Daniel J. Siegel: The number of possible "on-off" patterns of neuronal...

We are always in a perpetual state of being created and creating ourselves. (p. 221)

Daniel J. Siegel

people-changing creating change

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

discipline students mean

Interpersonal experience shapes the mind as it continues to develop throughout the lifespan... Interactions with the environment, especially relationships with other people, directly shape the development of the brain's structure and function.

Daniel J. Siegel

mind brain people

Adolescents who are absorbing negative messages about who they are and what is expected of them may sink to that level instead of realizing their true potential. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being."

Daniel J. Siegel

levels people negative

We now know that the way to help a child develop optimally is to help create connections in her brain—her whole brain—that develop skills that lead to better relationships, better mental health, and more meaningful lives. You could call it brain sculpting, or brain nourishing, or brain building. Whatever phrase you prefer, the point is crucial, and thrilling: as a result of the words we use and the actions we take, children’s brains will actually change, and be built, as they undergo new experiences.

Daniel J. Siegel

new-experiences meaningful children

From early infancy, it appears that our ability to regulate emotional states depends upon the experience of feeling that a significant person in our life is simultaneously experiencing a similar state of mind.

Daniel J. Siegel

emotional mind feelings

Recent studies of mindfulness practices reveal that they can result in profound improvements in a range of physiological, mental, and interpersonal domains in our lives. Cardiac, endocrine, and immune functions are improved with mindfulness practices. Empathy, compassion, and interpersonal sensivity seem to be improved. People who come to develop the capacity to pay attention in the present moment without grasping on to their inevitable judgments also develop a deeper sense of well-being and what can be considered a form of mental coherence.

Daniel J. Siegel

compassion practice philosophy

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

interaction-with-others focus self

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

communication memories people

For "full" emotional communication, one person needs to allow his state of mind to be influenced by that of the other.

Daniel J. Siegel

communication emotional mind

Grief allows you to let go of something you have lost only when you begin to accept what you now have in its place. As our mind clings to the familiar, to our established expectations, we can become trapped in feelings of disappointment, confusion, anger, that create our own internal worlds of suffering.

Daniel J. Siegel

grief disappointment letting-go

When we begin to know ourselves in an open and self-supportive way, we take the first step to encourage our children to know themselves

Daniel J. Siegel

supportive self children

...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

mind brain meaningful

Mindfulness has never met a cognition it didn't like.

Daniel J. Siegel

cognition mets mindfulness

The amygdala, along with related areas..., plays a crucial role in coordinating perceptions with memory and behavior. These regions are especially sensitive to social interactions.

Daniel J. Siegel

perception play memories

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

emotional attachment memories

While the days of parenting may seem so long, the years are so short.

Daniel J. Siegel

may long years

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

unique reality past

Wonderful!Hold Me Tight blends the best in research findings with practical suggestions from a caring and compassionate clinician. This fabulous book will be of great benefitto couples trying to find their way to better communication and deeper, more fulfilling ways of being with each other. Bravo!

Daniel J. Siegel

communication couple book

Early experience shapes the structure and function of the brain. This reveals the fundamental way in which gene expression is determined by experience.

Daniel J. Siegel

expression fundamentals brain