply means the creation of new nerve cells.

Question 22

anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Answer 22

ACC is the front, more curved part of the cingulate cortex, a structure in the forebrain that forms a collar around the corpus callosum. It is divided into two distinct areas believed to have essential roles in numerous activities:

• The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), often considered the “cognition” division, is implicated in a range of executive functions, such as attention allocation, error and novelty detection, working memory modulation, cognitive control, response conflict, and response selection.
• The ventral anterior cingulate cortex (vACC), often considered the “emotion” division, is thought to be involved in mediating anxiety, fear, aggression, anger, empathy, and sadness; in perceiving both physical and psychological pain; and in regulating autonomic functions (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, respiration).

Although the precise mechanisms by which these processes occur in the ACC remain unknown, researchers have theorized that a reciprocal relationship between the dACC and the vACC helps maintain a balance between cognitive and emotional processing to enable self-regulation.

Additionally, ACC abnormalities may contribute to the etiology of various mental disorders, such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Question 23

insula

Answer 23

The insula is a small region of the cerebral cortex located deep within the lateral sulcus, which is a large fissure that separates the frontal and parietal lobes from the temporal lobe.

The insula appears to be activated during a wide array of events. Depending on whom you ask, the insula is involved in pain, love, emotion, craving, addiction, music enjoyment, or even wine tasting.

The insula facilitates our concept of self-awareness. This would include the awareness of our bodies and emotions and how they interact to create our perception of the present moment.

Question 24

defense mechanisms

Answer 24

Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological responses that protect people from feelings of anxiety, threats to self-esteem, and things that they don’t want to think about or deal with.

First described by Sigmund Freud in his psychoanalytic theory, defense mechanisms function to protect against anxiety.

Defense mechanisms can include:

• Projection
• Displacement
• Sublimation
• Repression
• Denial
• Identification
• Introjection
• Undoing
• Compensation
• Splitting
• Suppression
• Conversion
• Dissociation
• Avoidance
• Isolation
• Humor
• Regression

Question 25

projection

Answer 25

If a client’s traits threaten their self-concept, then the client may:

• Fail to recognize that they possess these traits
• See these same threatening traits in other people

This is known as projection (Baumeister et al., 1998). The client can protect their self-concept by not acknowledging threatening traits in themselves and seeing them in other people instead.

_*Example*:_

• The therapist suggests to the client, Amelia, that she fails to acknowledge her partner’s feelings in an argument. Amelia believes she is a very empathetic person, and she thinks she is very responsive to her partner’s feelings.*
• In response, Amelia argues that it is not her but her partner who fails to acknowledge Amelia’s feelings. Amelia’s self-concept is threatened by having to recognize these behaviors in herself; therefore, she projects these traits onto her partner instead.*

Question 26

displacement

Answer 26

When a client displays displacement, they are changing or displacing the original target of a particular impulse to another similar target (Baumeister et al., 1998).

The displacement occurs because the response to the initial target is considered unacceptable or impossible, so a more suitable target is found. The displaced impulse might be very intense toward the original target, but more subdued toward the alternative target. Freud argued that displacement was commonly used in dreaming (Rennison, 2015).

Example:

Aidan experiences intense rage and hatred toward his mother; however, he cannot act on these impulses. Instead, he displaces his feelings about his mother onto other people whom he associates with her. He might show hostile behavior toward other women who embody the same characteristics and behaviors as his mother.

Question 27

repression

Answer 27

When clients experience or think things that may be threatening, they may choose to repress them instead.

By repressing a memory, feeling, or thought, these things are no longer accessible in the client’s consciousness (Cramer, 1991, 2006). These things do not cease to exist and may be represented in dreams and thoughts by other things, people, or objects.

Although often contrasted as the unconscious variant of suppression, Erdelyi (2006) argues that Freud used repression and suppression interchangeably and considered repression to fall on an unconscious–conscious continuum.

Example:

Jacob cannot remember certain painful memories as a child. To protect himself, he unconsciously represses these memories from his consciousness. Instead, he displays anxious behaviors toward other items that he associates with these original painful memories.

