***Learning Right Gives You Might

After decades of being a professional student (I love reading), it’s apparent to me, that vital information is idle information when it falls only into the mind. It must also edge into the emotions to bear fruit in one’s life. If learning is to have any might in your life, you’ve got to learn it right. If you don’t feel it, you don’t real it.

Understanding with the mind is shallow. Only when you involve your emotions in the learning process, do you assimilate the information deeper. Deeper levels of knowing supply a comprehension that makes it easy to proceed with confidence.

Mental and emotional collaboration are like two Clydesdale horses working cooperatively. The outcome can be astounding. The joint effort of thoughts and feelings offers fresh insights that show you a superior way of handling your challenges.

Here are three simple steps that I take to get my mind and emotions collaborating when learning something new:

(1) Meditate. Before you begin learning something new, take a moment to meditate on this fact: There’s a big difference between hearing a lesson and healing from a lesson. Healing has you listening for deeper meaning. Deeper meaning helps you attain freshness of mind. This fresh view enables you to see things differently, which empowers you to act more effectively.

(2) Contemplation. Before jumping in, ponder the specific subject matter that you’re about to study. Ask yourself, “What rescuing facts might this information offer that could help advance my life?” Relax and allow a higher perception to take over your attention. Rarely is anything of value gleaned from one’s usual rote-learning methods of study. It’s exciting to know that inner miracles happen when we’re receptive to higher perceptions.

(3) Flexibility. Be conscious of using your mental and emotional energies constructively. Your aim isto study with an attitude of flexibility. Let go of your shallow assumptions. You’re aspiring to attain the wonderful state of mind you enjoyed as a child while learning to walk and talk, read and write, swim and ride a bike. Your thoughts and emotions served you naturally and effortlessly. Suddenly there wasan explosion of emotional understanding that lasts for a lifetime. The person who understands this secret lives his whole life with a youthful mind.

A wise professor invited questions from his students before the first class began. One student asked, “How can I study this subject matter so it’s valuable to me?” Answered the professor, “Study with your brain and heart.”

Another student asked, “How can I stop my poor study-habits from sabotaging me?” The professor repeated, “Study with your brain and heart.”

One more student raised his hand and asked, “I don’t understand. What do you mean, study with your brain and heart?”

The professor explained, “The purpose of learning is to use the knowledge to see farther. But first you’ve got to feel the knowledge nearer. Take it from logic to limbic. Make it meaningful. Ask significant questions. For example: How can I use this knowledge to improve my life? Questions that bring the knowledge close lead to answers that take you far.”

“When learning methods designed to support deep understanding are used with awareness, changes happen profoundly and swiftly,” concluded the professor.