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
Nov 10
Is it a good Idea to go straight to rapid reading experiencing difficulty with manual Activation?
Rapid Reading
Rapid reading is the closest thing to traditional reading. Unlike speed reading where one speed fits all you move through the pages from beginning to end and different speeds. For areas that you have covered by manual activation you’ll [...] [...more]
Posted: under Activation, Goals, PhotoRead, Photoreading, learning, reading.
Is it a good Idea to go straight to rapid reading experiencing difficulty with manual Activation?
Rapid Reading
Rapid reading is the closest thing to traditional reading. Unlike speed reading where one speed fits all you move through the pages from beginning to end and different speeds. For areas that you have covered by manual activation you’ll probably use speeds close to Superread and dip. For areas that are new or you haven’t covered yet you might find yourself slowing down to the average reading speed of 190 words a minute. Then picking up speed again.
Rapid Reading a short cut when having trouble with activation?
No. If you are having problems with manual activation there are a couple of other reasons you need to consider.
The danger of going straight to rapid Reading as an activation method is that Rapid Reading it closest to traditional reading. The risk for a beginner is they will just continue to use the passive reading method. With rapid reading it is too easy to become or remain a passive reader.
If You have trouble with manual activation have a look at your purpose. Ask yourself how do you plan to use this information in the long run. Once you answered that, consider what you need to know to reach that goal. Your purpose then becomes the reason you are reading the book and it helps you to stay focused on the information you need from this particular text.
Purpose is a large topic of it’s own I’ll probably write an article about that in the future.
For now know that if you haven’t established a purpose it won’t do to go straight into rapid reading
Exceptions, When it is acceptable to go into rapid reading in the early stages of activation.
There will be times when you find a book so interesting after an initial activation that it makes perfect sense to start rapid reading. It’s a perfect approach for reading for pleasure.
On the whole I recommend that beginners do manual activation first on non-fiction text. Reserve Rapid reading for novels while you work towards proficiency with the PhotoReading system.
How many manual activation passes before rapid reading?
I strongly recommend that for a book of 200 pages the beginner allow at least six 20-minute activation passes. That means you’re spending 2 hours in activation. This isn’t much time for a book that takes many readers 8 to 12 hours.
Only after doing the six activation passes allow yourself to go into rapid reading. Often rapid reading is unnecessary after multiple activation passes. However for a beginner it is good experience to help them see what they missed if anything.
If the beginner finds they missed important information it pays to spend a few minutes looking at the questions and what your original purpose was. And mentally note that this is the information you seek when activating. It provides training.
For longer books you would apply more activation passes. To work out how many passes you would apply consider how many hours the book would take using your traditional reading approach and divide that figure by three. That’s how many hours your activation passes would total. Divide by three again if you are planning 20-minute activation layers. This will give you the total number of activation passes that would be ideal before you resort to Rapid Reading.
Textbooks, treat each chapter as a book on it’s own. Textbooks are often needed for courses, so you might need to apply at least 3 activation passes to the chapter. Each pass might just be 7 to 10 minutes. Follow that with a rapid read if necessary.
Believe me that is a lot better than the approach recommended in a speed reading article I found yesterday. It said after learning to speed read don’t read three books in the time you’ve read one. Read the same book three times. If you know maths you’ll notice you haven’t gained anything by speed reading if you still need to read the text three times. However most universities do recommend going over the text 3 times. Do it three times with manual activation and once with a rapid read if necessary. You’ll be satisfying the university recommendation and still get your reading done in 1/3rd the time.
The Benefit of Manual Activation
Developing the skill of manual activation helps you to become an active reader. It will make it possible for you to finish a book in 20 to 30 minutes rather than 2 or 3 hours.
To get to that point you do need to invest more time in manual activation in the early stages of learning. It means making more activation passes until the information starts making sense.
Looking at it realistically when you start reading a book at chapter one and the book consists of 18 chapters you ain’t got nothing yet. When you spend 10-minutes on first chapter you accept the knowledge isn’t there until you’ve reached the end of the book. So why short-change yourself when you use activation?