Question 28

denial

Answer 28

Denial refers to the client’s refusal to acknowledge certain facts about a particular situation (Baumeister et al., 1998) or denial of the existence of specific feelings, thoughts, or even perceptions (Cramer, 1991, 2006).

By not acknowledging the facts, the client is protected from a particular state of the world and its consequences – or even from themselves – and how these impact the client.

Example:

• Ahmed has received various negative job evaluations about his inability to communicate empathetically with clients. Since Ahmed believes he communicates very effectively, he dismisses these negative evaluations using several arguments.*
• He argues that his manager is wrong, his manager is jealous, that he was stressed that one day with the client, that the client was unclear, and that the other client was hostile.*
• All of these denials help protect Ahmed from having to incorporate the negative feedback into his self-concept and accept that he is less empathetic than he originally thought.*

Question 29

introjection

Answer 29

Introjection is similar to identification (Cramer, 1991, 2006).

With identification, a highly valued external object is regarded as separate from the client; however, the boundary between the client and the external object is blurred with introjection.

The client identifies key behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics of important people in their life and forms an internal representation of these individuals. Henry, Schacht, and Strupp (1990) argue that these internal representations mirror these people’s behaviors, feelings, and thoughts and play a key role in developing the client’s self-concept.

Example:

• Agatha experiences introjection related to her highly critical mother as the internal voice that continuously criticizes and berates her. As a result, Agatha has developed low self-esteem and often runs herself down.*
• While in therapy, Agatha’s therapist pushes back against Agatha’s opinion, and Agatha experiences this as criticism that confirms her opinion of herself.*

Question 30

undoing

Answer 30

Undoing refers to a behavior when individuals ruminate on previous events, replaying and reimagining them as a way to change what happened and, as a result, help protect against certain feelings or behaviors (Baumeister et al., 1998).

Since the particular event has already happened, there is nothing that can be done to change that particular outcome; instead, the replaying of the events allows the individual to protect themselves from certain feelings.

Example:

• Jayme recently argued with a customer, lost his temper, and consequently lost that customer’s contract. He is very angry about the outcome. He relives this argument, ruminating on how he should have responded, and imagines delivering a precise retort and embarrassing the client.*
• The reimagining doesn’t change the scenario, but it makes him feel like he was better equipped to deal with the argument.*

Question 31

compensation

Answer 31

Compensation refers to the client’s attempt to make up for what they consider to be their flaws or shortcomings or for dissatisfaction in one domain of their lives (Hentschel, Smith, Draguns, & Ehlers, 2004).

These compensations can be very extreme; the flaws or shortcomings might be real or imaginary, psychological or physical. When the compensatory response is excessive compared to the shortcoming, then it is typically described as overcompensation.

Example:

Jeffrey is bullied at school by the other boys because of his slim build. In response, Jeffrey exercises regularly. He undertakes an intense exercise program, drinks protein shakes and is very diligent in his strength training.

He obtains the desired result. He puts on much muscle mass, and his body changes. In this instance, Jeffrey is compensating for what he considers to be a physical flaw through strength training.

Question 32

splitting

Answer 32

Splitting refers to the mechanism where individuals are considered either only good or only bad, but never a mix of both. Splitting can be applied to oneself or other people.

It is hypothesized that as a defense mechanism, splitting happens in childhood and is typically associated with poor self-development (Gould, Prentice, & Ainslie, 1996).

Although young children typically hold polarized beliefs about themselves and others, they integrate negative and positive beliefs and representations as they age. However, if the child is continually exposed to negative situations, then this integration is interrupted and becomes the default mechanism through which they view and understand the world.

The assignment of a positive or negative evaluation to oneself or others is not stable; it changes in response to how the client’s needs are satisfied.

Therefore, when the client’s need is met, the external party is ‘good.’ When the client’s needs are frustrated, then the external party is ‘bad,’ and only negative attributes are assigned to them. As a result, clients who have developed a splitting mechanism tend to have unstable interpersonal relationships.

