Mind, freedom, responsibility and the capacity for adaptive development, all are essential qualities that distinguish our personhood as human beings. Each finds corresponding sources of action in our brain and body, triggered by practical purpose. That train of purposive action belongs to us. We author each step, and each step comes to further define us.
This self-constituted pattern of identity consists of beliefs, values and know-how, as well as relational tendencies that affect how we see and relate to others. It’s our purposive nature and capacity to adaptively change that makes us “minded creatures.”
That’s fine as far as it goes. But what happens when our habitual modes of feeling, thought, belief and action fail, prove to be maladaptive? The “me” that has thrived in his/her established ways of acting is no longer enough, perhaps because new leadership challenges make new demands on us.
William James long ago distinguished two selves, the “I,” the active, experiencing agent of the present moment, and the “me,” or narrative self, the storied agent with a past and future. It has been thought that they are naturally linked in experience and are most distinguished in terms of their temporal aspect.
This is all quite simple on its face, but it becomes more complex when we consider the dynamics of adaptive development and change. Insofar as the narrative self (me) brings to each new moment a point of view, beliefs and assumptions, it preconditions how the “I” will experience and interpret the now.
Some psychologists refer to this conditioned way of seeing the world as being “embedded” in one’s own presuppositions and habits of thinking, feeling and relating. That is, we’re embedded or centered in the subjective stream of experience, the living “I,” which constitutes the “me.” It’s our common way of being and it’s usually no problem.
But what if our familiar ways of seeing and responding to the world include self-limiting beliefs about self, others, situations and relationships? In that case, we may benefit from “dis-embedding” in order to see the situation with fresh eyes.
This brings us to the power of mindfulness meditation as a means of “de-centering” or “dis-embedding” ourselves. Neuroscience research and psychological science have learned more about how the “I” and “me” modes of self are activated in the brain as the physiological correlate of how we attend to things in our mental experience.
So, although the “I” and “me” areas of the brain usually, and by default, function in a closely linked manner, the brains of those trained in mindfulness meditation work a bit differently: They tend to decouple activation of these brain regions. Mindfulness-trained people exhibit greater capacity to see the here-and-now with little or no influence from the “me.” They suspend the judgments usually provided by the “me.”
Thus, for those plagued by tendencies to ruminate on negative or self-limiting thoughts and beliefs, which generate negative or troubled moods (anxious or depressive), greater emotional freedom is purchased by the “mindfulness effect.” And beyond such mood issues, research also shows that mindfulness can enhance problem-solving and inclusiveness.
In both directions, remediation and development, increased cognitive flexibility and emotional freedom enhances our potential to adaptively learn, problem-solve, and cope with peak challenges at work and in the world more resourcefully. And that’s why mindfulness training is finding its way into professional- and personal-development practices in the workplace.
William P. Macaux is principal of Generativity LLC, an East Greenwich-based management psychology consultancy specializing in leadership and organizational development.
