spirituality 04.pdf

7/29/2019 spirituality 04.pdf

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spirituality - lesson 4: learning to learn

we are born into this world as organisms with the capacity to sense. through timethese senses improve to provided us with not only a multidimensional picture ofour environment but, more importantly, the ability to react to our surroundings.

our conception of what surrounds us will always be highly selective and selfserving. motivated by our interests and our concern for safety the nature ofhuman knowledge is somewhat individualised. it is also human nature to

continue driving towards a greater complex understanding of our environmentthrough out our lives, something the french philosopher henri bergson calls 'lifeforce'.

because everything in our physical world is constantly changing wesubconsciously adapt ourselves accordingly. this could be called intuition, whichhelps us determine a situation and survive it. whilst we are in action we tend tobe continually reflecting upon that activity and spontaneously correcting ourbehaviour in effort to control (or at least affect) the situation. for example,musicians playing together in a jazz improvisation will be continuously reflectinginternally on the actions of each other in order to contribute in a coherent manner

to the music being made.

knowing the immediate nature of things is quite different from the knowledge ofour external world. the musicians can interact musically with each other notbecause they physically are able to use instruments and know the rudiments of


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music, instead because they are fluent in a familiar action or language, theyunderstand the nature of music and it is familiarity that allows them to confidentlyaffect the melodic environment.

we can't all have this intimate knowledge of every environment or eventuality. ifwe are lucky we may each have one or two things that we can significantly acton at a higher level of understanding and fluency. this may be as a result of therepetition of a situation or the dedication of actively learning something. we can

however learn to have a more receptive mind to what's going on around us. it issomething that we are born with and have the habit of losing quite easily.

the act of learningis one that can be learnt, one that has to be learnt in order for true learning to bedone. since we do not know what information will be of use to us in the futurewhat should one try to learn in advance? we can not learn everything obviously!to become a person who is open to learning and loves togain knowledge is perhaps the best solution. for in this case one can learn whatneeds to be understood in any situation we might find ourselves in. learningallows you to be more purposeful in what you do, adding a dimension ofcollaboration with your environment, not simply being a spectator.

just to clarify at this point...learning is not the same as gaining an education. going to school, college oruniversity may teach us vocational skills but it also tends to stifle the ability toperceive things outside of a curriculum experience at one point in time. learningwill never stop in life. everything that happens to us can be a learning


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experience. whether it is a negative or positive experience and whether it wasintentional or not, they provide opportunities for formative assessment and thechance to improve oneself. as adults one brings much from one's ownexperiences to enhance your learning and understanding of the nature of things.

memorywe can't write down, draw or represent in music everything we have everexperienced. for this we have instead a memory. but a memory can quite easilyfill up with useless information that does not really progress us to a deeperunderstanding of the nature of our environment. it is therefore important to breakdown information or experiences into chunks and understand which chunks areimportant to keep. (to use the analogy of a filter would be wrong, it suggests thatone should chose a particular way of seeing a situation that is not true.)

it is human nature to find order within the chaos of the universe. having amemory allows us to link together the glimpses of order in nature. when thesense we have made of knowledge gained transcends our experience it is thenthat we can begin to have ideas.


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create an imagea mental picture of a name makes it easier to recall. if you meet someone namedsherry, picture her holding a glass of sherry. suppose you learn that frank has 10grandchildren. picture frank sitting among a group of children who are all wearingshirts with the number 10 on them.

your brain stores information in short-term and long-term memory. the limit onshort-term memory tends to be about 7 items for 30 seconds. (you use short-term memory when you look at a phone number, walk to the telephone and dialit). what visual image can you use to move these following 7 items past the 30second limit and into your long term memory: clown plank umbrella star flowerbicycle apple

could you visualize a clown, wearing a hat with a flower sticking out, holding anumbrella with stars on it, eating an apple, and riding a bicycle down agangplank? now that's a memory. close your eyes and spend a few momentsfixing that image in your mind. say it to yourself a few times. we'll check backlater and see how many of the 7 words you can recall.


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designbooms courseswhen most managers think of e-learning, it is as a digitally supported method forimparting new knowledge, often a course. designbooms e-learning courses, areinstructor-led and at the same time self-directed. learning here is an incrementalprocess of acquiring information, and the purpose of formal learning is to acquireinformation rapidly, cover content, and reproduce facts. only that which can bequantitatively and easily measured is true knowledge. but most important, weenhance informal learning, which is based in conversations, social interactions,and team projects, in which learning is part of the interactions between peoplefrom all parts of the world. the success of this forum for informal learning is thefact that participants find themselves in a defined container or collaborativespace for here-and-now learning. (at this point, we must express that we are abit demoralized because of the slow course participation in the discussions. weknow that in summer courses there is usually a bit less interactivity, butnevertheless we hope this current course will have a big impact on theparticipants. it might be just too hot in most parts of the world : )

exercisesthere are 5 main ways to make our brains learn faster:

1) always:

try to like what you need to learn.

2) in the short-term:by removing levels of anxiety that may be triggering physiological changes in ourbodies and brains that literally prevent us from learning. when the zebra is


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running for her life away from a lion her only energy focus is running-notlearning. the tips you suggest work in this direction.

3) in the medium-term: by training a set of skills involved in learning, such asvisual and auditory processing, attention, decision-making, short-term memory...learning depends on our cognitive skills, and the good news is that they can betrained with targeted and frequent exercise, the same way as our other bodymuscles can grow. in short, both cognitive and emotional self-regulation training

are very useful to maximize the potential of our brains-and let's not forget thatlearning within our livetimes (i.e., adaptation) is precisely why we have brains tostart with...

4) in the long term: make space in your mind to be able to contain the new.

5) start now: pay attention. slow down and do one thing at a time, giving eachactivity your full attention. if possible, limit or reduce noise, distractions andinterruptions - they interfere with your ability to pay attention and learn.

unfortunately we can't simply spring clean our minds. nor is this a matter of being

able to teach ourselves how to recollect only the relevant information lying withinone's brain (not even google can do this!). unnecessary emotional judgementsand preoccupations take up a lot of space with in our minds. letting go of theseand the fear of change gives space for the acquisition of new knowledge. a morecritical approach to thinking will help determine the authenticity of facts and thevalue of something. this goal of accuracy is characterised by the ability to seekreasons and alternatives. one should always aim to perceive the whole situationnot merely from one angle, this ultimately will help in the understanding ofcomplex information.

---images frombibliodyssey
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2006/11/brain-maps.htmlhttp://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2006/11/brain-maps.htmlhttp://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2006/11/brain-maps.htmlhttp://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2006/11/brain-maps.html

spirituality 04.pdf

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