November 2018 – Tool of the Month – Dan Siegel’s ‘Wheel of Awareness’
Sorry for the six-week absence from the newsletters. I’ve been very busy with school work, which is amazingly immersive sometimes. However, I was not so busy that I couldn’t listen to a great podcast interview of Dr. Dan Siegel, where he discusses his mindfulness practice/exercise, called “The Wheel of Awareness.” It’s well worth a listen, both because Siegel is one of the great explainers of neuroscience and mental stuff in general, because the Wheel is a very useful practice, and also because Siegel is a great human being to hang out with for an hour.
I hope you find it useful and hope you all are finding, as we traverse the rocky current times, a balance of enough support, and enough challenge, to keep growing and unfolding.
Dan Siegel’s “Wheel of Awareness” Explained
This is a terrific interview with Dr. Dan Siegel, one of the luminaries in the field of neuroscience and psychotherapy (his site is here). Here he is discussing his meditation tool or practice called “The Wheel of Awareness” with podcast School Your Soul, with Sarah Cordial. It can be done in relatively short, 7 minutes sittings, or a longer 30 minute sitting (recordings can be found here).
Essentially, the Wheel of Awareness is a practice that embodies Siegel’s insight that health equals integration, and integration is the state in which differentiated parts of the psyche are clarified and then related. As you can see in the image below, the different senses are identified and then attention is focused on them, and then the sense of openness underneath the various focuses of awareness, the “hub” of the wheel.
To relate it to depression, remember that pretty much anything that is counter to, or “in a different vernacular” than depression will serve as an antidepressant. When depression says there’s nothing out there, and nothing to have faith in, then faith is the medicine. When depression says that everything is just a stinking mass, without clarity or distinction, then focusing on clarity and distinction is the medicine. And when depression says that there is nothing connecting us, then focusing attention on the sense of connectedness is the medicine.
The Wheel of Awareness is a great anti-depressant tool because it embodies clarity, particularity, attention, engagement, and meaning. It is a wonderful distillation of the mindfulness traditions, the loving kindness (metta) meditations, and the insights drawn from the neurosciences. It’s well worth exploring and including in your regular practices.
Dan Siegel’s ‘Wheel of Awareness’