When activating set realistic goals and stick with it. Form mind probing questions. Begin activating when you have one question in mind. If you don’t know where to start look at the table of content and turn the chapter heading into questions. Do any of those questions sound like questions you need answers to, to reach your purpose?
Once you find an answer, form another question. Something in the text might have sparked your curiosity. Much like having a conversation or interview with someone (the Author is a person) learning something new sparked another question or raised a point that needs clarification. There you have found another question something you want more information on.
Build it in layers. Manual activation works best when you keep it short. 5 to 20-minute passes.
This is where rapid reading will set you back. Once you begin rapid reading often you will go longer than 20 minutes. The disadvantage of that is the longer you read the slower you get. Even with rapid reading breaks are important.
It Gets easier
Activation has the benefit of increasing the speed at which you rapid read. If you applied three activation passes to a chapter of a text or 6 activation passes with a book. Answering mind probing questions. You have already have an understanding most of the information in the book. Then speed at which you can rapid read the text is greater than when you give up on activation too soon or used rapid reading as a first phase of activation. With the sections you haven’t activated chances are you already Superread it at least once if not more.
I know activation can seem daunting. I have been there myself. Where it felt like I was getting nothing from the book for the first three 20-minute passes only to see it start to come together on the fourth. The interesting thing is when it starts to come together you’re almost done. One or two passes more passes and you’re done. So don’t fret if it doesn’t make sense in the first two or three. Persist with mind probing questions and it has to come together.
If you have a nagging doubt that you want to know more but are not sure what it is you want to know after you’ve done a reasonable number of activation passes. Then use rapid reading.
Remember your purpose. Is the time you’re planning to invest in Rapid Reading worth it? Consider the 80/20 rule.
© Alex Viefhaus originally published December 2005
Feb 04
Changing your mind to making it work [...more]
Posted: under Personal development, expectation, frustration, learning, success.
Tags: experience, Photoreading, thinking
Are you getting the results you desire with all those self help audios?
Often people use tools like meditation and hypnosis tapes to improve an area of their lives and despite committing their time to listening to the tapes they feel they have a program running that blocks them. Some even feel like they are going backwards when they use self improvement audios. They find themselves gaining weight or even more fearful or anxious than when they started.
One thing I have discovered through the years is that often people say words like confidence, determination, stamina but they don’t really know what they mean to them. When I ask them what they want they might say, ‘I don’t want to be afraid.’ They are focusing on what they don’t want. And if you do this the meditation, the hypnosis or any audio guide you’re working with will work to keep you where you don’t want to be.
Think about it. The mind works in pictures. Need help?
Not, a polar bear in a pink polka dot bikini wearing a lime green tutu.
Did you laugh? Did you see the polar bear? Did you notice that your mind pictured what came after Not?
What do you picture when you think of not afraid? Since the mind has no meaning for not it draws up an image or memory of being afraid. Then when you listen to a program designed to help you conquer this fear it winds up reinforcing exactly what you fear.
Since the non-conscious mind takes things very literally it works with the image you bring up. This is where you need to put some conscious reasoning to work. Because if you want to change you need a different picture. The opposite of being afraid. Since using the expression not afraid with the first image or idea that pops into the mind is someone who is afraid we know the non-conscious mind is not that great with opposites so we need to think of a word that means the opposite to us. In this example it might be “brave”. When you think of this word a completely different image comes to mind.
So when using a self help audio and consider what you want. Pay attention to the word “not”. It’s a valuable cue that you need to discover the opposite image.
Another problem area is with the meaning of words. Or rather what the words mean to you in your experience
For example if someone says the word ‘confidence’, do you get an image of yourself weak lacking in confidence because that has been how you’ve experienced yourself in the past? If you keep this image as you listen to a guided self help audio you’re going to be successful in keeping the image you have of yourself. Again you need to change this image. One of the easier ways to do this is to think of someone who exhibits the quality that you desire. Think of that person and then pretend you are that person. Play it out in your minds eye. When you are ready and can say, that’s what I want. That’s how I want to be. Then you have an image of what you can become and then the audio programs or your meditations have a greater chance for rapid success.
