Wise mind

In the 1980s and 1990s, the psychologist Marsha Linehan developed Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for people whose emotions hit hard and fast. Traditional therapy kept asking them to change; what they also needed was to feel accepted as they were.

Her answer was "dialectical": holding two truths at once. One of DBT's simplest and most loved skills puts that into a single image: the overlap between two circles.

Emotion mind is driven by feeling: urgent, vivid, sure of itself. Reasonable mind is driven by logic: cool, practical, sometimes cut off from what matters.

Wise mind is where they overlap. It honours what you feel and what you know. It often feels quieter, a sense of "yes, this is right", rather than a rush or a lecture.

You don't need to get rid of either side. Ask each what it says, then ask what the part of you that holds both would do.

• Zen and contemplative practice

  DBT's mindfulness skills draw on Zen practice, where clarity comes from seeing what is, without being swept away.

• Stoicism

  The Stoics aimed for a mind steady enough to act well, not a mind without feeling.

Think of a decision or reaction you're stuck on.

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Which best describes wise mind?