Confused? Could You Just for Now - Let Go?

One of the interesting things I learned from the PhotoReading 2007 and  during one of the meetings with Paul Scheele, is the true value of confusion and the need to go with the flow.

It’s easy to become frustrated and angry when you think you don’t know what is going on. Yet I was fascinated by it during the retreat. Since I have no doubt that PhotoReading works it became a fascinating exploration to see how others cope with the confusion.

One of the greatest problems we face when we are learning something new is our apprehension about doing it right. We can get so stuck on wanting to be sure we understood the instructions and what we are supposed to be doing that we stop ourself from doing anything. And even when we are in a situation were we have no choice and must do our best we hold ourself back and avoid giving too much. We hold on when we must let go.

Through some of the exercises we learned through play and yet even then  it was difficult to let go and play for fear  of doing it wrong. The purpose of the games were simply to help us change our state, release and laugh and challenge our brain and body to do something new or differently. Again holding onto our fear of not performing up to an unknown goal or outcome.

We didn’t know what the outcome of many of the exercises would be there was a lot of apprehension. Would we look the fool, would we get it wrong? It was a matter of just playing and seeing what happens when we just do it. There is never a wrong experience at the Learning Strategies Retreat. It’s all just a learning experience.

We think if we know what the outcome is going to be we can control the actions to do it right. Yet you cannot control your actions if you have never done it before and the fun is if you follow the directions as best you can, you will get some sort of results. You’ve got no experience to work with until you just do it. And it’s much easier to do if you let go and just be playful in your approach.  With experience you can experiment and play at it again. And you will always get results. Results are neither good or bad. They are a foundation experience that you can work with. With results  you start adjusting as you play and notice a shift in the outcome.

Play is how we learned as a child to do many things. It was the excitement of not knowing what the outcome would be that we just went ahead and did it.

The PhotoReading Retreat was  an opportunity to enhance  PhotoReading skill and  it was also a great opportunity to learn about learning. Waking up your mind to shift your thinking.

Paul Scheele and other authors have taught me that when you’re feeling confused you need to let go, be in the experience and to wait and see what unfolds. It’s a bit like opening Christmas presents when you don’t know what’s inside. Paul deliberately didn’t tell his team leaders too much of what he was planning to do. So we too, had the opportunity to experience confusion.

It was amazing to become aware of how often people wanted to jump ahead and get out of the uncomfortable present moment were new learning experiences are taking place and new neural pathways are being formed. This anxiety to move on blocks our ability to recognise what we learned from the experience.

We think if we can understand the outcome of what the experience means we  can  understand the current challenge better.  Yet the purpose of the current challenge is to build a bridge to the goal. The mind can understand logical explanations however experience is something deeper and more personal. That’s why just sitting in an audience listening to a speaker does little to change you.

Another thing I noticed at the Retreat was the learner thought it would help them understand  had no relationship to the current problem. That is they were off in the wrong direction and didn’t know it. And for all the talking we couldn’t convince them to let go of that idea and just play. They were so focused on understanding something irrelevant and thought if they didn’t understand this they would not get it. Of course they wouldn’t get it. It’s like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.

What we think we know interferes with learning to do so something different. If you want to check out this theory for yourself try this challenge

The solution is simple and one we used a lot at the Retreat. Let Go.

 True success is not achieved through analysis. It is achieved by learning through experience. Being in the moment and to let go and be in that experience. Then after fully participating in that experience can you notice what happened, what you got, what you learned.

© AlexK Viefhaus