Example:

• When Cary receives the help and favors she asks for, she describes the people who satisfy these needs positively. They’re extremely helpful, loving, and patient, and in response, she shows them love and affection.*
• One day, she asks her friend to help her financially, but her friend cannot assist. In response, Cary becomes extremely upset, and she turns against this friend, describing her as “unreliable,” “good for nothing,” and “selfish.”*
• Her therapist points out that Cary’s friend has helped in the past, but Cary refuses to acknowledge this and continues to harbor resentment toward her friend. A few weeks later, when Cary asks for help again, this same friend offers to lend a hand. Cary flips her opinion and now embraces this friend wholeheartedly.*
• Because of Cary’s unstable attitude toward her friend and inability to consider that her friend can have good and bad qualities, her friendships are very tenuous and often characterized by unrealistic expectations and conflict.*

Question 33

suppression

Answer 33

Unlike repression, which is an unconscious attempt to prevent memories and thoughts from entering consciousness, suppression is the conscious effort to avoid certain thoughts, feelings, and behaviors or to keep them out of consciousness.

This distinction was first introduced by Anna Freud (Erdelyi, 2006). By suppressing thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and memories from consciousness, the client is protected from experiencing emotional and psychological distress.

Example:

During the therapy session, Amy refuses to recall her feelings toward her late husband. She actively works against these memories through various techniques (e.g., ignoring them, changing the topic, or refusing). When pushed, she tells her therapist that she “cannot go there quite simply.”

Question 34

conversion

Answer 34

Conversion is characterized by the transformation of psychological pain or distress into physiological impairment, typically of sensory or motor symptoms such as blindness, paralysis, seizures, etc. (Sundbom, Binzer, & Kullgren, 1999).

The physiological symptoms and experiences are idiopathic (i.e., without origin) and cannot be explained by another disease process. The DSM-V recognizes conversion as a disorder, although there is debate about its classification and taxonomy (Brown, Cardeña, Nijenhuis, Sar, & van der Hart, 2007).

Example:

• Awongiwe has experienced extreme trauma and distress while relocating. A few days later, Awongiwe wakes up to find that she is blind.*
• Neurological and ophthalmological examinations show that her eyes are healthy, and her optic nerve is intact, yet Awongiwe continues to present with blindness. In this case, her blindness has developed in response to her extreme stress.*

Question 35

dissociation

Answer 35

Dissociation refers to the experience where the client experiences a short-lived gap in consciousness in response to anxiety and stress.

By not ‘experiencing’ a particularly stressful period and subsequently integrating it into their consciousness, the client is protected from harmful experiences.

Example:

• Katherine is recalling an especially traumatic experience with her therapist. While recalling the experience, Katherine feels overwhelmingly exhausted and cannot control her yawning.*
• These feelings of exhaustion quickly intensify, and she struggles immensely not to fall asleep. Her exhaustion is a sign of dissociation, and her mind is trying to protect her from re-experiencing the traumatic experience.*

Question 36

isolation

Answer 36

Isolation is defined as the act of creating a mental or cognitive barrier around threatening thoughts and feelings, isolating them from other cognitive processes (Baumeister et al., 1998).

By isolating these threats, it is difficult for mental associations to be formed between threatening thoughts and other thoughts. Isolation is clear when the client doesn’t complete a thought, trailing off and changing the topic instead. Isolation is evidenced by the silent ellipse that follows a trailing thought.

Example:

• During her session, Emily is describing an argument with her husband and is about to describe a thought that she remembers thinking during the argument.*
• The thought that she was about to recall is unlike the thoughts and feelings that Emily believes she typically feels toward her husband, and it does not fit with her self-concept of a loving wife.*
• As she is about to recall the thought, she pauses, leaving the sentence unfinished, and describes a different aspect of the argument instead.*

Question 37

regression

Answer 37

In response to stress or distress, clients display age-inappropriate behavior; that is, they regress or move back to an early developmental stage and adopt immature patterns of behavior and emotions (Costa, 2020; Hentschel et al., 2004).

Regression is considered maladaptive since more emotionally mature behaviors and thought processes are more likely to aid in problem-solving and coping.

