AlexK’s Blog
Feb 04
Our language can affect our perception in significant ways through the subtle internal meaning of words.
Our self talk and what we tell others about ourselves affects how we see ourselves and how we experience our highs and lows.
The words, depression and frustration, describe similar feeling, possibly even the same feeling [...] [...more]
Posted: under confusion, frustration, learning.
Our language can affect our perception in significant ways through the subtle internal meaning of words.
Our self talk and what we tell others about ourselves affects how we see ourselves and how we experience our highs and lows.
The words, depression and frustration, describe similar feeling, possibly even the same feeling with the word (label) chosen based on an individuals experience or perception. Both words imply the idea of, no where to go, no answers. Boxed in. Helplessness. Spinning your wheels, not knowing or understanding. An overall sense of helplessness and often the feeling of doom or forever stuck in this state. Nothing is changing neither in the mind nor in the outside world.
It’s also similar to another feeling and that one is confusion. Each of the words I used to describe frustration and depression apply to confusion with the exception of doom and thinking you are forever stuck . Instead there is a sense of, there is an answer, I can find it, I will find it if I persist. The word confusion has an expectancy of an outcome or change. Confusion is verge of a breakthrough, finding an answer, getting going again and understanding. When you are confused neural networks are working to connect the answer. When you are frustrated or depressed no new networks are forming.
Yet they are just words that describe largely the same feelings or emotions. Their meaning convey to the brain instructions how the feelings or emotions should ultimately be processed. The words point a direction in our thinking. We think we are describing where we are really at. Yes and no. Yes we are there, and no because that can change even for a moment when we are distracted by a good joke. Depression, which stems from anger and frustration and is essentially frustration that’s taken over every part of your life. If we are experiencing frustration with our learning then it can lead to depression and affect our whole life. If we can change our perception we can change our life. And we can change our perception by changing what we say about the problem.
To help my students to understand the similarity in the feeling and emotion of frustration and confusion. I demonstrate the power of our language by facing a wall when I say,’I'm frustrated’. When you say it that is what you are cuing your mind to do. Facing the wall leaves no way to move ahead.
When you repeatedly say I’m frustrated or depressed it becomes a mantra - think about it, how often do you say it to yourself to explain your feeling, how often to you say it to others? Repetition makes it a mantra. So facing a wall becomes your dominant experience. Every time you say I’m frustrated or I’m depressed. You place a wall in front of you. Because that is what the words are cuing you to experience. so you feel helpless.
Then I turn around and say, ‘I’m confused’, I look around and acknowledge I don’t know yet where the answer is in front of me however I see more before me than a wall so I’m more open to getting an answer and moving ahead.
Each time you say "I am" you bring your focus to specific thought or feeling, even triggering them if they aren’t loud enough. So when you say I’m depressed, I’m frustrated, I’m stuck that’s where you lead your focus. To no, answer, not getting anywhere spinning your wheels, more gloom.
Try changing the mantra (what you say to yourself and others) to I’m confused. Being confused suggest there is a solution, you haven’t found it yet. and if you want to move out of depression and change your situation you are looking for a solution. Look with expectancy of finding a solution with confusion rather than the expectancy of no change from the place of frustration or depression.
Confusion it tells our mind there is an answer out there and now the mind is looking for it and can expect to find an answer. The feeling, sensation can be the same. Your mind processes it differently because it has a different perception.
It’s important that you do get help. So see your counsellor, and stay on your medication if you take any. It takes a while to create a new habit and if you intend to change your self talk it isn’t the final solution to what caused the depression or frustration. You still need help getting through your confusion. You want those answers and going it alone probably led to frustration and depression in the first place So work with the professionals. You may even need help taking action on the solutions that come to you.
Be kind to yourself.
© Alex Viefhaus 2010
May 13
People have often asked me how do I know I’m in photofocus? `In the seminar I teach how to see the blip page. That is one of the ways to know you are in photofocus. However most people find it challenging and try too hard to get the blip page. They won’t trust the rest [...] [...more]
Posted: under Blip page, Mind Stuff, PhotoRead, Photoreading, confusion, photofocus, success.
Tags: Blip page, Photoreading
People have often asked me how do I know I’m in photofocus? `In the seminar I teach how to see the blip page. That is one of the ways to know you are in photofocus. However most people find it challenging and try too hard to get the blip page. They won’t trust the rest of the system until they get this right.
Hey you don’t need to see blip page. The imaginary X-technique works just as well and if you have vision in only one eye you won’t ever see the blip page. That doesn’t stop you from being a successful PhotoReader.
So how do I know when I’m in photofocus? As I’ve taught in my classes and explained on the forum to me it feels exactly like I’m day dreaming. I’m looking without looking through whatever is in front of me into space. Looking beyond. PhotoReading to me has always felt the same as daydreaming.
