“Our dreams and stories may contain implicit aspects of our lives even without our awareness. In fact, storytelling may be a primary way in which we can linguistically communicate to others—as well as to ourselves—the sometimes hidden contents of our implicitly remembering minds. Stories make available perspectives on the emotional themes of our implicit memory that may otherwise be consciously unavailable to us. This may be one reason why journal writing and intimate communication with others, which are so often narrative processes, have such powerful organizing effects on the mind: They allow us to modulate our emotions and make sense of the world.” (Dan Siegel – The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are)
“Many things in life cannot be changed … but learning to accept can alleviate stress with a simple change of attitude. We may not be able to control the problem, but we can control the attitude.
When we accept situations we previously refused to accept, or accept what it will take to change them, we experience major releases of stress and increases in effective action. To refuse to accept is to ignore the obvious, which does not make the problem go away. With the peace of mind that follows acceptance, the mind is in a far more effective state to act. We can find a new resourcefulness and courage that can be used to deal much more effectively with our situation. Denial and non-acceptance consumes an enormous amount of energy and achieves nothing useful.
Acceptance is not an excuse for inaction. It may be that we need to wait or it may be that we need to act. If we are lost in the forest we have to accept we are lost and start taking our bearings. It does not mean we will stay there.” (Craig Hassed – Know Thyself)
‘Internal mental experience is not the product of a photographic process. Internal reality is in fact constructed by the brain as it interacts with the environment in the present, in the context of its past experiences and expectancies of the future. At the level of perceptual categorizations, we have reached a land of mental representations quite distant from the layers of the world just inches away from their place inside the skull. This is the reason why each of us experiences a unique way of minding the world. (pp. 166-167)” (Dan Siegel – The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are) 