Enhance your procedural memory for mindfulness and better learning
Keep doing things like a disciplined disciple…..
He muddled up the lecture from one point to another without finishing the one he started first. He was the most learned. His experience was of about 40 years in the field. He simply had too much to tell, that a 1 hour class wasn’t enough. I did not like to attend as I found my books better, and books make us pass exams, if only the class constituted of doubts being made clearer, based on books than a passive rhetoric. Those were the days, my formative years. Mostly our classes seemed like the knowledge of stuff revolved around them, how much of what should be known, clearly defined by my teachers then!!
And I remember each of those episodes. I have gone through the procedure. A single book did not explain everything. Now I understand why he muddled, and not everything that I learnt holds good today, moreover, my lectures have real life anecdotes and constitute the procedure behind each concept. I feel it helps. How we build up from previous knowledge (the history) that was learnt in a hard manner (repetition), the discussions and other related episodes, are being relived by me in my preparations to serve the new generation, helping them to keep abreast with the new knowledge that had a story behind it of course.
A research paper in 1981 suggested vitamin A capsules for acne, in the dose of 3 to 5 lakh IU retinol daily. It mentioned that the capsules had very less toxicity and cured the problem in both men and women. It was preferred by the researchers as inflammatory acne (pimples) got cured completely in 3 to 4 months. There were no major side effects, not even liver toxicity. The next development in 2000s stressed upon using isotretinoin as vit A in such doses was found to be hepatotoxic. Those of us who have lived through a transition of concepts with chronological information in our nerves, have gone through the procedure. Work is not done in 1 day or a month’s time. A disciple should follow the discipline of following their gurus and doing the same thing again and again until something strikes through consistent effort finally unto discovery.
All psychologists know that learning by doing is the best. Those of us who switch from one video to another, one app to another, may think they know the world. Since the world is digital now, no harm in trying to learn things this way, like trying recipes from different parts of the world. Even I tried a dish from Mexico and one from Africa!! But get this straight that if no one relished that dish with you or you did not tell your friends about it or you gulped it in one go, without reflection, its essence is gone, you will not remember the experience and will start anew in the next few months to gather the sources of your recipe to try again. If we write the recipes in our journal with feelings and affirmations, we will never forget it.
What we reflect upon everyday becomes our reality. And if you are sharp enough you will remember even what someone around saw, said, discussed with you about a particular topic, you shall remember what that person made you feel with or without your reaction to what you retrieve. You will remember the fun, the fight, the moral or the lesson learnt. This reflection forms connections in our brain, and we can retrieve complex concepts easily, without an effort.
What I do not mean here is that we may obsess ourselves with nostalgia. Instead when we come across a similar concept we read in our books, we shall surely remember the previous concept easily. Repetition of our concept has been done twice already this way. Learning and memory is good in people who are earnest in doing things, pay attention to what others say or do, and are benignant and not in their own world fighting a war of thoughts and emotions.
Mindfulness gurus speak about yoga, meditation, sports and more. These are stress busters. But I feel mindfulness comes by being comfortable with yourself. If we do not have something to defend inside us, or if we are not OK with curiosity, or we might have a very high ego to intrude, we can never be learning new things because of an internally instilled discomfort.
Even then, what paranoia we experience when some kind of information is remembered according to our that perception of text, or rhetoric; this context makes us remember the concept. Paranoia is about how we take things, the information I perceived may not be a reality for someone else, so I call it paranoia, as a layman in psychology. If I perceive that two handsome guys were looking at me during the lecture when the teacher said so, on and on…is my paranoia. A friend who was also present there, may not have considered that point in the lecture, but he might have had something else to tell, so we discussed, and we have 2 concepts learned, both of us, explored and discussed…..again a memory.
Our story goes further by becoming disciplined disciples. We keep repeating what we learnt, we keep discussing things with our counterparts, our followers, our students, our clients, but who are we?… The disciples who are consistently working upon themselves to gain what we set out to in the first place. Now our story has many colors each part worth a reflection, it does not end here. There is a long way to go with gates wide open to embrace the opportunity with greater discipline and hard work like a disciple!!
We are primed to be boring and monotonous in leading our lives. Remember the sun never gets bored of sending us energy. Our mothers never swayed from feeding us. Nature has provided us food so that we are alive and well nourished. So there should be no reason for us to succumb to indiscipline. If we do our chores daily, read daily, work hard daily, we will not become mentally ill. Our reflections when we retire for each day shall make our life worth living. This is what I achieved through discipline. Also many of us can.
Hope this small reflection helps my readers to want to become life long learners. If it has sensitized you to discipline yourself even when times are tough, do leave a comment or reflect.
