Heroes Not Zombies

Dan Siegel defines the mind as “an embodied process of regulation of energy and information flow”.

Flow is such an attractive and useful concept. If you’d like to read more about it start here.

I like Dan’s definition of the mind because he refuses to turn it into a measurable, objective entity. He describes it as a process – which seems so much more accurate to me. It is a continuous, dynamic, ever changing phenomenon. Not only is it a process however, it’s a process of regulation. He says it regulates energy and information flow.

I think this concept of the mind can be extrapolated to cover the whole organism. Whatever it is that self-regulates, self-defends, self-repairs (in my opinion we can usefully call it “the vital force”) is a process of regulation of energy, information AND materials. Because that’s how all our cells communicate and co-operate – by exchanging energy, information and materials.

So, let’s just consider another of Dan’s concepts. He defines a healthy flow of regulation as having five qualities which he remembers with the acronym FACES.

• Flexible
• Adaptive
• Coherent
• Energised
• Stable

A healthy organism has flexibility. Rigidity is one of the two main patterns of dis-order and dis-ease. It uses that flexibility to be adaptive. In other words, as the world changes around it, the healthy organism can change with it in an adaptive way, a way of helping the organism to not only survive, but to grow, to thrive. Healthy organisms are also coherent – all their parts and systems are working synergistically, in harmony with each other. In the absence of energy, organisms become, literally, lifeless. Energised is a key characteristic of all living organisms – you might also use the word vitality to describe the degree to which an organism is energised. Finally, there is stability. Not the stability of stasis, but the stability of coherence. You are you. You were you when you were 10 years old, and you are you now. Almost everything about you has changed between then and now but you still have a stable sense of self – you still know you are you and not someone else! Stability comes hand in hand with identity.