ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights a range of distinct processes, both internal and interpersonal, whose linkages may form the basis of mental health. The linking of distinct elements of a system is how complex systems achieve their emergent property of optimal self-organization. Mindfulness training may be effective for creating well-being because it enhances an individual’s capacity to differentiate and link these two modes and avoid becoming trapped in either alone. The mind coordinates and balances this flow of energy and information in an optimal way through the process of integration, the linkage of differentiated parts. Linking different functional modes in the brain would be carried out through anatomic structural linkages of differentiated regions. The brain itself is connected to the rest of the nervous system extending throughout the body and is inextricably linked to the other various bodily systems, such as the immune, cardiovascular, neuromuscular, and gastrointestinal systems.
