Have you ever been in a chaotic situation but instead of becoming overwhelmed, you rose to the occasion, kept your cool and focus? If you have, you were using your wise mind. The Wise Mind concept was created by Dr. Marsha Linehan and is at the center of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Dr. Linehan explains that our mind can be viewed as having three parts, the Emotional (thoughts based on distressing feelings) the Reasonable (rational and logical), and the Wise Mind. The emotional mind is impulsive and driven by intense feelings and a sense of urgency. An example of this is saying something hurtful to a loved one in the heat of the moment. The reasonable mind is fact based and concrete. We use that part of our mind when we are following complex instructions, directions or tasks; like following a recipe, solving a math problem or navigating from a map. The Wise Mind is the coming together and overlap between emotional and reasonable mind. The wise mind is aware of thoughts, feelings, and body sensations but also weighs the facts, looks for different perspectives, options, choices, and gives thought to short and long term consequences.

If you’ve ever been in an argument over something trivial, there was probably a part of you that knew arguing wasn’t helping…that was the wise mind talking. The table below illustrates these three states of mind. It also has questions to help you uncover and use your wise mind more effectively.



WISE MIND

STOP!  Take a breath. What does Wise Mind make of this? What's the bigger picture? What will the consequences of my reaction by? (Short and long term) What is going to be the best response to this situation - best for me, for others, for the situation.  What will be most helpful and effective, all things considered?