develop this second aspect of mindsight.
Insight + Empathy = MindsightInsight and empathy. If we can encourage these attributes in our
kids, we will give them the gift of mindsight, oʃering them
awareness about themselves, and connection with those around
them. But how do we do that? How do we encourage our kids to
connect with family, friends, and the world while cultivating and
maintaining their own individual sense of self? How do we help
them learn to share? To get along with siblings? To negotiate
playground politics? To communicate well and consider others’
feelings? The answers to all these questions emerge from the me-
we connection, which we can understand by ɹrst looking at how
the brain participates in the creation of relationships.
THE SOCIAL BRAIN: WIRED FOR “WE”
What do you picture when you think about the brain? Maybe you
recall an image from high school biology class: that weird organ
ɻoating in the jar, or a picture of it in a textbook. The problem
with this “single skull” perspective—where we consider each
individual brain as a lone organ isolated in a single skull—is that it
neglects the truth that scientists have come to understand over the
last few decades: that the brain is a social organ, made to be in
relationship. It’s hardwired to take in signals from the social
environment, which in turn inɻuence a person’s inner world. In
other words, what happens between brains has a great deal to do
with what happens within each individual brain. Self and
community are fundamentally interrelated, since every brain is
continually constructed by its interactions with others. Even more,