Rethinking learning

Considering what most of us have experienced at school and during our upbringing, some words, like “learning” have acquired a rather negative energy in our minds.We seldom (if ever) go back to change that initial subconscious interpretation.

The truth is that we continue to learn daily. What we learn and how we learn, depends on the degree that we are conscious of our self.

As you read the following text, think of the way a small child learns…

You learn when you don’t criticize yourself.

Every time you criticize yourself negatively, you impede learning, growing and changing. Every time you concentrate on what you have not yet achieved, what you are not, you draw away from your goal and that which you need to do in order to achieve it.

You learn when you move toward unfamiliar ground, when you abandon the familiar, the known.

Otherwise you merely repeat what you have already achieved. The purpose of life is to experiment, to change, to creation the new and to evolve from all that.
Life means change, transposition, learning; it is the continuous movement forward. When you deny this procedure you become sluggish, you experience lack of purpose and an emptiness inside. Indolence is a habit. It is lack of alertness, lack of interest and broadness. It is the opposite of life.

You learn when you trust.

You cannot trust others or life if you do not trust yourself. The process of life requires trust; willing to remain open to all possibilities.

Creativity is the symptom or the blossom of curiosity. To move with pure and innocent curiosity towards the new, requires that you trust who you are. Fear then becomes an ally, which shows you that you are moving towards unknown territory.

You learn when you don’t avoid fear.

Fear is the natural movement of growth in the attempt of preserving what has been established. Every time you stall out of fear, it is only your attempt to remain on familiar ground. You don’t need to avoid fear or be afraid of fear. You need to move into it, so that you may be empowered by dissolving the illusion.

You learn when you are willing to observe.

When you believe that you know something or someone, you stop observing and learning.

Observing is not concluding, interpreting, judging, ranking, organizing, defending or attacking. It simply means observing; noting, taking in all the information provided from your senses and your environment, from a place of objectivity. Observation is always revolutionary. It demands that you step outside the security of your ego-identification and the ego's opinions.

True observation always involves yourself and not others. You understand the world and others to the degree that you understand yourself. The world that you perceive is a mirror image of the world you have inside you.

You learn when you ask the right questions

The right questions are those that show you the way; they will reveal the “how”, not those that will satisfy your ego. The questions that rest on your own independent observations are the important ones that you should be asking and not those that depend on theoretical, philosophical conformations or methodologies.

You always find what you seek. The issue is to choose and to know (consciously) what it is you are searching for. That which you find without having consciously asked for, you seldom appreciate or use.

You learn when you dare to question, when you refuse to dogmatically accept others’ opinions and when you do not see yourself as superior or inferior to others. Every person is unique and has a unique purpose in life.

Life involves learning. Learning involves experimenting. Experimenting involves succeeding and failing, falling and getting up again. It involves sadness and joy, conquering and withdrawing... if you try to conquer one aspect of duality, the other will haunt you and probably have more to say about your reality than that which you desire and seek.

Embrace all of life and enjoy the experiment of learning, discovering, moving and becoming.

Xristiana Sophia