The Wise Mind
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy uses a concept called “The Wise Mind.” The Wise Mind is where your emotions and your intellect come together to create a balanced perspective.
The Emotional Mind
Emotions are beneficial because they help us feel things. We cry when we are sad. We smile when se are happy. It provides opportunities for us to cultivate relationships with others because others can relate to our emotional responses. Emotions are the catalyst for empathy and empathy is greatest tool in developing deep emotional bonds with others.
The Reasonable Mind
Intellect helps us solve problems and think about the world around using knowledge and information. We use it to cook or meals, fix our cars, drive technological advancements, study medicine, and to write blog articles such as this one.
Knowing when to use each state of mind
Being overly emotional or overly intellectual at the wrong time can cause problems. For example, sometimes people in your life want you to empathize with their situation when they are struggling rather than trying to “fix it” with intellectual problem solving. Sometimes, it’s better to keep your emotions under control, such as when you make a mistake at work and you start to feel defensive. You don’t want to act impulsively.
The Wise Mind – Finding balance
The Wise Mind strikes a healthy balance between intellect and emotions. It allows you to understand others by reading their emotional cues and allows you to process what you want to say and how you want to proceed without impulsively acting on your emotions.
The following website link shows a Venn Diagram of The Wise Mind, The Emotional Mind, and The Reasonable (intellectual) Mind:
https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/wise-mind.pdf
The bottom of the sheet asks you to list an example of an experience that you have had with each of the three states of mind. I encourage you to apply the knowledge from this by describing your own experience with each state of mind so that you can be more aware of when you are using each state of mind.