Advanced Mindfulness Skills 87The solution is to use wise mind to make healthy decisions about your life. Wise mind results
from using both emotion mind and reasonable mind together (Linehan, 1993a). Wise mind is a
balance between feelings and rational thoughts. Again, let’s consider the examples of Leo and
Takeesha. Both of them were being controlled by their emotion minds. If Leo had been making
decisions with wise mind, before quitting his job he would have balanced his decision with reason-
able mind. He should have reminded himself of the facts of the situation: he was already a success-
ful salesman, and he only became upset when he couldn’t close a deal. Therefore, was it reasonable
that he should quit? Definitely not. What about Takeesha? She received great feedback from both
her students and fellow faculty members. So was it reasonable to stop meeting new people after a
few failed relationships? Definitely not. This is why using wise mind is so important.
You can develop wise mind by using the mindfulness skills you have already been practic-
ing in chapter 3. Remember that part of what these exercises did was to help you recognize and
separate your thoughts from your emotions. So you’ve already been using both your emotion mind
and reasonable mind. And by practicing those mindfulness skills even more, it will become easier
to make healthy decisions based on a balance of what your emotions and your rational thoughts
tell you.
WISE MIND AND INTuITION
According to dialectical behavior therapy, wise mind is similar to intuition (Linehan, 1993b).
Often, both intuition and wise mind are described as “feelings” that come from “the gut” or the
stomach area. The exercise that follows will help you get more in touch with your gut feelings,
both physically and mentally. This exercise will help you locate the center of wise mind in your
body. This is the spot from which many people report making sensible, wise-mind decisions about
their lives.
Interestingly, this phenomenon of gut feelings might be supported by scientific evidence.
Researchers have discovered that a vast web of nerves covers the area of the stomach. This web of
nerves is second in complexity only to the human brain, so some researchers have referred to this
area as the enteric brain, meaning the brain in the stomach.
Exercise: Wise-Mind Meditation
When you begin using this technique, set a kitchen timer or an alarm clock for three to five
minutes and practice this exercise until the alarm goes off. Then, as you get more accustomed to
using this technique, you can set the alarm for longer periods of time, like ten or fifteen minutes. If
you feel more comfortable listening to the instructions, use an audio-recording device to record the
directions in a slow, even voice so that you can listen to them while practicing this technique.