Of course daydreaming has always been associated with switching off. So I think many of my students were reluctant to try this. How can the mind take anything in while one is daydreaming. How do I know it’s being processed? How when daydreaming is switching off, lazy, non-functioning aspect of brain activity?
Well exciting news! What we’ve been taught as a truth has been proven wrong with fMRI. Daydreaming is active activity. It switches on the brains problem solving functions.
“Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. "But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream – much more active than when we focus on routine tasks."
…The study finds that the brain’s "executive network" – associated with high-level, complex problem-solving and including the lateral PFC and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex – also becomes activated when we daydream.
This is a surprising finding, that these two brain networks are activated in parallel," says Christoff. "Until now, scientists have thought they operated on an either-or basis – when one was activated, the other was thought to be dormant." The less subjects were aware that their mind was wandering, the more both networks were activated.
This for me is the most exciting evidence that we do gain something from the PhotoReading step. A step that to me always felt like I was switching on daydreaming. Now I know I’m switching on the brains problem solving network.
So if you want to get into photofocus, daydream. Because big stuff is happening while you daydream.
Source: University of British Columbia (2009, May 12). Brain’s Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 13, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/05/090511180702.htm
© AlexK Viefhaus
Jun 19
I learned how to PhotoRead but I suck at activation
Lets check your activation technique and discuss some of the experiences you might have had.
Begin your activation by revisiting step one of the system. This is probably more important than most people realise and often overlooked. Check in with your purpose regularly make sure you are [...] [...more]
Posted: under Activation, PhotoRead, Photoreading, Purpose, comprehension, confusion, expectation, frustration, motivation.
I learned how to PhotoRead but I suck at activation
Lets check your activation technique and discuss some of the experiences you might have had.
Begin your activation by revisiting step one of the system. This is probably more important than most people realise and often overlooked. Check in with your purpose regularly make sure you are on track. Then select one of your questions and review your trigger word list. From there you want to select the first question you want answered.
Remembering that the book was written by a human who wanted to pass on information imagine that you are entering into a conversation with that author. You are about to ask them a question. As look for the answers to your questions you will also find other questions coming to mind. If your question hasn’t been answered write the new question down.
As you find answers you may want to mind map them. Its very easy to dismiss the results of your first activations. You may feel like you’re not really getting anything and get ready to quit for the old fashioned way of reading. Before you do that lets consider this.
When you begin reading you just read. You hope information build as you follow word for word what the author has written. In 10 minutes you may have finished the first chapter. How much do you really know? Is that even important information in relation to your purpose or studying?
The purpose of activation is to build trust in your body mind connection. How often have you set out to learn something only to realise you already knew most of what is being taught? An interesting experience my students often have. “I discovered something else I want to know more about and my original question turned out not important.
It saddens me when beginners negate this experience. I think its brilliant and yet they think no, no its not right. I should be able to form the perfect question in the first place. In my mind it was the perfect question. It got them started and lead them to the next question that they wanted answered even more. Isn’t the next question always more important than the one that was before it? Its brilliant it got the ball rolling. You started a conversation with the author. The more you do use the PhotoReading system the better you get at it naturally and you learn to recognise you already know the answers.
It’s the same when they say to me. I did badly. I ran out of questions but felt I was missing something so I rapid read to check and sure enough that I found that very important piece of information that I missed. I am no good at activation.
What? No good at activation?
What you did was activation. It was listening to that feeling, thinking, knowing, small voice within that told you, you were missing something. It didn’t help you form a question and yet guided you to rapid read to find the answer. That’s how you activate, you follow your gut and strengthen your body mind connection. That something “wasn’t right” is a powerful activation signal that your body mind has given you and you write it off?
My suggestion is make note of it and mentally tell yourself that in future you expect to pull that information during your activation layers. Your body and mind has done everything right. It might have taken longer this time and will always take longer if you write off this very special communication you just had from your body and mind.
If you want to perfect your PhotoReading skills take every experience as just that an experience. Its neither good nor bad. An experience is something to build on. The better you leave behind the judgment and negative self talk the sooner you will be able to recognise yourself as a proficient PhotoReader. See my post on Noticing even small gains.
© Alex K Viefhaus
Oct 14
One of the interesting things I learned from the PhotoReading 2007 Retreat 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 [...] [...more]
Posted: under Change, Photoreading, Purpose, confusion, learning, learning curve, reading.
One of the interesting things I learned from the PhotoReading 2007 Retreat 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 ourselves from doing anything. And even when we are in a situation were we have no choice and must do our best we hold ourselves 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
To help my students to understand the similarity in the feeling and emotion of frustration and confusion. I demonstrate the power of our language by facing a wall when I say,’I'm frustrated’. When you say it that is what you are cuing your mind to do. Facing the wall leaves no way to move ahead.