Example:

• In response to the news that his parents are getting divorced, Gary has displayed behavior that is more typical of younger children.*
• When frustrated, he screams and bites, kicks and hits his parents, and has started wetting the bed.*

Question 38

implicit memory

Answer 38

Implicit memories are procedural memories that you recall unconsciously. These include memories like how to swing a bat or dress yourself. These are unconscious memories you don’t consciously recall but just do them.

There are 6 domains of implicit memory:

• perception,
• emotion,
• bodily sensation,
• behavior,
• mental models, and
• priming

Features of implicit memory include:

1. You don’t need to use focal, conscious attention for the creation - the encoding - of implicit memory.
2. When an implicit memory emerges from storage, you don’t have the sensation that something is being recalled from the past.
3. Implicit memory does not require the participation of a part of the brain called the hippocampus.

Question 39

explicit memory

Answer 39

This information is stored in your explicit memory when you’re trying to intentionally remember something (like a formula for your statistics class or a friend’s mailing address). People use these memories every day, from remembering information for a test to recalling the date and time of a doctor’s appointment.

Explicit memory is a memory that can be intentionally and consciously recalled. This is your memory of riding a bike, of falling over the handlebars and skinning your knee.

It has been typically divided up into two main categories itself:

• Episodic memory: Personal events that can be recalled
• Semantic memory: Facts and figures which can be recalled

Question 40

schema

Answer 40

A schema is a mental concept that informs a person about what to expect from various experiences and situations. Schemas are developed based on information provided by life experiences and are then stored in memory. Our brains create and use schemas as a shortcut to make future encounters with similar situations easier to navigate. We will look at a couple of examples to help illustrate the definition.

Example:

When a child is young, they may develop a schema for a dog. They know a dog walks on four legs, is hairy, and has a tail. When the child goes to the zoo for the first time and sees a tiger, they may initially think the tiger is a dog as well.

Question 41

priming

Answer 41

Priming is a phenomenon in which exposure to one stimulus influences how a person responds to a subsequent, related stimulus. These stimuli are often conceptually related to words or images.

Priming is an increased sensitivity to a particular schema due to a recent experience. In other words, priming is when an experience or exposure to a stimulus puts a particular schema at the forefront of our minds. When this, in turn, influences our judgments and decisions, it’s called the priming effect.

A scary movie can act as a primer or cue, inducing your fear and making you suspicious of common noises in your house that, under different circumstances, you would probably consider harmless. Instead of using an everyday schema (such as old house noises) to interpret the sound, watching the scary movie results in a different schema (intruder noises) becoming more accessible, changing your interpretation.

Question 42

adult attachment interview (AAI)

Answer 42

The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is a clinical and research tool that offers a reliable and valid assessment of adult attachment. It provides information on:

1. an adult’s self-protective strategy, i.e., the way the speaker uses information to organize their behavior when they feel endangered or believe their children to be endangered,
2. a possible set of unresolved traumatic experiences that distort the person’s behavior without their being aware of it,
3. an over-riding distortion of the strategy such as depression,
4. a pattern of information processing,
5. an interpreted developmental history of the speaker, and
6. the Level of Parental Reasoning (LPR, Crittenden, Lang, Claussen, & Partridge, 2000), i.e., how the parent thinks about making caregiving decisions for their children.

Question 43

attachment terminology

Answer 43

Question 44

traumatic reenactment

Answer 44

Victims of trauma are marked by an array of psychiatric symptoms, including chronic stress, intrusive thoughts, nightmares of the event, and hypervigilance. They may also unconsciously repeat the trauma in their day-to-day lives. In the field of clinical psychology, these phenomena are known as reenactments.

Question 45

mindsight

Answer 45

Mindsight is a process that enables us to monitor and modify the flow of
energy and information within the Triangle of Well-Being.

The monitoring aspect of mindsight involves sensing this flow within ourselves - perceiving it in our own nervous systems, which we are calling Brain - and within others through our Relationships, which involve the sharing of energy and information flow through various means of communication.

We then can modify this flow through awareness and intention, fundamental aspects of our mind, directly shaping the paths that energy and information flow take in our lives.

