The Whole-Brain Child

or even true. Through this self-talk they can direct their attention
away from rim points that are limiting them, and toward those that
lead to happiness and growth. Mindsight lets them return to their
hub and pay attention to their thoughts. Then, from that place of
awareness, they can use self-talk to remind themselves of other rim
points, of other thoughts and feelings that are also important parts
of themselves. For example, an eleven-year-old girl might look in
the mirror and say, “So stupid to get sunburned at camp. So
stupid!” But if her parents have taught her to argue with her own
negative thoughts, she might take a step back and correct herself:
“Come on, that’s not stupid. It’s normal to forget things sometimes.
Almost all the kids got too much sun today.”
By teaching our children to SIFT through the activity of their
mind, we can help them recognize the diʃerent rim points at work
within them, and help them gain more insight and control in their
lives. Notice, too, how integrated the whole process is when it
comes to how the brain takes in diʃerent stimuli. The nervous
system extends throughout our body, functioning like powerful
antennae that read the diʃerent physical sensations from our ɹve
senses. Then we draw on the images from the right hemisphere of
the brain, combining these with the feelings that arise from the
right brain and the limbic system. Then ultimately we link
everything together with the conscious thoughts that originate in
our left hemisphere and the analytical skills from our upstairs
brain. SIFTing helps us understand the important lesson that our
bodily sensations shape our emotion and our emotion shapes our
thinking, as well as the images in our mind. The inɻuences go the
other way, too: if we are thinking hostile thoughts, we can increase
a feeling of anger that in turn can make our body’s muscles tense
up. All of the points on the rim—sensations, images, feelings, and
thoughts—can inɻuence the others, and together they create our
state of mind.