12 fresh ideas in mindset psychology

Exciting News! 🎉 I'm thrilled to share a major milestone on my learning journey to study the psychology of mindset. This week, I put the finishing touches on my draft dissertation, and its now with friends and colleagues for peer-review. In this article, I share twelve of the fresh ideas that showed up in my research. I will be sharing posts on these themes over the upcoming months, so I encourage you to subscribe if you want to stay in the loop of these ideas.

1. A comprehensive field guide

Something that occurred to me early on in my research, is that at present, there are no books in the world today that bring together a summary of everything everyone has shared on the psychology of mindset. So, I decided to begin my dissertation by studying a diverse collection of mindset psychologies and practices that have been shared throughout history, and write the first comprehensive field guide for the field of mindset.

2. A comprehensive psychology of mindset

Another thing I realised early on in my research was that no psychologist or researcher has explicitly studied and offered a comprehensive view of mindset psychology that is based on the collective wisdom of the entire field. I also noticed a general absence of inquiry into the various ways mindset relates to awareness and trauma. So, I intentionally set out to learn how to articulate and offer a comprehensive, awareness-based and trauma-informed psychology of mindset.

3. Mindset is patterning that is stable and adaptable

Moving onto the specifics of what I found, if I was to use a single word to describe how I have come to understand the nature of mindset, I would say that mindset is a kind of patterning that we internalise in our lives. Some of the names we give to this patterning include: beliefs, attitudes, assumptions, attributions, habits, intelligences, scripts, stories, paradigms, worldviews, values, constructs, frames of reference, and ways of knowing. This patterning of mindset is not set in a fixed or rigid kind of way. Mindset is a stable kind of patterning that has an integrity to it, and it is also an adaptable kind of patterning that can learn, change, and evolve.

4. Mindset is embodied and relational

While some people associate mindset with the head and our mental-thinking capabilities, I came to understand mindset in a much broader way. What showed up in my research is that mindset is an embodied and relational pattern. Mindset is patterning that is internalised throughout our whole bodies, including our mental systems, our emotional systems, and our body systems. Mindset is also patterning that is internalised within our relationships, including our social systems, our organisational systems, and our societal systems.

5. The process of mindsetgenesis

Now we come to the question of how mindset comes-into-being, what I refer to as the process of mindsetgenesis. In simple terms, mindsetgenesis refers to how the process of mind creates and shapes the patterning of mind-set. Mindset is mind that has emerged, crystallised, and become set as embodied and relational patterning.

6. Mindset is part of a larger system of consciousness with mind, mindfulness, and presencing.

When I studied mindset for the first time, I initially tried to understand its nature on its own. However, over time, I came to realise that mindset can’t really be understood on its own, because mindset is part of a larger system of consciousness that includes the mind, and that also includes our capacity for mindfulness and presencing. We can come to know each of these dimensions of our consciousness more deeply and holistically when we relate to them as a single, embodied and relational system.

7. An ecology of mindset

Expanding on Gregory Bateson’s notion of an ecology of mind, it is my understanding that there is also an ecology of mindset that we are all participating in as people and social groups. Becoming aware of the ecology of mindset is important, because many of the mindset patterns we embody are individual manifestations of patterns that exist in the broader ecology of mindset. I found it is important mindset interventions address how mindset patterns live within and between us as people and social systems, and also address how mindset patterns are part of the broader ecology.

8. A trauma-informed view of mindset

Trauma occurs when following an overwhelming experience, a person learns to split off and freeze a part of themselves on an ongoing basis. In relation to mindset, trauma has the after effect of freezing people in some of the mindset patterns they had in the moment the trauma happened. Frozen mindset patterns also tend to be very stressed and don’t want to change or grow. Thus, a trauma-informed approach to mindset is the ability to discern, which mindset patterns are in a stable and adaptable state that can change and evolve, and which mindset patterns are frozen and don’t want to change at all.

9. States of perception, development, and action.

Another major finding that showed up in my research was that mindset, and more broadly mind, mindfulness, and presencing have different functional effects in people’s lives that vary depending on the state their system of consciousness is in. For instance, let’s say you internalised a belief that “growth is good” in a part of your life. If you are in a mindful state where you are aware of how this belief is living within your body and relationships, this belief is going to shape your perceptions, developments, and actions in a different way than if you are in a mindless state where you are subject to, and unaware of this belief.

10. Mindset is not a root cause of our local and global problems

Some people single out mindset as being a root cause behind many of the local and global problems we face in the world today, such as social injustice and climate change. However, my research revealed that the mindsets that are associated with our local and global problems are symptoms, not root causes. Blaming mindsets for their role in local and global problems, is like blaming a field of lettuces for not growing well. I found that the real root cause of our local and global problems is the conditions or context we are co-shaping alongside one another in our shared life space. I also found that intervening on the level of conditions in a context-sensitive way is one of the highest points of leverage we have for supporting organic mindset shifts, and for nurturing profound personal and systems change.

11. Reframing language: from shifts to sync

Nowadays, the language of “mind shifts” and “mindset shifts” has become ubiquitous around the world. However, I have found that people sometimes use this language of shifts in controlling, power-over ways that are enacting a form of violence. It is for this reason that I think we need to take care when using the language of “shifts”, and perhaps consider a reframe to something else. In my own practice, I have been using the terminology of “mind sync” and “mindset sync”. I like this reframe in language because it invites people to attend to how they can synchronise their mind and mindset with what is present and possible in the here and now, and allow shifts in mind and mindset to emerge naturally in their lives without control or violence.

12. Mindset literacy and Mindset-Aware Practice (MAP)

Finally, I have found it useful to name the practice of mindset literacy, which can be described as the practice of inquiring into and becoming literate of the diversity of mindset patterns that you meet in your daily life. I’ve also found it useful to name the practice of Mindset-Aware Practice (MAP), which refers to the practice of becoming aware of and engaging mindset material in a state-sensitive, context-sensitive, and stage-sensitive way. In my dissertation, I share an introduction to a number of potential applications of these practices, including mindset-aware leadership, mindset-aware coaching, mindset-aware systems change, and mindset-aware yoga.

I invite you to spend some time reflecting on these twelve ideas. If you want to stay in the loop of this body of work, or if you have any kind and constructive reflections to share, I encourage you to subscribe to my newsletter and join the conversation on substack.

© Copyright. 2024 Ash Buchanan.