Mind Workouts. . .
There’s a certain group of learning activities that I like to classify as “mental training,” because we’re retraining the brain. It’s got a lot in common with physical training (learning a sport or martial art, for example), but it’s all about the mind.
I’ve put myself through fairly intensive mental training in most of these areas — I studied chess, attempted to learn a few languages, learned to focus despite my inner resistance, became a writer, etc.
And here’s what I’ve been finding are most important to getting good at this kind of training — which isn’t easy!
Let Yourself Be a Beginner & Suck At It – encourage yourself to embrace this beginner stage — you won’t be good for awhile, so let yourself enjoy the learning itself, as opposed to needing to perform well to enjoy yourself.
Immerse Yourself – If you surround yourself with whatever it is you are trying to master, you’ll learn much more than if you just browsed many topics and energies for a few minutes a day. Same with chemistry, writing, or high-performance focus work.
You don’t need to be immersed all day long. But you do need to immerse yourself regularly.
Use Your Stumbling Blocks as Learning Tools – You’re going to make mistakes — and those are your best lessons for growth! What holes in your knowledge or skills do these mistakes show you? What can you learn from them? You’ll also find other stumbling blocks: fear of embarrassment, discouragement, frustration, and more. That’s a part of the process. Mental training includes learning to deal with these, so that you don’t give up.
Mental training isn’t easy, but it’s incredibly rewarding if you let yourself trust in the process, and really pour yourself into it. Immerse yourself. Play in the midst of the hard work. And enjoy the process.
Peace and Love, Jim
#mind #thedailybuddha
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