Daniel Siegel on the Intention Download Series

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Daniel J Siegel, M.D., is an award-winning educator, author and on the faculty of the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development at the UCLA School of Medicine. In this dialogue with IONS President James O’Dea, Dr. Siegel discusses intention in the context of interpersonal neural biology. He defines the words "anticipation," "planning" and "priming" in distinctly nuanced ways. He sees the way in which our brains anticipate the "next immediate now" as the essence of intention. The brain can’t help priming, we prime ourselves to expect an outcome in a situation and behave in a way to create it. Even if we have a neural tendency to withdraw from things that are upsetting, mindfulness practice can shift the brain and electrical signal. Mindful awareness strengthens the circuitry in the cortex, just behind the forehead, and allows a spaciousness to develop that enables us to be aware of our own intentional state.