Mindsight doesn’t just emanate from the middle prefrontal cortex. The reflective practice of focusing internal attention on the mind itself with openness, observation, and objectivity - the essentials of a strengthened mindsight lens - likely promotes the growth of these integrative middle prefrontal fibers.

We use the acronym SNAG to denote how we Stimulate Neuronal Activation and Growth. This is the foundation of neuroplasticity, of how experiences - including the focus of our attention - transform brain
structure. Mindsight SNAGs the brain toward integration, making it possible to intentionally promote linkage and differentiation within the various domains of integration.

Question 46

system

Answer 46

A system comprises individual parts that interact with one another. For
our human systems, these interactions often involve the flow of energy and information. Energy is the physical property enabling us to do something; information represents something other than itself.

Words and ideas are examples of units of information we use to communicate with one another. Our relationships involve connecting to other people in pairs, families, groups, schools, communities, and societies.

Question 47

well-being

Answer 47

We can define well-being as occurring when a system is integrated. Integration involves the linkage of differentiated parts of a system. The differentiation of components enables parts to become individuated, attaining specialized functions and retaining their sovereignty to some degree. The linkage of parts involves the functional connection of the differentiated components to one another. Promoting integration involves cultivating both differentiation and linkage. Mindsight can be used to create integration in our lives intentionally

Question 48

dynamic nonlinear complex system

Answer 48

When a system is open to outside influences and capable of becoming
chaotic, it is called a dynamic, nonlinear, complex system. When this type
of system is integrated, it moves in a most flexible and adaptive way. We can remember the characteristics of an integrated flow of the system with the acronym FACES: Flexible, Adaptive, Coherent, Energized, and Stable.

Question 49

integration

Answer 49

Integration in relationships involves the attuned communication among people who are honored for their differences and then linked together to become a “we.”

Integration in the brain - what we are using as a term for the extended nervous system distributed throughout the entire body - involves the linkage of separate, differentiated neural areas and their specialized functions to one another.

The focus of our attention directs the flow of energy and information through particular neural circuits. In this way we can say that the mind uses the brain to create itself. Attention activates specific neural pathways and lays the foundation for changing the connections among those firing neurons through a fundamental process called neuroplasticity.

The function of our mind - the regulation of energy and information flow - can actually change the brain’s structure. Mindsight enables us to create neural integration.

Question 50

What is an example of neural integration?

Answer 50

One example of neural integration is revealed in the functions that emerge from a highly integrative brain area called the middle prefrontal cortex. Involving specific parts of the prefrontal region located behind the forehead (including the anterior cingulate, orbitofrontal, and the medial and ventrolateral prefrontal zones), the middle prefrontal integrative fibers link the whole cortex, limbic area, brainstem, body proper, and even social systems to one another.

Question 51

What are the nine middle prefrontal functions emerging from this multidimensional neural integration?

Answer 51

The nine middle prefrontal functions emerging from this multidimensional neural integration include:

1. body regulation,
2. attuned communication,
3. emotional balance,
4. fear modulation,
5. response flexibility,
6. insight,
7. empathy,
8. morality, and
9. intuition.

These functions would top many people’s list of a description of well-being. They are also the established outcome and process of the reflective skills of looking inward, and the first eight of this list are proven outcomes of secure parent-child relationships that are filled with love. This list exemplifies how integration promotes well-being.

Question 52

window of tolerance

Answer 52

A Window of Tolerance refers to the band of tolerable arousal levels in which we can attain and remain in an integrated FACES flow and live in harmony. Widened Windows create resilience in our lives. If a Window is narrowed, then it becomes more likely for energy and information flow to move outside its boundaries and for our lives to become chaotic or rigid.

The integrated states within the Window of Tolerance are our subjective experience of living with a sense of ease and in the harmonious FACES flow down the River of Integration.

As we SIFT the mind - tracking the Sensations, Images, Feelings, and Thoughts that dominate our internal world - we can monitor energy and information flow moment by moment within our Windows of Tolerance and modify our internal state to remain integrated and in a FACES flow.

Ultimately we can use this monitoring and modification to change our present state and our long-term traits that reveal how our Windows for various feelings or situations can be widened through changes in our brain’s dynamic regulatory circuits.