Just to be clear. This article isn’t saying that those audio programs won’t work. However your mind is powerful and by focusing on what you don’t want you will keep it in your life longer. A good program will get you to make that switch to seeing the image of yourself how you do want to be, eventually. You can help yourself and accelerate that process by checking what you are seeing or sensing in your minds eye. If it’s the image of the problem that you want to end. Clear the picture and paint the image you do want.
© Alex Viefhaus Feb 2009
May 29
After their initial success with learning PhotoReading many students fall back into their old reading habits. There are a number of reasons for this. One the reason I’m going to cover right now is learning to accept the results you get.
New PhotoReaders often excited to apply what they learned and then it doesn’t happen. [...] [...more]
Posted: under Goals, Persistence, Personal development, Photoreading, expectation, frustration, learning, success.
After their initial success with learning PhotoReading many students fall back into their old reading habits. There are a number of reasons for this. One the reason I’m going to cover right now is learning to accept the results you get.
New PhotoReaders often excited to apply what they learned and then it doesn’t happen. It’s a problems for any newly learned skill or attempt to change not just PhotoReading. Many have left a self-improvement seminar excited to use these brilliant ideas, only to realise two or three weeks later nothing has changed. What is going wrong?
The unrealistic expectation
“Now that I know it I will automatically apply what I know.” Sorry it doesn’t work that way.
Sadly no matter how much time we can save or how much easier the new approach may be, old habits die hard. The old habits are like well worn, familiar tracks, through the jungle of out neural networks. They are the first one we take when we are on automatic pilot.
Change takes a conscious approach and it takes 21 to 30 days to develop a new habit. We need to make a conscious effort and when we notice we missed an opportunity to use our newly acquired skill to acknowledge it. To first become aware that we have choices.
The other thing we can do is schedule specific activities for the next 30-days in our planner that make use of the new skill. The time need only be 15 to 20 minutes. It’s important to remember it takes 30 consecutive days. If you are not one to use a planner Get a calendar and aim to put a cross through each day that you have successfully applied the new skill.
If you want to succeed with PhotoReading look for opportunities to use your skill. Select one book for the week to work with over 6 days at 15 to 20 minutes each day. Play with the steps of the system and see what happens.
Be aware
It’s important to remember when we learn something 
new we often fall short of our expectation. This means the result we got might have been less than what we hoped for. You may have done really well in the PhotoReading seminar and now on your own you fall short of your expectation. If you followed what you learned as best you can you did get a result. And any result that takes you in the direction you want to go is a good result.
New PhotoReaders they are often uber critical of their minor successes and throw the baby out with the bath water.
Why do we do that?
The problem probably stems from our education system where there is a top grade wins awards and accolades and a passing grade which is considered just barely acceptable and in many cases not quite good enough or even poo pooed. Just passing or not passing left us feeling inferior and to avoid that feeling we procrastinate in doing what we know we need to work on.
We develop an ’All or Nothing’ approach and result to developing new skills. It becomes a stop sign, anything to avoid feeling inferior. It leaves us stuck with the old habit even when we know the new skill we learned would serve us better. If we could just develop it some more.
The biggest problem is we never learned to celebrate small improvements. We ignored poor results instead of using them as a guide post to push ahead. We scratch it and start over instead of keeping going until we’ve given it all we have.
That too is the biggest problem for those who are learning PhotoReading on their own. They do one activation and say it doesn’t work instead of using that activation layer and building on it with another and then another. For the beginner to finish a book in 1/3rd the time it takes them to read it in the traditional way you need to do a few activation layers.
