-- INTERPERSONAL NEUROBIOLOGY by Dr. Dan Siegel When we use mindsight and its capacity to maintain an open stance to the internal world of ourselves and of others, we are able to achieve attunement. Attunement is the way we focus on the flow of energy and information in an open and receptive manner. The circuitry of our own nervous system is such that if we attune, we come to create resonance in which our observing self takes on some of the features of that which we are observing. If we are attuned to another, this creates an interpersonal resonance in which each person feels felt by the other. The experience of joining two subjective inner worlds with each other is sometimes called intersubjectivity. How do we come to connect in such a way? We likely harness a core aspect of our social circuitry that supports the process of attunement. The resonance circuits involve a pathway from the perpetual systems of sensory intake that pass through the thalamus and then through the thalamocortical circuit on the way to the cortex. Within the cortex rest the mirror neurons which initiate a set of neural cascades in firing that produce the flow of signals (energy and information). The various parts of this middle prefrontal cortex enable us to have interoception so that we perceive the internal state of the body (and likely the state of the brainstem/limbic areas). As we come to know ourselves, being in touch with our subcortical states, we open the gateway through this mirror neuron-insula-body-insula-middle prefrontal flow that then enables us to also know someone else. We come to resonate in ourselves with what we sense in others, enabling separate selves to become a part of a functional whole. Coming to appreciate this emerging sense of connection involves awareness. Awareness is the key to creating not only appreciation, but also flexibility in our responses. Awareness of our internal state is a key skill necessary to facilitate self-knowing and other-knowing. Distinguishing others emotions from ones own emotional response can make the difference between becoming overwhelmed by empathetic contact or being able to stay in equilibrium and extend a hand to help others in distress. Resonance does not mean becoming a copy of the other person; rather, it means joining while maintaining ones own differentiated identity. It is through this self-knowing awareness that empathy and compassion are created and able to be maintained. Both internal and interpersonal attunement share the same fundamental resonance circuitry and mutually reinforces itself. The flow of energy and information in our lives manifests through various forms. To understand attunement fully, we need to see the direct application of energy and information flow in our ways of seeing the world. As the object of attunement is at this level of energy flow patterns, it is helpful to keep in mind that the signals - internal or interpersonal - that are the focus of attention in attunement will vary according to the nature of the attunement in that moment. In schools we emphasize words and logical processes, rewarding the syllogistic reasoning that searches for concrete cause-effect relationships in the world. But emotional and social skills are often more subtle and intricate than that, built upon a nonlinguistic, nonlogical way of knowing about the interior of our own and others subjective lives. Applying these notions of attunement requires that we embrace the importance of these other forms of knowing about reality. Students must certainly focus on the concepts a teacher is relating, but education has the potential to go much farther than the important reading, writing, and arithmetic of present programs and into the Rs of reflection, relationships, and the cultivation of resilience. Attunement is a dance of connection, from the inside out, that can be expressed with words to some extent but its creation blossoms in a nonworded world of primary experience. When students can be taught this way of integrating their lives, resilience can be created as they learn the skills of healthy reflection and relationships that can set up the foundation for a lifetime. Applying these ideas requires that teachers, parents, and clinicians immerse themselves in this nonworded world first. There is nothing like direct primary experience to create a deep sense of knowing in the realm of attunement. Yet this way of experiencing the world is often far from the day-to-day curricular menu. The programs that work to support internal and interpersonal attunement can honor this by acknowledging the scientific reality of the importance of first-person inner subjective experience. Time-in practices such as the wheel of awareness or breath-awareness offer direct ways in which primary experience can be honored. After this important beginning, the details may vary but the intention is to share the same fundamental stance of respecting the inner world of all involved. Being open to sensory experience beneath prior expectation naturally invites us to embrace uncertainty. There is no right or wrong, no answer key to this approach. Instead, internal education that begins with a focus on lived experience highlights our need to honor the many ways that energy and information are experienced in our lives. With this beginning of internal attunement, the stage is set for interpersonal attunement to flourish. From an interpersonal neurobiology view, these forms of attunement are examples of integration - begining within ourselves and then linking our own inner world of primary experience to that of others. -- INTERPERSONAL NEUROBIOLOGY by Dr. Dan Siegel
Posted on: Wed, 10 Sep 2014 14:22:26 +0000
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