3 States of Mind
I was looking to go to one of the national parks in the Yukon and this trip involved a potential multi-day trek. Now, I don’t particularly enjoy lugging heavy things on my back and having sore knees and feet. You could say I got carried away by the lure of Google images to the point where I became somewhat convinced that I would be fine for those 12 days. Mainly because I wanted to be and not because I actually would be. You could say that my emotion mind was in conflict with my logic mind.
In dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), there are 3 states of mind. We have emotion mind, logic mind, and Wise mind. When we are in emotion mind, we are governed by how we are feeling and we act from a place of emotions, rather than facts or logic. We might act from a place of intense love or great passion or we might act impulsively, feel out of control, and lose sight of the bigger picture. When we are in logic mind, we are governed by facts and logic, and values, desires, and feelings are not important. We might engage in research, assessment, planning, organization, and evaluation. Instead, we want to be in Wise Mind. Wise mind is the integration of both emotion mind and logic mind, and comes from a place of deeper knowing. Can you think of a time where you just knew what you needed to do? DBT takes the position of everyone having Wise mind even if they have never accessed it before.
Oftentimes, people will talk about someone being “irrational” or being “too emotional” in a way that discounts the purpose and function of emotions. We might also do this to ourselves. But there are problems with being in both emotion mind and logic mind.
Let’s get back to the Yukon example. I probably don’t need to go into the potential difficulties that could occur beyond sore knees if I let myself get carried away by excitement. I do need to assess the elements of the hike against my current fitness level, cope ahead for likely problems, and research and organize my activities. But there would also be problems if I only acted from logic mind. For example, I might only pick hikes that were in accordance with my fitness level and not my sense of awe and excitement.
Wise mind allowed me to make a decision about what routes to take that valued both my sense of excitement, trepidation, fitness level, and skill set. I still felt a sense of disappointment for not being able to take certain routes but I experienced a certain level of groundedness in my decision. Accessing Wise mind doesn’t mean an absence of negative emotions in the short-term but it often leads to more long-term calmness and groundedness.
I’d invite you to think about what it looks like when you are in emotion mind, logic mind, or Wise mind. What would someone else observe if they were a fly on the wall?
Stay tuned for the next post where I talk about how to move into Wise mind.
Warmly,
Melanie
A bit about the author
Melanie Adamsons is a Registered Clinical Counsellor at Latitude Counselling, and specializes in DBT, CBT and client-centred therapy.