Be kind to yourself and learn to celebrate minor successes. If you only managed 10 minutes of your new exercise routine although you planned to do 30. Give yourself credit. Celebrate. It’s 10 minutes more than nothing. And it makes it easier to add more minutes next time.
Ignoring it or berating yourself about it isn’t going to motivate you. Your mind will think what if I only manage 9 minutes next time that’s worse I better not start because I feel bad about myself then. Only because you threw out the results you got as not good enough. Don’t make yourself start over. Build on it and see if you can do a bit more than that next time.
If you find yourself disappointed after applying yourself to do something, Stop! Reconsider. You did something and you got a result. Can you champion yourself to use that as something to build on? Something to get better than rather than starting over?
Celebrate your successes. No matter how small.
© Alex K Viefhaus May 2008
Apr 23
When people first learn about PhotoReading they fear that satisfactory conscious understanding is elusive.That’s an interesting fear because information that eludes you is everything that your non-conscious mind is processing bar 2000 bits per second which your conscious mind has access to.
What the mind is capable of
It is known that the 300 million nerve impulses [...] [...more]
Posted: under Photoreading, learning.
When people first learn about PhotoReading they fear that satisfactory conscious understanding is elusive.That’s an interesting fear because information that eludes you is everything that your non-conscious mind is processing bar 2000 bits per second which your conscious mind has access to.
What the mind is capable of
It is known that the 300 million nerve impulses of the corpus collosum are capable of receiving 400 billion bits of information a second. The eye is capable of seeing 1 trillion bits. The mind lives in a sea of 400 billion bits of information a second and your mind only responds to 2000. If you had to deal with all that information consciously we wouldn’t be able to function.
Nothing really eludes you. You are just selective of what you are consciously aware of. Your conscious awareness is affected by a number of things. When it comes to learning, your self-image, self-talk and beliefs. These become perceptual defences. They act as barriers to what the mind decides to process. Even on the processed information before then can become conscious we have to have an expectation and need to know.
PhotoReading
PhotoReading allows you to have the same or better comprehension of what you read in 1/3rd 1/5th or even 1/10th the time of traditional reading. So for starters nothing more would elude you than already eluded you with traditional reading.
Your ability to understand what you are reading with traditional reading techniques is inhibited by the same defences.
What I learned
I’ve noticed in my own experience that with traditional reading my perceptual defences hindered me more because I didn’t know what I needed to know and it eluded me while reading the book the traditional way. My censor was at work as I read. Setting barriers to understanding the next part I read.
Before PhotoReading I was an avid reader but I never got anything useful from my books. I’m not referring to rote learning for passing exams. I’m referring to books that I read just to learn what could be useful to me based on the interest the book aroused in me when I picked it up. Often I would finish the book and feel like I missed something.
It wasn’t until I learned PhotoReading that I discovered just how much information was eluding me through traditional reading. Because I had a okay image of myself as a reader the information I PhotoRead gets processed and then based on my needs and expectation I have discovered many more useful and life changing suggestion from these authors. I get more out of my reading with PhotoReading.
Moreover I have discovered that a lot of information was eluded me through traditional reading. When searching my mind for information, even when I just obtain the gist of subject, I find it easier to locate the book and the page of the book, I had PhotoRead, to quickly clarify the details. Something I didn’t do well with traditional reading. With traditional reading it was rare for me to be able to explain the content of a book a week after I had finished reading it. Talk about information being elusive.
Often knowing where you learned something seems to be more important than what you know.
It’s interesting how someone can demonstrate what they know by talking about it and yet many are asked to prove it. Where did your information come from? The ability to quickly point to the book, books or research on the subject is highly regarded.
It’s paradox that this is true for people investigating PhotoReading. I can tell them about PhotoReading and they say prove it. I’ve taught many people how to PhotoRead yet it is only when they have written proof that can prove this information that some people are willing to allow me to teach them.
With that information I advise anyone reading or PhotoReading to know where they can find the information. It’s only elusive if you cannot find it.
© Alex K 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.